Isaiah 19

Wesley: Rideth—as a general in the head of his army. A swift cloud—this phrase shews that the judgment should come speedily, unexpectedly, and unavoidably. Shall be moved—so far shall they be from helping the Egyptians, that they shall tremble for themselves. Both readings: the LORD comes; idols tremble.

The cloud is Egypt’s, not a twenty-first-century sky. Judah’s refuge cannot stand when the LORD arrives.

Calvin: the burden of Egypt. Egypt was a kind of refuge to the Jews whenever they saw danger; when they had forsaken God they thought they had no help left but in the Egyptians. It was necessary that that kingdom should be overthrown, that its forces might no longer deceive the Jews. Behold, the Lord rideth on a swift cloud: they thought they were so well fortified that God could not approach; he ridicules that confidence. The idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence.

The LORD rides a swift cloud, and Egypt’s idols tremble.

Wesley: I will set—Egypt was now one kingdom, but not many years after this time it was divided into twelve kingdoms, between whom there were many and cruel wars. Egyptian against Egyptian.

The civil split is that age’s Egypt, not a later civil war on a map.

Calvin: I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians. He describes internal struggles, in which those who ought to be mutual defenders cut down one another. I will set: God, in whose hands are the hearts of men, inflames them to mutual animosities. They shall fight every one against his brother; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. Nations never rise in a seditious manner unless the Lord set them against each other.

The stirring is the Lord’s, not chance. The Egyptians turn neighbor against neighbor.

Wesley: The spirit—their courage. Agreed on both sides: emptied spirit, then idols and necromancers.

Counsel fails, and they run to the dead. Do not copy the inquiry that cannot restore courage.

Calvin: and the spirit of Egypt shall be emptied. As Isaiah had deprived them of courage, he now adds that their counsel shall be destroyed. They shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits. When God takes away understanding, men fly to unlawful arts; he condemns those arts as contrary to reason, for God has revealed what is necessary by means he approves.

Counsel confounded; necromancers sought.

Wesley: A fierce king—Psammetichus, who being at first one of those twelve kings, waged war with the rest, and subdued them, and conquered all the land of Egypt and ruled it with rigor. On this both agree: a hard master over Egypt.

The fierce king is Egypt’s.

Calvin: I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master. After losing courage and understanding, nothing will be left but slavery. He threatens what is still more shocking: the inhabitants will undergo hard bondage. Though cruel is singular, he says they shall be subject to lords. A powerful king shall rule over them: the tyrant’s power shall be so great that it will not be easy to restore them to liberty.

A fierce king, declares the LORD of hosts.

Wesley: The waters—which may be understood either metaphorically of dominion or commerce, or rather properly, as may be gathered from the following words. The river—Nile: upon whose fulness and overflow both the safety and the wealth of the land depended; therefore this was a very terrible judgment. Dried up—not totally, but in a very great measure. Sea and Nile fail.

The parched river is Nile, not a twenty-first-century drought story.

Calvin: then the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. He follows out Egypt’s wealth, which depended on the Nile. When God dries what they trusted, the kingdom’s pride withers with the stream.

Both traditions agree: waters fail.

Wesley: Rivers—the rivulets by which the waters of Nile were distributed into several parts of the land shall be turned far away, as they must needs be when the river which fed them was dried up. Brooks—the several branches of the Nile, which were a great defense to Egypt. Reeds—which were useful to them for making their boats. Common to both: canals foul, reeds rot.

Defense-brooks fail with the flood.

Calvin: and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up. What he adds about fortifications shews that the drying is not a side note: the branches that guarded and fed the land fail together. Reed and rush wither with them.

Branches diminish.

Wesley: Paper-reeds—these by a needle were divided into thin and broad leaves, which being dried were used at that time for writing, and consequently was a very good commodity. By brooks—and much more what was sown in more dry and unfruitful places. Held in common: sown ground gone from the brink.

Paper-reed and seed fail together.

Calvin: and the reed and the rush shall wither. He mentions reed and rush because they grew by the Nile and were part of the country’s wealth. All the sown fields of the brooks shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. The blessing withdrawn, the brink is bare.

