Isaiah 20:5

Isa 20:5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.

Ver. 5. And they shall be afraid and ashamed.] They - that is, as many as confided in them - seeing themselves thus confuted, shall be abashed and terrified ( perterrefient) at the fall of their confederates, and their own approaching calamity.

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.

Isa_20:5

They shall be . . . ashamed of . . . their expectation

Unreasonable expectations

A great deal of the discomfort, a large proportion of the disappointments of the world, may be traced to unreasonable expectations--to the fact that men will persist in expecting what they have no right to expect at all, or to expect in that precise form or degree.

Indeed, so many of the expectations cherished in this world are so vain and unreasonable, involving those who entertain them in such necessary disappointment, that someone has sardonically observed, Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. But, while we would not take so gloomy a view of human life as this, we cannot help feeling that much of the worry and mortification of life may be accounted for by our expecting what we have no right to expect. We all suffer from the same complaint, in larger or lesser degree. The symptoms differ in different individuals; the disease is radically the same. Young and old, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, masters and servants, buyers and sellers, husbands and wives, parents and children, pastors and people--all, in some way or other, and to some extent or other, are the victims of unreasonable expectations. Life with all of them would be a brighter, smoother, pleasanter thing, if they expected less. As we grow older we ought to grow wiser in this respect. Having regard only to the ordinary intercourse and social relationships of life--how many complaints would be hushed, how much irritation would be allayed, how much needless mortification be averted, how much resentment cease, how many fancied slights and injuries appear inconsiderable, if, instead of brooding over our rights, which we imagine have been withheld or invaded, we were to sit down, and quietly, dispassionately consider what, living in a world like this, we might, on the whole, reasonably expect. If we were thus to inquire we should find that we were getting more than we deserved; and that, for the most part, we were being treated by others quite as fairly, honourably, and tenderly as we were in the habit of treating them. (T. M. Morris.)

Unreasonable expectations in relation to religion

The subject of unreasonable expectations is of almost illimitable extent, and in further dwelling upon it I would limit my remarks to three points--

I. THE THINGS WHICH GODS PEOPLE UNREASONABLY EXPECT. Nothing can be more plain than that our expectations as Christians should be limited by the teaching and promise of Gods Word. We are safe so long as we rest in the promise of God.

I. It is unreasonable to expect that you can place yourselves in any false position, form any unworthy association, engage in any questionable occupation, and be saved from the natural consequences of so doing. Lot was a very good man, but he made a very great mistake. If, in your legitimate business,--if, in sustaining any of the just relationships of life, you meet with danger or temptation, you may reasonably expect that God will grant you all the necessary assistance and protection. But if the danger or temptation be of your own seeking, it is likely that God will teach you wisdom by leaving you to endure the consequences of your rashness or perversity. It is unreasonable for you to expect that you can touch pitch and not be defiled, take fire in your bosom and not be burned, nourish a viper and not be stung.

2. It is unreasonable to expect that you should grow in grace, or realise any very high degree of enjoyment in the Divine life, if all the while you are neglecting or insufficiently using the means of growth, the sources of enjoyment which are placed within your reach.

3. It is unreasonable to expect in Christian life what our Master expressly warns us against expecting. Many seem disappointed because they do not find the way of Christian pilgrimage perfectly smooth and pleasant from its commencement to its close. Your Master tells you plainly that you have to lay your account with suffering and trial, with disappointment and danger. The Christian life is never represented as one of ease and self-indulgence, but rather as a state of warfare. You are treading in the footsteps of those who, in uninterrupted succession, have walked in the same rough way.

4. I might easily enumerate many other unreasonable expectations in which Christians are tempted to indulge. It is unreasonable to expect results from unassisted human nature which can only flow from Divine grace. It is unreasonable to expect from an attempted conformity to the law what can only be secured by a simple dependence on the Gospel. It is unreasonable to expect that we shall find on earth what can be only realised in heaven, or that we can derive from any inferior and created source what can only be found in the centre and sum of all excellency, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

II. THE THINGS WHICH ARE UNREASONABLY EXPECTED OF GODS PEOPLE.

1. There are those who make it a matter of reproach against religion, and prefer it as an excuse for their unbelief, that the Gospel, the religion of the Cross, does not come up in sundry particulars to their idea of what a religion which claims mans acceptance and confidence ought to be. Such objections we may dismiss as the fruit of unreasonable expectations, for all, save the most shallow and pretentious of such objectors, are ready to confess that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.

