This chapter is a prediction of the carrying away
of multitudes both of the Egyptians and the Ethiopians into
captivity by the king of Assyria. Here is, I. The sign by which
this was foretold, which was the prophet's going for some time
barefoot and almost naked, like a poor captive,
1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it; 2 At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; 4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?
God here, as King of nations, brings a sore calamity upon Egypt and Ethiopia, but, as King of saints, brings good to his people out of it. Observe,
I. The date of this prophecy. It was in the
year that Ashdod, a strong city of the Philistines (but which some
think was lately recovered from them by Hezekiah, when he smote the
Philistines even unto Gaza,
II. The making of Isaiah a sign, by his
unusual dress when he walked abroad. He had been a sign to his own
people of the melancholy times that had come and were coming upon
them, by the sackcloth which for some time he had worn, of which he
had a gown made, which he girt about him. Some think he put himself
into that habit of a mourner upon occasion of the captivity of the
ten tribes. Others think sackcloth was what he commonly wore as a
prophet, to show himself mortified to the world, and that he might
learn to endure hardness; soft clothing better becomes those that
attend in king's palaces (
III. The exposition of this sign,
IV. The use and application of this,