Isaiah 19:15

Isa 19:15 Neither shall there be [any] work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

Ver. 15. Neither shall there be any work.] See on Isa 19:14.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19:15 There is nothing Egypt can do: No leader, idol, or conventional wisdom can stand against God’s judgment. • The head and the tail represented all of Egypt’s leaders from the greatest to the least important (see 9:14-15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Neither the great nor the small, the strong nor the weak.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

work for Egypt--nothing which Egypt can do to extricate itself from the difficulty.

head or tail--high or low (Isa 19:11-15, and Isa 19:8-10).

branch or rush--the lofty palm branch or the humble reed (Isa 9:14-15; Isa 10:33-34).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(15) The head or tail, branch or rush.—For this figurative description of all classes of the people, see Note on Isa_9:14.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. No concerted action is possible, and every proposal that is brought forward falls to the ground.

head and tail, palm-branch and rush, exactly as in ch. Isa_9:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Isa 9:14. The Targum interprets the whole of their chief men thus,

"and the Egyptians shall have no king to reign, nor prince, noble, governor, or ruler.''

Jarchi explains it of the magicians, astrologers, and stargazers of Egypt, who, with all their boasted knowledge and wisdom, should not be able either to foresee or prevent the evil coming upon them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 Isa 19:11-15; and all the artificers, fishermen, etc., on the other, as he had stated Isa 19:8-10. This verse, therefore, is a “summing up” of all he had said about the calamities that were coming upon them.

Branch or rush - See these words explained in the note at Isa 9:14.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Back. King and subject are equally confused, chap. ix. 14. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

All people, both high and low, shall be at their wits’ end not knowing what to do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

15. Any work for Egypt — Any plan or invention devised for Egypt’s extrication from difficulty by any class, or all classes combined, as expressed in the familiar proverbial designations, head or tail, which means high or low castes.

Branch or rush — The same thought under figure of lofty palm branches, representing the high castes, and of the humble reeds along the Nile, denoting the lower classes — the fellahs of this day.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neither shall there be, etc. Translate, And there shall be for Egypt no work in which both the head and the tail, both the palm branch and the rush, may (conjointly) work. The general spirit of perverseness shall prevent all union of high with low, rich with poor.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Head, &c. - All people, both high and low, shall be at their wits end.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

“And there shall not be to Egypt a work which head and tail, branch and rush, may do.” Work here means anything done or to be done, including private business and public affairs. The figures of head and tail, branch and rush, are used, as in Isa 9:14, to denote all classes of society, or rather the extremes between which the others are included.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

that either the head or the tail, the branch or the reed shall do These are the sorcerers and the astrologers who see in the stars that in the sky are heavenly bodies called by these names, formed in the pattern of a head and a tail, and they are placed in Aries. [Other editions read:] In Draco. Alternatively, it can be interpreted like the Targum: a head and a lower dignitary, a prince and a governor.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Head or tail. Even a plant in its integrity, with head and tail, will not be left to them. Others take the phrase and explain it figuratively, They are wandering about and do not know what to begin; they can do neither the work of the head, of the old and noble (9:14), nor that of the tail, of the common people. In the same way the phrase, palm-tree and reed, is to be explained.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.