Isaiah 43:17

17 He caused Egypt to send out its chariots and horses. He sent its entire army to its death. Its soldiers lay down there. They never got up again. They were destroyed. They were blown out like a dimly burning flame. But the LORD says,

Isaiah 43:17 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 43:17

Which bringeth forth the chariot and the horse, the army and
the power
Who brought forth the chariots and horses, and the mighty army of Pharaoh, out of Egypt, to pursue the Israelites into the Red sea, where they were drowned. The present tense is put for the future, as in the preceding verse; the future is put for the past tense in the next clause: they shall lie down together, they shall not rise;
they lay down in the Red sea, where they sunk to the bottom, and perished, and never rose more, at least to life, nor never will, till the general resurrection: they are extinct, they are quenched as tow;
or flax, or as the wick of a candle F16, when put into water, is quenched at once; so the Egyptian, became extinct in the Red sea. Some observe an allusion to the commodity of flax, for which Egypt was famous. Kimchi interprets the whole of the army of Sennacherib, which was brought out of their own land to Jerusalem, and was destroyed in one night by an angel. Aben Ezra of the Chaldeans being brought out to fight with the Persians. But others rather of the army of the Medes and Persians being brought against them, by whom they became extinct as tow or flax.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 (htvpk) "ut ellychnium" Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gataker, Vitringa.

Isaiah 43:17 In-Context

15 I am your LORD and King. I am your Holy One. I created you."
16 Long ago the LORD opened a way for his people to go through the Red Sea. He made a path through the mighty waters.
17 He caused Egypt to send out its chariots and horses. He sent its entire army to its death. Its soldiers lay down there. They never got up again. They were destroyed. They were blown out like a dimly burning flame. But the LORD says,
18 "Forget the things that happened in the past. Do not keep on thinking about them.
19 I am about to do something new. It is beginning to happen even now. Don't you see it coming? I am going to make a way for you to go through the desert. I will make streams of water in the dry and empty land.
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