Isaiah 20:4

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians . . .—The prediction did not receive its fulfilment in the reign either of Sargon or Sennacherib, but Esarhaddon subdued the whole of Egypt, carried off its treasures, and appointed satraps over its provinces (Budge’s Esarhaddon, pp. 111-129). The prophet paints the brutality with which prisoners were treated on a march in vivid colours. What would men say of their boasted policy of an Egypto-Cushite alliance when they saw that as its disastrous issue? It may be noted that Rabshakeh’s scornful phrase, “This bruised reed,” seems to imply that Assyria had ceased to fear the power of Egypt; and Nahum (Nahum 3:8) speaks of No (i.e., No-Amun or Thebes) as having, when he wrote, been conquered, and his people carried into captivity.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:1-6 The invasion and conquest of Egypt and Ethiopia. - Isaiah was a sign to the people by his unusual dress, when he walked abroad. He commonly wore sackcloth as a prophet, to show himself mortified to the world. He was to loose this from his loins; to wear no upper garments, and to go barefooted. This sign was to signify, that the Egyptians and Ethiopians should be led away captives by the king of Assyria, thus stripped. The world will often deem believers foolish, when singular in obedience to God. But the Lord will support his servants under the most trying effects of their obedience; and what they are called upon to suffer for his sake, commonly is light, compared with what numbers groan under from year to year from sin. Those who make any creature their expectation and glory, and so put it in the place of God, will, sooner or later, be ashamed of it. But disappointment in creature-confidences, instead of driving us to despair, should drive us to God, and our expectation shall not be in vain. The same lesson is in force now; and where shall we look for aid in the hour of necessity, but to the Lord our Righteousness, throne of grace, and serving with each other in the same business of religion, should end all disputes, and unite the hearts of believers to each other in holy love.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So shall the king of Assyria - The emphasis here is on the word "so." As Isaiah has walked naked, that is, stripped off his usual clothing, "so" shall the Egyptians and Ethiopians be led away "stripped" of all their possessions.

The Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives - The Egyptians and Ethiopians, or Cushites, were often united in an alliance, and appear to have been when this prophecy was delivered. Thus Nahum 3:8 :

Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite;

Put and Lubim were thy helpers.

To the shame of Egypt - It shall be a disgrace to them to be subdued, and to be carried captive in so humiliating a manner. It is remarked by Belzoni ('Operations and Recent Discoveries in Egypt and Nubia'), that in the figures on the remains of their temples, prisoners are often represented as naked, or only in aprons, with disheveled hair, and with their hands chained. He also remarks, that on a "bas-relief," on the recently-discovered graves of the kings of Thebes, a multitude of "Egyptian and Ethiopian prisoners" are represented - showing that Egypt and Ethiopia were sometimes "allied," alike in mutual defense and in bondage (compare Isaiah 47:2, and Nahum 3:5).

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. buttocks uncovered—Belzoni says that captives are found represented thus on Egyptian monuments (Isa 47:2, 3; Na 3:5, 8, 9), where as here, Egypt and Ethiopia are mentioned as in alliance.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Lead away, like beasts, of which this word is commonly used.

Their buttocks uncovered; having their garments cut off by the middle, to the discovery of their buttocks and their secret parts. Compare 2 Samuel 10:4 Isaiah 47:2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives,.... As beasts are led or driven, being taken prisoners, and carried captive by the king of Assyria, namely Sargon, whoever is intended by him:

young and old; without any regard to age, sparing none for their tender years or gray hairs:

naked and barefoot; as prisoners of war commonly are, being stripped by their conquerors of their clothes, and having only a few rags given them to cover their nakedness with, and obliged to travel without shoes on their feet:

even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt; having no clothes on them to cover those parts; or the skirts of their garments cut off, as David's servants were by the Ammonites, 2 Samuel 10:4 and this to humble and mortify the pride of the Egyptians.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. The apodosis. lead away] as in 1 Samuel 30:2.

the Egyptians prisoners … captives] Better as R.V. the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia. The two words for exile are both abstracts used in a concrete sense; the corresponding verbs denote, the one the act of making captive, the other the act of going into exile (lit. leaving the land bare).

to the shame] The word means “nakedness,” and the construction is difficult.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - So shall the King of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives. In Sennacherib's annals for the year B.C. 701, twelve years after this prophecy was given, we find the following passage: "The kings of Egypt, and the archers, chariots, and horsemen of the King of Meroe, a force without number, gathered and came to the aid of Ekron. In the neighborhood of Eltekeh their ranks were arrayed before me, and they urged on their soldiers. In the service of Asshur, my lord, I fought with them, and I accomplished their overthrow. The charioteers and sons of the kings of Egypt, and the charioteers of the King of Meres, alive in the midst of the battle, my hand captured" (G. Smith, 'Eponym Canon,' pp. 133, 134). Young and old. The intermixture of young and old, of full-grown males with women leading children by the hand or carrying them upon the shoulder, in the Assyrian sculptures, strikes us even on the most cursory inspection of them. Naked and barefoot. Assyrian captives are ordinarily represented "barefoot." Most commonly they wear a single tunic, reaching from the neck to the knees, or sometimes to the ankles, and girt about the waist with a girdle. It is probable that Egyptian and Ethiopian prisoners would be even more scantily clad, since the ordinary Egyptian tunic began at the waist and ended considerably above the knee. Isaiah 20:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

It is not till Isaiah has carried out the divine instructions, that he learns the reason for this command to strip himself, and the length of time that he is to continue so stripped. "And Jehovah said, As my servant Yesha'yahu goeth naked and barefooted, a sign and type for three years long over Egypt and over Ethiopia, so will the king of Asshur carry away the prisoners of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, children and old men, naked and barefooted, and with their seat uncovered - a shame to Egypt." The expression "as he goeth" (ca'asher hâlac) stands here at the commencement of the symbolical action, but it is introduced as if with a retrospective glance at its duration for three years, unless indeed the preterite hâlac stands here, as it frequently does, to express what has already commenced, and is still continuing and customary (compare, for example, Job 1:4 and Psalm 1:1). The strange and unseemly dress of the prophet, whenever he appeared in his official capacity for three whole years, was a prediction of the fall of the Egypto-Ethiopian kingdom, which was to take place at the end of these three years. Egypt and Ethiopia are as closely connected here as Israel and Judah in Isaiah 11:12. They were at that time one kingdom, so that the shame of Egypt was the shame of Ethiopia also. ‛Ervâh is a shameful nakedness, and ‛ervath Mitzrayim is in apposition to all that precedes it in Isaiah 20:4. Shēth is the seat or hinder part, as in 2 Samuel 10:4, from shâthâh, to set or seat; it is a substantive form, like בּן, עץ, רע, שׁם, with the third radical letter dropt. Chashūphay has the same ay as the words in Isaiah 19:9; Judges 5:15; Jeremiah 22:14, which can hardly be regarded as constructive forms, as Ewald, Knobel, and Gesenius suppose (although ־י of the construct has arisen from ־י), but rather as a singular form with a collective signification. The emendations suggested, viz., chasūphē by Olshausen, and chasūphı̄ with a connecting i by Meier, are quite unnecessary.