2. There are those who do not go so far as to object against religion as unreasonable, who seem to resent it as an injury that any measure of mystery should attach to any of the statements of Scripture. In reply to this, several things may be said. It might be said that, taking into account what this revelation professes to be, it was reasonable to expect that the truths communicated, while intelligible on the one side, should lose themselves in mystery on the other. And it might be further remarked, in reference to many of those who thus object, that they make but very little use of such light as they confessedly have. Is it not the part of reason first of all to inquire whether the Bible be an authentic and authoritative revelation from heaven to earth, and then, if its claims to be so regarded are substantiated to the satisfaction of reason, is it not the very part and office of reason to sit submissively at the feet of the Divine Teacher and learn of Him?

3. There are many who but very slightly interest themselves in the truth which Christians hold, who seem to take much pleasure in narrowly scrutinising the lives which Christians live. The real or alleged inconsistencies of professing Christians do not afford any ground of reasonable objection against the Gospel, or any valid excuse for its continued rejection. In judging of any practical system, we must have reference to what it professes to be, and to accomplish. If you confine attention to those who are the sincere and genuine followers of the Lamb, it is unreasonable to expect that they should manifest in this world an absolute perfection of character. Such perfection, we believe, can be only realised when this body of sin and death shall have been laid aside.

III. THE THINGS WHICH THOSE WHO ARE NOT GODS PEOPLE UNREASONABLY EXPECT FOR THEMSELVES.

1. It is unreasonable to expect that anything which the world contains can meet the need, or satisfy the desire, of mans immortal soul.

2. It is unreasonable to expect that in religion anyone can serve two masters. No such thing as neutrality is possible in religion, and, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as indecision.

3. It is unreasonable to expect that sinful men can satisfy the requirements of the law, and avert its penalty, by any obedience they can render, by any penance they can endure.

4. It is unreasonable to expect that those who, enjoying Gospel light, die despising Gospel grace, will be in any wise benefited by the uncovenanted mercies of God.

5. It is unreasonable to expect that you can spend a sinful, worldly life, and men have a comfortable death and a happy eternity.

6. It is unreasonable to expect that, because you pass muster in this world, and occupy a moderately creditable position among your fellow men, that therefore you will do moderately well ]n another world; and that, if you do not shine forth conspicuously with the best, you will go through the gates into the city, unnoticed among the crowd.

7. It is unreasonable to expect that, because sentence is not speedily executed against an evil work, that therefore it never will be; and that, because the present order of things has continued so long, that therefore it will continue forever. (T. M. Morris.)

.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20:5-6 Philistia’s downfall was a warning to the people of Judah, who also relied on Egypt and other alliances rather than on God.

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

Of whom they boasted and gloried.

In whose aid they trusted.

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

they--the Philistine allies of Egypt who trusted in it for help against Assyria. A warning to the party among the Jews, who, though Judah was then the subordinate ally of Assyria, were looking to Egypt as a preferable ally (Isa 30:7). Ethiopia was their "expectation"; for Palestine had not yet obtained, but hoped for alliance with it. Egypt was their "glory," that is, boast (Isa 13:19); for the alliance with it was completed.

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

5, 6. The effect which the sight of these miserable gangs of captives will produce on the inhabitants of Palestine. This is the real motive of the prophecy. Hezekiah probably took the warning.

they shall be afraid] R.V. better: dismayed. The subject is indefinite—“men.”

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.

And they shall be afraid and ashamed,.... That is, those that trusted and depended upon the Egyptians and Ethiopians, particularly the Jews after mentioned, shall be "afraid" that it will be their turn next, that they also shall be taken and carried captive; and they shall be "ashamed" that they have put their trust and confidence in those nations, and not in the Lord:

of Ethiopia their expectation; from whom they expected assistance and protection, particularly when Tirhakah king of Ethiopia went out against the king of Assyria, that he would have been a match for him, and have overcome him, and so have freed them from such a powerful enemy:

and of Egypt their glory; who was their ally, and a very potent one, and in whom they gloried; but now should be ashamed, when both those people on whom they relied were carried captive.

