Isaiah 19:3 - Exposition

They shall seek to the idols . The Egyptians believed that their gods gave them oracles. Menephthah claims to have been warned by Phthah, the god of Memphis, not to take the field in person against the Libyans when they invaded the Delta, but to leave the task of contending with them to his generals. Herodotus speaks of there being several well-known oracular shrines in Egypt, the most trustworthy being that of Maut, at the city which he calls Buto. The charmers … them that have familiar spirits … wizards . Classes of men corresponding to the "magicians" and "wise men" of earlier times ( Genesis 41:8 ). (On the large place which magic occupied in the thoughts of the Egyptians, see 'Pulpit Commentary' on Exodus 7:11 .) There was no diminution of the confidence reposed in them as time went on; and some remains of their practices seem to survive to the present day.