Isaiah 20:3-6

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.

5 Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be dismayed and put to shame.

6 In that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ ”

Isaiah 20:3-6 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. 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
• 2. S Isaiah 16:14
• 3. S Exodus 3:12; S Isaiah 8:18; Isaiah 37:30; Isaiah 38:7; Acts 21:11
• 4. S Deuteronomy 28:46
• 5. S Isaiah 19:1
• 6. ver 5; S Genesis 10:6; Isaiah 37:9; Isaiah 43:3
• 7. S Isaiah 19:4
• 8. S Job 12:17
• 9. Jeremiah 46:19; Nahum 3:10
• 10. Isaiah 18:1; Zephaniah 2:12
• 11. S Isaiah 3:24
• 12. Isaiah 47:3; Jeremiah 13:22,26; Nahum 3:5
• 13. S Isaiah 8:12
• 14. S ver 3
• 15. S 2 Kings 18:21; S Isaiah 30:5
• 16. Ezekiel 29:16
• 17. Isaiah 2:11; S Isaiah 19:23
• 18. S 2 Kings 18:21
• 19. Jeremiah 46:25
• 20. S Isaiah 10:3
• 21. Jeremiah 30:15-17; Jeremiah 31:2; Matthew 23:33; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Hebrews 2:3

Footnotes

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