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

And they shall be afraid - The Jews, or the party or faction among the Jews, that were expecting aid from allied Ethiopia and Egypt. When they shall see them vanquished, they shall apprehend a similar danger to themselves; and they shall be ashamed that they ever confided in a people so little able to aid them, instead of trusting in the arm of God.

Egypt their glory - Their boast, as if Egypt was able to save them. The word rendered here ‘glory’ (תפארת tiph'ereth) means properly, “ornament, praise, honor;” and then it may mean the “object” of glory, or that in which people boast or confide. That is its sense here (compare Isa 10:12; Isa 13:19; Zec 12:7).

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

Glory. The alliance of these nations shall not avail the Jews, who are said to inhabit an island, because they neglected God’s service no less than the most distant and abandoned nations. (Calmet) --- The changes in empires must convince us to depend only on God, since Damascus and Egypt could not save the Hebrews, nor even themselves. (Worthington)

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).

They; all they that shall trust to them, and glory in them, as appears from the following words; the pronoun they being put indefinitely here, as it is Isa 2:19, and elsewhere. But under this general expression the Israelites not only are comprehended, but seem to be principally intended, because to them this prophecy was delivered, and they were eminently guilty of this sin; of which see Isa 30:2; 31:1.

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

They shall be afraid and ashamed. Those who have resorted to Egypt and Ethiopia for aid shall be "ashamed" of their folly in doing so, and "afraid" of its consequences (see the last clause of ver. 6).

Vers. 5, 6. The insufficiency of the stronger.

Assyria attacked Ashdod with designs on Judaea. Judaea rested on Egypt and Ethiopia; but these "powers" would be utterly defeated by Assyria, and their citizens led away into captivity with every circumstance of humiliation and shame. In that hour of fear and humiliation (ver. 5) the inhabitants of Judaea would be constrained to argue from the insufficiency of Egypt and Ethiopia to their own helplessness. If such strong nations as these are ignominiously overthrown, "how shall we escape?" We conclude

I THAT TIMES OF SEVERE TRIAL AWAIT US ALL. Not only collectively but individually considered. As separate, individual souls we must anticipate that the future has in store for us not only the pleasant, the gratifying, the successful, but also the unpleasant, the painful, even the overwhelming. Some of the more crushing sorrows it may be our fortune to escape, but every one of us will have his share. Sickness which threatens to be fatal; bitter disappointment which appears to throw the whole future path into darkest shadow; bereavement which takes away the very light of our eyes; the sudden loss which strips the tree of branch as well as bloom; the financial or (what is a thousand times worse) the moral failure of beloved friend or near relation; the last illness unexpectedly arriving and extinguishing many a cherished purpose; the powerful temptation inviting and almost constraining to folly, or vice, or crime; one or more el these things, or things as bad as these, will certainly overtake us all.

II THAT THOSE WHO ARE STRONGER THAN WE ARE SOMETIMES FOUND TO BREAK BENEATH THE BLOW. We hear or read of men who in mental capacity, in educational advantages, in worldly endowments, or in the number of their friends, are superior to ourselves, but who cannot stand the strain of their trial. Either their health breaks down, or their sanity seriously suffers, or their faith fails, or their courage and energy succumb, or their moral character is lost, and consequently their reputation is shattered, never to be restored.

III THAT IF THESE STRONGER SOULS ARE BEATEN, WE MUST BE IN DANGER OF DEFEAT. If Egypt and Ethiopia are led into captivity, how shall Judaea be delivered shall we escape?" The storm in which such noble vessels founder will wreck our fragile bark. On any ordinary human calculations we cannot hope to be victorious where spirits so much stronger and wiser than we are have been crushed. But we need not yield to despondency; if we are the disciples and followers of Jesus Christ, and if, therefore, "the Lord is on our side," we may find relief and rest in the thought

IV THAT WE HAVE A SAFE REFUGE IN AN ALMIGHTY SAVIOR. So long as Judea was faithful to Jehovah, she had no need to be afraid of Assyria, and she could afford to witness the overthrow of the Egyptian and Ethiopian armies. So long as we are loyal to our Divine Lord we may go fearlessly forward into the future. If the good Shepherd great Shepherd of the sheep be our Guardian, we will "fear no evil," though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, though the darkest shadows shut us round. C.

