Isaiah 20:1-4

A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush

1 In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it—

2 at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.” And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

3 Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush,^[a]

4 so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared—to Egypt’s shame.

Isaiah 20:1-4 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 20

This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of the Egyptians and Ethiopians by the Assyrians, which had been prophesied of separately in the two preceding chapters Isa 18:1-19:25, and now conjunctly in this: the time of it is given, Isa 20:1 the sign of it, the prophet's walking naked, and barefoot, Isa 20:2 the explanation and accommodation of the sign to the captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia, Isa 20:3,4 the use of this to the Jews, and the effect it had upon them; shame for their trust and dependence on the above nations, and despair of deliverance from the Assyrians by their means, Isa 20:5,6.

Cross References

• 1. 2 Kings 18:17
• 2. S Joshua 11:22; S Joshua 13:3
• 3. S Isaiah 13:1
• 4. 2 Kings 1:8; S Isaiah 3:24; Zechariah 13:4; Matthew 3:4
• 5. Ezekiel 24:17,23
• 6. S 1 Samuel 19:24
• 7. Ezekiel 4:1-12; Micah 1:8
• 8. Isaiah 22:20; Isaiah 41:8-9; Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 49:3,5-7; Isaiah 50:10; Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 53:11; Jeremiah 7:25; Haggai 2:23; Zechariah 4:14
• 9. S Isaiah 16:14
• 10. S Exodus 3:12; S Isaiah 8:18; Isaiah 37:30; Isaiah 38:7; Acts 21:11
• 11. S Deuteronomy 28:46
• 12. S Isaiah 19:1
• 13. ver 5; S Genesis 10:6; Isaiah 37:9; Isaiah 43:3
• 14. S Isaiah 19:4
• 15. S Job 12:17
• 16. Jeremiah 46:19; Nahum 3:10
• 17. Isaiah 18:1; Zephaniah 2:12
• 18. S Isaiah 3:24
• 19. Isaiah 47:3; Jeremiah 13:22,26; Nahum 3:5

Footnotes

• [a] That is, the upper Nile region; also in verse 5