No more by the Nile.

Wesley: Mourn—because they could catch no fish; which was a great loss to the people, whose common diet this was. Hook and net fail.

The fishermen’s diet is Egypt’s, not a modern market. Do not restage the lament as entertainment.

Calvin: and the fishers shall mourn. Isaiah still keeps in his eye the condition of Egypt. We know how abundant the fish of the Nile were, and how large a part of the people’s food. When the river fails, they who cast hook and spread nets languish.

On this both agree: fishermen lament.

Wesley: They—that make fine linen, which was one of their best commodities. Agreed on both sides: flax and white cloth fail.

Egypt’s linen trade is a commodity of that land.

Calvin: and they who work in the finest flax. As he spoke of mourning, so he now speaks of shame. Egypt was famous for fine linen; when the Nile’s produce fails, the weavers are confounded with the fishers.

Both readings: flax-workers in despair.

Wesley: Thereof—of Egypt, or of the Egyptians. They shall lose their hopes; for the fishes in them shall die for want of water. Pillars crushed, hired workers grieved.

Wage and pillar fall with the river.

Calvin: and all that make ponds. As to the word, there is no absolute necessity of straining it; he means those whose work and wages depended on the waters. The pillars of the land—those who upheld its wealth—are broken when the Lord dries the Nile.

Hired workers grieved.

Wesley: Zoan—the chief city, in which the king and court frequently resided. How—why do you put such foolish words into Pharaoh’s mouth? I am the son—wisdom is heredity and natural to me. Zoan’s princes are fools.

Pedigree does not make counsel.

Calvin: surely the princes of Zoan are fools. He joins wisdom with folly, and not without reason: they boasted of their wisdom, and Egypt was celebrated for it. How say ye to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Their pedigree cannot keep the counsel God has destroyed.

Pharaoh’s wisest counselors, the princes of Zoan, have become fools.

Wesley (on v. 11): why put such foolish words into Pharaoh’s mouth? The wise cannot tell what the LORD of Armies has purposed. Let them declare the purpose.

The purpose is already spoken against Egypt. The LORD of Armies has purposed, and the wise cannot find it out.

Calvin: where are thy wise men? That they may tell thee. Though they boast of wisdom, they cannot foresee what the LORD of Armies hath purposed against Egypt. The challenge exposes empty learning: God’s decree is not subject to their arts.

What the LORD has purposed.

Wesley: Noph—another chief city, and one of the kings seats, called also Moph, and by latter authors, Memphis. The stay—their chief counsellors. Tribes—of the provinces, which he calls by a title borrowed from the Hebrew. Zoan and Memphis both fool the land.

Cornerstones that should stay Egypt make it stagger.

Calvin: the princes of Zoan are become infatuated, the princes of Noph are deceived. Zoan and Noph (Memphis) were chief cities. The corner-stone of the tribes: those who ought to have been the stay of the provinces have made Egypt stagger.

Cornerstones make Egypt stagger.

Wesley: Mingled—or, hath poured out or given them to drink. To err—in all their designs and undertakings. Staggereth—when he is so drunk, that he reels to and fro, and vomits up his drink. Held in common: a spirit of confusion from the LORD.

The mix is the Lord’s judgment, not a gap in his knowledge.

Calvin: the Lord hath mingled a spirit of perverseness. Because it was unexpected that so wise a nation should err, he shews that it was done by the judgment of God, who mixed a spirit that made them stagger in all their work, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. The Lord is not confused; he confuses them.

The LORD has mixed a spirit of confusion within Egypt, and it staggers.

Wesley: Head, &c.—all people, both high and low, shall be at their wits end. Both readings: nothing left for high or low to do.

Neither high nor low, “head or tail, palm branch or rush,” can accomplish anything. The oracle’s first half ends with Egypt paralyzed; the second half (vv. 16–25) turns toward mercy.

Calvin: neither shall Egypt have any work to do. This is the conclusion of the former statement: neither the highest nor the lowest, branch nor rush, shall be able to restore the state. Head and tail are alike helpless when the Lord has emptied spirit and Nile.

Both confess: head or tail, palm or reed.