The bitter experience of all who trust in man.

The sin of Judah, in its latter days, was its reliance on Egypt for help rather than on God. In alarm at the advance of Assyria, the natural alliance was with Egypt; but alliance with any world-power was unworthy of a nation whose history had been so full of Divine deliverings and defendings as that of the Jews. And Egypt could not help. It was a broken reed. A type of all merely human helpers; for "cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Hoses represents Israel as finding out how vain is the help of man, and turning to God with this penitential promise, "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods." The following three points open up lines of thought and illustration, and should be sufficiently suggestive without detailed treatment.

I WE CANNOT TRUST MAN, FOR WE CANNOT BE SURE OF HIS GOOD WILL. These two dangers are ever before us:

1. The man who seems willing to serve us may be deceiving us, and really serving his own ends, setting his interests before ours.

2. And if a man begins sincerely to serve us, we have no security that his good will is maintained, and presently he may take advantage of us. We cannot read hearts. And hearts do not always keep steadfast. So "put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, in whom there is no help.

II WE CANNOT TRUST MAN, FOR WE CANNOT BE SURE THAT HIS ABILITY MATCHES HIS WILL. So often we find in life that men who could, will not help us, and men who would, cannot. With this sort of feeling in his mind the sufferer came to the "Man Christ Jesus," saying, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

III WE CAN NEVER RECKON ON MAN IF HE IS AGAINST GOD. Such a man can never be any help to us. The Jews forsook God to seek help from a godless nation, and it was bound to prove a bitter and humiliating experience. Man may be, and often is, God"s agent for helping us; but then our trusting is in God who sends, and not in the man who may be sent to do his bidding. R.T.

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

They - All that shall trust to them. But under this general expression the Israelites, seem to be principally intended.

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

But if Egypt and Ethiopia are thus shamefully humbled, what kind of impression will this make upon those who rely upon the great power that is supposed to be both unapproachable and invincible? "And they cry together, and behold themselves deceived by Ethiopia, to which they looked, and by Egypt, in which they gloried. And the inhabitant of this coast-land saith in that day, Behold, thus it happens to those to whom we looked, whither we fled for help to deliver us from the king of Asshur: and how should we, we escape?" אי, which signifies both an island and a coast-land, is used as the name of Philistia and Zep 2:5, and as the name of Phoenicia in Isa 23:2, Isa 23:6; and for this reason Knobel and others understand it here as denoting the former with the inclusion of the latter. But as the Assyrians had already attacked both Phoenicians and Philistines at the time when they marched against Egypt, there can be no doubt that Isaiah had chiefly the Judaeans in his mind. This was the interpretation given by Jerome ("Judah trusted in the Egyptians, and Egypt will be destroyed"), and it has been adopted by Ewald, Drechsler, Luzzatto, and Meier. The expressions are the same as those in which a little further on we find Isaiah reproving the Egyptian tendencies of Judah's policy. At the same time, by "the inhabitant of this coast-land" we are not to understand Judah exclusively, but the inhabitants of Palestine generally, with whom Judah was mixed up to its shame, because it had denied its character as the nation of Jehovah in a manner so thoroughly opposed to its theocratic standing.

Unfortunately, we know very little concerning the Assyrian campaigns in Egypt. But we may infer from Nah 3:8-10, according to which the Egyptian Thebes had fallen (for it is held up before Nineveh as the mirror of its own fate), that after the conquest of Ashdod Egypt was also overcome by Sargon's army. In the grand inscription found in the halls of the palace at Khorsabad, Sargon boasts of a successful battle which he had fought with Pharaoh Sebech at Raphia, and in consequence of which the latter became tributary to him. Still further on he relates that he had dethroned the rebellious king of Ashdod, and appointed another in his place, but that the people removed him, and chose another king; after which he marched with his army against Ashdod, and when the king fled from him into Egypt, he besieged Ashdod, and took it. Then follows a difficult and mutilated passage, in which Rawlinson agrees with Oppert in finding an account of the complete subjection of Sebech (Sabako?).

