Isaiah 20:2

2 at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet, ” and he did so, walking ¹naked 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 the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it—

2 at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet, ” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

3 Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,

4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt.

5 Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast.

Cross References

• 1. 20:2 Mic. 1:8, 11; [1 Sam. 19:24]