20:1-6. Captivity. Assyria.

O  p  1. Assyria.
    q  2. Isaiah. Symbol.
    q  3. Isaiah. Signification.
   p  4-6. Assyria.

Isaiah 20)

1 In the year (probably the year of Samaria's fall [611 B.C.]) that Tartan (a title = commander in chief. Cp. 2 Kings 18:17) came to Ashdod, {when Sargon the king of Assyria (never once named by classic writers, and in Scripture only here. The monuments show that he was the son of Shalmaneser, and the father of Sennacherib) sent him (this expedition is mentioned on the monument found at Khorsabad. A usurper, called "Javan", or "the Greek", had been put on the throne of Ashdod by Hezekiah in the place of "Akimit"),} and fought against Ashdod, and took it;

2 At the time spoke the Lord by the hand of Isaiah the son of Amoz (see 13:1), saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put off your shoe from your foot.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. (fig., put for scantily clad)

611-608 B.C.

3 And the Lord said, “Like as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; (see 7:11 and 8:18)

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 (fig. put for the help expected from Egypt), and of Egypt their glory. (fig., put for the Egyptians, in whom they gloried)
6 And the inhabitant of this sea coast (or coast land. See 11:11) 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?’ ”

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