Biblion Bible Commentary
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Blessed Be Egypt My People
Isaiah 19:16-25
16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of Yahweh of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them. · WEB
The oracle against Egypt ends with an altar in Egypt, a highway to Assyria, and three nations named together.
In that day the Egyptians will be like women Isaiah 19:16.
The second half of the chapter is a series of five paragraphs each beginning in that day, and they move steadily from terror to something nobody reading the first half would expect.
In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of Armies Isaiah 19:18.
Egyptian towns speaking Hebrew and taking oaths in Yahweh's name. The number is small and specific, which is what makes it credible as a beginning rather than a flourish.
In that day, there will be an altar to Yahweh in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh at its border Isaiah 19:19.
An altar in Egypt, which the law had located in one place only. The pillar at the border is the marker a traveler sets up to record what happened there, and Jacob set one up at Bethel Genesis 28:18.
For they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them Isaiah 19:20.
The sentence is the exodus, with the nationalities reversed. Egypt cries out under oppression; God hears; a deliverer is sent. The country that was the house of bondage is put in Israel's position and given Israel's rescue.
Yahweh will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering Isaiah 19:21.
Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them Isaiah 19:22.
The two verbs together are the chapter's theology in three words. The striking of the first half and the healing of the second are the same God's work on the same nation, and the second is the purpose of the first.
In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians Isaiah 19:23.
The highway image again, and it runs between the two empires that had spent centuries fighting each other across Israel's territory. The road that carried armies carries worshipers, in both directions.
In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing within the earth Isaiah 19:24.
Israel is not first. It is the third member of a group, and the blessing is the promise to Abraham Genesis 12:3 with the nations included in it rather than merely benefiting from it.
Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance Isaiah 19:25.
Three titles, and the first two belong to Israel everywhere else in Scripture. My people is given to Egypt and the work of my hands to Assyria — the slave-master and the invader — and Israel keeps one of the three. It is the most startling verse in the oracles against the nations.
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