Isaiah 20:2

2 at that time the LORD had spoken by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take off your shoes from your feet," and he had done 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 the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and took it, --
2 at that time the LORD had spoken by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take off your shoes from your feet," and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot--
3 the LORD said, "As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia,
4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians captives and the Ethiopians exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 Then they shall be dismayed and confounded because of Ethiopia their hope and of Egypt their boast.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.