Isaiah 19:5

5 The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

Isaiah 19:5 in Other Translations

5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

5 And the waters of the sea will be dried up, and the river will be dry and parched,

5 The waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields. The riverbed will be parched and dry.

5 The River Nile will dry up, the riverbed baked dry in the sun.

5 The waters of the sea will dry up, and the river will be parched and dry.

Isaiah 19:5 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 19:5

And the waters shall fail from the sea
Which Kimchi understands figuratively of the destruction of the Egyptians by the king of Assyria, compared to the drying up of the waters of the Nile; and others think that the failure of their trade by sea is meant, which brought great revenues into the kingdom: but, by what follows, it seems best to take the words in a literal sense, of the waters of the river Nile, which being dried up, as in the next clause, could not empty themselves into the sea, as they used, and therefore very properly may be said to fail from it; nay, the Nile itself may be called a sea, it being so large a confluence of water: and the river shall be wasted and dried up;
that is, the river Nile, which was not only very useful for their trade and navigation, but the fruitfulness of the country depended upon it; for the want of rain, in the land of Egypt, was supplied by the overflow of this river, at certain times, which brought and left such a slime upon the earth, as made it exceeding fertile; now the drying up of this river was either occasioned by some great drought, which God in judgment sent; or by the practices of some of their princes with this river, by which it was greatly impaired, and its usefulness diminished.

Isaiah 19:5 In-Context

3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.

4 I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

5 The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

6 The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither,

7 also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 44:27; Isaiah 50:2; Jeremiah 50:38; Jeremiah 51:36
• 2. S 2 Samuel 14:14