Isaiah 19:18-25

Five cities in Egypt will speak Hebrew and swear fealty to Yahweh. One shall be called city of the sun. There will be an altar to Yahweh in Egypt, and an obelisk to Him at its border, which shall witness for Him; and He will send a deliverer from their oppressors, so that they will worship Him with the animal and vegetable offerings and perform vows to Him. Then He will treat them as He had often treated Israel, smiting them for transgression, and healing them when they repented after their chastisement. Then a highway will lead from Egypt through Palestine to Assyria, that there may be free intercourse between them; for not only Egypt but also Assyria will serve Yahweh, and Israel will be united with these two empires as the third member of the league.

Isaiah 19:18. Herodotus reckons the cities of Egypt as 20,000. Five is thus a very small proportion. These cities are apparently inhabited by Hebrew-speaking Jews. The Jews in Egypt nearly all spoke Greek, and the LXX translation was made because they were unable to read the Scriptures in Hebrew. The city of destruction: the text is uncertain. There are two Heb. variants Heres, destruction, and Heres, sun. The former is also rendered lion, and the reference supposed to be to Leontopolis, where Onias IV built a Jewish temple in 170 B.C. The translation, however, seems far-fetched: the rendering destruction does not suit the favourable tone of the prophecy; it may be a correction made by Palestinian Jews to express the anticipated doom of the Egyptian temple. Similarly the LXX, city of righteousness, may be a deliberate Alexandrian alteration to secure sanction for the Egyptian temple. On the whole it seems best to read city of the sun; in that case Heliopolis (i.e. sun-city) is meant. Leontopolis was situated in the district of Heliopolis.

Isaiah 19:19. The altar is intended for sacrifice, and thus the author rises above the limitation of sacrifice to the Temple at Jerusalem. The pillar is probably simply memorial, and in that case does not conflict with the prohibition of pillars in Dt. It is placed at the border of Egypt to testify of Yahweh to all who enter the country.

Isaiah 19:23. Assyria probably means Syria (Isaiah 11:11 *).