Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4, Biblical commentary 7 · Isaiah · Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
IN the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon King of Assyria sent Vers. 1.him, &c. The Prophet having threatned Ethiopia and Egypt, Chap. 18. and 19. and concluded with comfort to Egypt, now resumes his former argument against them both, shewing by a sign what miseries should befall them. And first he describes the time. Tartan was a Captain of Sennacheribs, of whom see 2 Kin. 18. whereby Expositours gather, that Sargon here spoken of, as sending him, was that Sennacherib, for he had, as Jerom saith, several names, yet some think him to have been Salmanasar. Ashdod was one of the five great Cities Joseph. Antiq. l. 10. c. 1.of Palestine, and as Josephus saith, was taken by the Assyrian in the twelfth year of the reign of Hezekiah, and that he infested the Egyptians and Ethiopians at the same time. The of his sending against Ashdod, saith Junius, was because he had taken the Cities of Judah, and of them Ashdod was Junius.one, both of right pertaining to Judah, Iosh. 15. 47. and now under Hezekiah, as being by him taken 2 Kin. 18. 8. And now the Lord by his Prophet sheweth the Egyptians miseries to come, that Hezekiah and the Jews might not trust to Aegypt against the invasion of the Assyrians, but to the Lord onelyonly.
A… that time the Lord spake to Isaiah, saying, lose the sackcloth off thy loins, Vers. 2.&c. It is said, That he spake by the hand of Isaiah by an Hebrew phrase, because the Lord used him, as a master his steward, by his ministery doing this or that. Whereas some gather from hence, that Isaiah went commonly in sackcloth upon his bare body, it is to be thought rather, that he did so only in times of calamity by his outward habit to expresse his inward sorrow. Yet Zech. 13. 4. a garment of hair is spoken of, as common to Prophets. And whereas the Lord biddeth him go naked, some think, that this was not all the three years spoken of vers. 3. for how should he then have endured the cold of winter? but the same God that commanded this, could preserve him, as well naked as cloathed. Yet haply he did it but at times when he shewed himself abroad to the people for a sign of that which was to come to the Egyptians and Ethiopians, Vers. 4. If it shall be thought undecent for him thus to do, it is to be considered, that it was Gods command, and hereby the most shamefull things are made decent, there being nothing truly shamefull, but disobedience to his commands, otherwise to uncover the privities to be circumcised had been a shamefull thing, but by reason of Gods Ordinance, honourable. Rom. 6. 21. Sackcloth wearing.If it be demanded, Whether it be a point of piety now to go in sackcloth, and sometime bare-footed for greater humiliation, as many votaries and penitentiaries amongst the Papists do? I answer, it was a rite peculiar to the rigid times of the Law, when Gods people were required to do outward and bodily acts of extraordinary humiliation as well as inward, by going in sackcloth and ashes: but in the time of the Gospel, all the humiliation required being spiritual by inward sighing, and groaning, and sorrowing for sin and miseries, either of our selves, or neighbours, or countrey, fasting and praying only being overadded, and kneeling at prayer, and being uncovered both in prayer and prophesying, whatsoever is done more is but superstition, taxed by the name of voluntary humility, and plainly declared to be such as profiteth not, and so is going to Jerusalem, or to any other supposed holy place for devotions sake, and Col. 2. 18. 1 Tim. 4. 8.the austerity of mens whipping themselves, or shutting up themselves in cels, as Anchorites all their daies.
By Isaiah his going naked the Lord gives a sign, to shew, how the Assyrians Vers. 3, 4.should make the Egyptians and Ethiopians both young and old to go shamefully naked into Captivity, as they had shamefully sinned. They should exercise such cruelty against them, as is not often heard of in these daies, but then much used by tyrannical conquerours, viz. To strip their Captives of all their apparel from top to toe, and so to lead them away, not leaving them so much as a rag to cover their shamefull parts. Some by their young men and old, understand children, and all the weaker sort, not able to bear arms, and by the rest past over in silence, that they were slain. But I think, that all ages are meant by these two, as is usual, and so that men of might as well as the weak multitude were thus carried away to be slaves, so many as escaped the sword. Young men and old are named, because the one counselled, and the other fought for their Countrey, according to Pindar, Consilia senum, hastae juvenum sunt. Of Gods threatning to make bare their shamefull parts, see also Ier. 47. Nah. 3.
And they shall fear by reason of Ethiopia their hope, &c.Vers. 5. Vers. 6.
And the inhabiter of this Island shall say in that day, &c. Here the Prophet conculdes with the Jews, as all agree. When they should see Gods judgments thus executed upon Egypt and Ehtiopia, which were formerly an help unto them against Ashur, they should thus fear and say, a reason being herein implied, why the Egyptians and Ethiopians were thus punisht, viz. Because by their aiding of the Jews they gave them occasion, withdrawing their confidence from God to place it in them. But why is Judea set forth by the name of an Island. 1. Some think because it was hemmed in with two seas, the dead sea and the mediterranean. 2. Some because it was little like an Island in comparison of Babylon, set forth by the name of a sea, Chap. 21. 1. 3. Because it Hieron.was beaten upon by the waves of the Assyrian and Egyptian wars, for so the Assyrian is said to overflow the Land of Judea up to the neck of Jerusalem, Chap. 8. 8. which lifted up the head, and appeared still, when all other parts being drowned by this overflowing, seemed like a sea. 4. Calvin, because Judea Calvin.was the Lords peculiar inheritance separated from the rest of the world, as an Island from the main Land containing all other Countreyes and Nations. Of the three last I know not whether to preferre, and therefore conclude upon them all, forsomuch as there may be divers reasons of the same phrase.