Isaiah 20:2

2 at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your shoe from off your foot. He did so, walking naked and barefoot.

Isaiah 20:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 20:2

At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah the son of Amoz,
&c.] Or, "by the hand of Isaiah", by his means; and it was to him likewise, as the following words show; and so the Septuagint version renders it; he spoke by him, by the sign he used, according to his order, and he spoke to him to use the sign:

saying;
so the Arabic version, "with him"; and with these versions Noldius agrees:

go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins;
a token of mourning, and which the prophet wore, as Kimchi thinks, because of the captivity of the ten tribes; and it may be also on account of the miseries that were coming upon the people of the Jews; though some think this was his common garb, and the same with the royal garment the prophets used to wear, ( Zechariah 13:4 ) but that he had put off, and had put on sackcloth in its room, which he is now bid to take off:

and put off thy shoe from thy foot;
as a sign of distress and mourning also, ( 2 Samuel 15:30 ) :

and he did so, walking naked and barefoot;
Kimchi thinks this was only visionally, or in the vision of prophecy, as he calls it, and not in reality; but the latter seems most probable, and best to agree with what follows; for he was obedient to the divine command, not regarding the disgrace which might attend it, nor the danger of catching cold, to which he was exposed; and hence he has the character of a servant of the Lord, in the next words, and a faithful obedient one he was.

Isaiah 20:2 In-Context

1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;
2 at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your shoe from off your foot. He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 Yahweh said, Like as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia;
4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 They shall be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
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