Isaiah 19:18

In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction. -Suffering shall lead to repentance. Struck with "terror" and "afraid" (Isaiah 19:17), because of Yahweh's judgments, Egypt shall be converted to Him; nay, even Assyria shall join in serving Him; so that Israel, Assyria, and Egypt, once mutual foes, shall be bound together by the tie of a common faith as one people. So a similar issue from other prophecies (Isaiah 18:7; Isaiah 23:18). Verse 18. IN THAT DAY SHALL FIVE CITIES IN THE LAND OF EGYPT - i:e., several cities; as in...

18._In that day there shall be five cities. _After having threatened the Egyptians, and at the same time explained the reason of the divine judgment, he comforts them, and promises the mercy of God. He declares that they will be in part restored, and will regain a prosperous and flourishing condition; for he says that out of six _cities five _will be saved, and only one will perish. He had already foretold a frightful destruction to the whole kingdom, so that no one who examines the former prediction can think of anything else than a condition that is past remedy. He therefore promises that this restoration will be accomplished by the extraordinary kindness of God, so that it will be a kind of addition to the redemption of the Church, or a large measure of the grace of God, when the Redeemer shall be sent. The manner of expression is somewhat obscure, but if we observe it carefully, ther...

18-25 The words, "In that day," do not always refer to the passage just before. At a time which was to come, the Egyptians shall speak the holy language, the Scripture language; not only understand it, but use it. Converting grace, by changing the heart, changes the language; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So many Jews shall come to Egypt, that they shall soon fill five cities. Where the sun was worshipped, a place infamous for idolatry, even there shall be a wonderful reformation. Christ, the great Altar, who sanctifies every gift, shall be owned, and the gospel sacrifices of prayer and praise shall be offered up. Let the broken-hearted and afflicted, whom the Lord has wounded, and thus taught to return to, and call upon him, take courage; for He will heal their souls, and turn their sorrowing supplications into joyful praises. The Gentile nations shall not onl...

Verse Isaiah 19:18. _THE CITY OF DESTRUCTION_ - "The city of the sun"] עיר החרס _ir hacheres_. This passage is attended with much difficulty and obscurity. First, in regard to the true reading. It is well known that Onias applied it to his own views, either to procure from the king of Egypt permission to build his temple in the Hieropolitan Nome, or to gain credit and authority to it when built; from the notion which he industriously propagated, that Isaiah had in this place prophesied of the building of such a temple. He pretended that the very place where it should be built was expressly named by the prophet, עיר החרס _ir hacheres, the city_ _of the sun_. This possibly may have been the original reading. The present text has עיר ההרס _ir haheres, the city of destruction_; which some suppose to have been introduced into the text by the Jews of Palestine afterwards...

IN THAT DAY - The word ‘day’ is used in Scripture in a large signification, “as including the whole period under consideration,” or the whole time that is embraced in the scope of a prophecy. In this chapter it is used in this sense; and evidently means that the event here foretold would take place “somewhere” in the period that is embraced in the design of the prophecy. That is, the event recorded in this verse would occur in the series of events that the prophet saw respecting Egypt (see Isaiah 4:1). The sense is, that somewhere in the general time here designated Isaiah 19:4, the event here described would take place. There would be an extensive fear of Yahweh, and an extensive embracing of the true religion, in the land of Egypt. Shall five

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

IN THAT DAY SHALL FIVE CITIES IN THE LAND OF EGYPT,.... Here opens a scene of mercy, a prophecy of good things to the Egyptians in future times; for this is not to be understood of the selfsame time, that the former calamities would come upon them; but of some time after that; and not of Egypt, spiritual or mystical, that is, Rome, or the antichristian jurisdiction, so called, Revelation 11:8 and of the five kingdoms that should revolt from it at the Reformation, as Cocceius thinks; who interprets the above prophecy of the antichristian state, and names the five kingdoms that should break off from it, and did; as Great Britain, the United States of Holland, Denmark and Norway, Swedeland, the people of Germany, and those near them, as Bohemia, Hungary, Transylvania, and Helvetia; but Egypt literally is here designed; and its five cities either intend just so many principal ones, as some

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....

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 inha

FIVE CITIES. These were probably Heliopolis, Leontopolis, Daphne, Migdol, and Memphis. THE LANGUAGE OF CANAAN: i.e. the Hebrew language, by the multitude of Jews that went thither. DESTRUCTION. The primitive reading was doubtless _hazedek_. "righteousness", which the Septuagint simply transliterates, _aoeoek_. From. desire not to compete with "Jerusalem", which bore this name (Isaiah 1:26), it was altered to _cheres_, which in Chaldee. "the sun", or in Greek. "Heliopolis", which is the reading in many MSS., two early printed editions, and the margins of the Authorized Version and Revised Version But when the temple at Jerusalem was cleansed and restored, the temple at Heliopolis was deemed schismatic; and, by altering one letter (= CH, for. H), cheres (the sun) was altered to _heres_ (destruction). Hence the present reading of the current Hebrew tex