(Note: Five Great Monarchies, vol. ii. pp. 416-7; compare Oppert, Sargonides, pp. 22, 26-7. With regard to one passage of the annals, which contains an account of a successful battle fought at Ra-bek (Heliopolis), see Journal Asiat. xii. 462ff.; Brandis, p. 51.)

Nothing can be built upon this, however; and it must also remain uncertain whether, even if the rest is correctly interpreted, Isa 20:1 relates to that conquest of Ashdod which was followed by the dethroning of the rebellious king and the appointment of another, or to the final conquest by which it became a colonial city of Assyria.

(Note: Among the pictures from Khorsabad which have been published by Botta, there is a burning fortress that has been taken by storm. Isidor Lwenstern (in his Essai, Paris 1845) pronounced it to be Ashdod; but Rdiger regarded the evidence as inconclusive. Nevertheless, Lwenstern was able to claim priority over Rawlinson in several points of deciphering (Galignani's Messenger, Rev. 28, 1850). He read in the inscription the king's name, Sarak.)

This conquest Sargon ascribes to himself in person, so that apparently we must think of that conquest which was carried out by Tartan; and in that case the words, "he fought against it," etc., need not be taken as anticipatory. It is quite sufficient, that the monuments seem to intimate that the conquest of Samaria and Ashdod was followed by the subjugation of the Egypto-Ethiopian kingdom. But inasmuch as Judah, trusting in the reed of Egypt, fell away from Assyria under Hezekiah, and Sennacherib had to make war upon Egypt again, to all appearance the Assyrians never had much cause to congratulate themselves upon their possession of Egypt, and that for reasons which are not difficult to discover. At the time appointed by the prophecy, Egypt came under the Assyrian yoke, from which it was first delivered by Psammetichus; but, as the constant wars between Assyria and Egypt clearly show, it never patiently submitted to that yoke for any length of time. The confidence which Judah placed in Egypt turned out most disastrously for Judah itself, just as Isaiah predicted here. But the catastrophe that occurred in front of Jerusalem did not put an end to Assyria, nor did the campaigns of Sargon and Sennacherib bring Egypt to an end. And, on the other hand, the triumphs of Jehovah and of the prophecy concerning Assyria were not the means of Egypt's conversion. In all these respects the fulfilment showed that there was an element of human hope in the prophecy, which made the distant appear to be close at hand. And this element it eliminated. For the fulfilment of a prophecy is divine, but the prophecy itself is both divine and human.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

“And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and of Egypt their boast.” This is the effect to be produced by the catastrophe just threatened. The full sense of the first verb is that they shall be confounded, filled with consternation, at the fate of those in whom they trusted for deliverance. The meaning of the verse is, that they who had relied on Egypt and its ally Ethiopia for aid against Assyria, whether Jews or Philistines or both, should be confounded at beholding Egypt and Ethiopia themselves subdued.

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

dismayed and ashamed

"afraid and put to shame"

because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their glory

Hope and glory refer to their trust in the military power of these countries. AT: "because they had trusted in the power of the armies of Cush and Egypt" (See: Metonymy)

The inhabitants of these coasts

the people who lived in the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea

where we fled for help to be rescued

This can be stated in active form. AT: "where we fled to so they would rescue us" (See: Active or Passive)

now, how can we escape?

The author uses this question to emphasize how hopeless their situation was. AT: "now there is no way for us to escape!" (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

shame

Ethiopia

hope

Egypt

glory

king

Assyria

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

shall be broken and ashamed All those who look in expectation upon the aid of Cush and boast of the support of Egypt.

their boasting vantance in O.F.

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.

And they shall be afraid. The Israelites, that flee to Egypt, will fear.

Their expectation. The country to which their eyes are directed for help.

Their glory. Of whom—that is, of whose alliance—they were proud.

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.