Isaiah 19:15

Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do. NEITHER SHALL THERE BE (ANY) WORK FOR EGYPT - nothing which Egypt can do to extricate itself from the difficulty. WHICH THE HEAD OR TAIL - high or low (Isaiah 19:11; Isaiah 19:8). BRANCH OR RUSH, MAY DO - the lofty palm branch or the humble reed (Isaiah 9:14; )....

15._Neither shall Egypt have any work to do. _This is the conclusion of the former statement, for it means that all the Egyptians shall be stupefied to such a degree that whatever they undertake shall be fruitless. This must happen where there is no counsel, and it is the righteous punishment of our pride and rashness. He therefore intended to describe the result and effect, so as to shew that it will be unhappy and miserable. _Head or tail, branch or rush. _When he threatens both the _head _and the _tail_, he means, that all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, all without exception, shall be deprived of counsel, so that they will not succeed in anything. Or perhaps it will be thought rather to mean the order which they observe in their actions. Hence we learn, that both the beginning and the end of everything depend on God; for we ought to ask from him counsel, and prudence, and succ...

1-17 God shall come into Egypt with his judgments. He will raise up the causes of their destruction from among themselves. When ungodly men escape danger, they are apt to think themselves secure; but evil pursues sinners, and will speedily overtake them, except they repent. The Egyptians will be given over into the hand of one who shall rule them with rigour, as was shortly after fulfilled. The Egyptians were renowned for wisdom and science; yet the Lord would give them up to their own perverse schemes, and to quarrel, till their land would be brought by their contests to become an object of contempt and pity. He renders sinners afraid of those whom they have despised and oppressed; and the Lord of hosts will make the workers of iniquity a terror to themselves, and to each other; and every object around a terror to them....

Verse Isaiah 19:15. _THE HEAD OR TAIL, BRANCH OR RUSH_] _R. D. Kimchi_ says, there are some who suppose that these words mean the dragon's head and tail; and refer to all those who are conversant in astronomy, astrology, c....

NEITHER SHALL THERE BE ANY WORK - The sense is, that there shall be such discord that no man, whether a prince, a politician, or a priest, shall be able to give any advice, or form any plan for the national safety and security, which shall be successful. WHICH THE HEAD OR TAIL - High or low; strong or weak: those in office and those out of office; all shall be dispirited and confounded. Rosenmuller understands by the head here, the “political” orders of the nation, and by the tail the “sacerdotal” ranks. But the meaning more probably is, the highest and the lowest ranks - all the politicians, and priests, and princes, on the one hand, as the prophet had just stated Isaiah 19:11; and all the artificers, fishermen, etc., on the other, as he had stated...

EXPOSITION ISAIAH 19:1 THE BURDEN OF EGYPT. It has been doubted whether this prophecy refers to the conquest of Egypt by Piankhi, as related in the monument which he set up at Napata, or to that by Esarhaddon, of which we gain our knowledge from the inscriptions of his son, Asshur-bani-pal. In the former case, we must suppose it written as early as B.C. 735; in the latter, its date might be as late as B.C. 690. The division of Egypt, "kingdom against kingdom," is a circumstance rather in favor of the earlier date; but the "cruel lord," and the mention of the "princes of Zoan and Noph," are decisive for the later. Piankhi is anything rather than a "cruel lord," being particularly mild and clement; Napata (Noph) is under him, and cannot be said to have been "deceived" or to have "seduced

NEITHER SHALL THERE BE [ANY] WORK FOR EGYPT,.... No trade or business to carry on; their rivers being dried up, there was no flax to work with, and fine linen was a principal commodity of Egypt; nor any fish to catch, or rushes to make paper of, as before observed: or it would not be in the power of their hands to deliver themselves from the Assyrians that should come against them; and that they should be deprived of wisdom and counsel, and be at their wits' end, not knowing what to do, or what step to take: WHICH THE HEAD OR TAIL, BRANCH OR RUSH, MAY DO: high or low, strong or weak, all ranks and orders of men shall have nothing to do; all shall be weak and dispirited, and void of counsel. By the "head" and "branch" may be meant the king and his nobles; and by the "tail" and "rush" the common people; see Isaiah 9:14. The Targum interprets the whole of their chief men thus,

CHAPTER 19 The Burden of Egypt 1. _The judgment announced (Isaiah 19:1)_ 2. _Egypt blest with Israel in the last days (Isaiah 19:16) _ Egypt has passed through many judgments. Hundreds of years after the divine predictions had been given the Word of the Lord was accomplished. The final judgment upon Egypt comes in that day when the Lord appears in visible glory. Egypt will come, like other nations, to the front once more at the close of the times of the Gentiles. But mercy is also in store for Egypt. Egypt will be called “His people.” When the Lord smites Egypt that land will return to Him. It will then be lifted out of the dust and receive a place of blessing only second to that which Israel will enjoy....

ISAIAH 19. ORACLE ON EGYPT. This is one of the most difficult Chapter s in the book. It falls into two sections, Isaiah 19:1 and Isaiah 19:18. If Isaiah 19:1 is in the main from Isaiah, it probably refers to an anticipated conquest of Egypt by Assyria. Three possibilities are then open: (_a_) the defeat of Egypt by Sargon at Raphia in 720 B.C. (pp. 59, 71); (_b_) the occasion which called forth the similar prophecy in Isaiah 20; (_c_) the early part of Sennacherib's reign, when Judah was planning an alliance with Egypt. It is true that no Assyrian king ruled over Egypt till 672, when Esarhaddon did so (p. 60). But it is better to regard the cruel lord and fierce king, into whose power Egypt is to be deliv

RUSH. See note on Isaiah 9:14....