Isaiah 20:3

3 et dixit Dominus sicut ambulavit servus meus Isaias nudus et disculciatus trium annorum signum et portentum erit super Aegyptum et super Aethiopiam

Isaiah 20:3 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 20:3

And the Lord said
Here follows the explanation of the sign, and the accommodation of it to the thing signified by it:

like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot;
not wholly naked, for that would have been very indecent and dangerous indeed; but without his upper garment, as Saul, ( 1 Samuel 19:24 ) and David, ( 2 Samuel 6:14 2 Samuel 6:20 ) or with rent and ragged clothes, and old shoes, as Jarchi F11 interprets it, and which might be only when he appeared abroad; and how long he thus walked is not certain, whether only one day, as some, or three days, as others, or three years, which is not said, though our version inclines to it; but the three years next mentioned are not to be joined to Isaiah's walking, but to the thing signified by it; for the accent "athnach" is at the word which is rendered "barefoot", and distinguishes this clause from the following. The Septuagint indeed puts the phrase "three years" into both clauses, but it only belongs to the latter:

three years [for] a sign and wonder upon Egypt, and upon Ethiopia;
that is, the prophet's walking naked and barefoot was a sign that three years after this Egypt and Ethiopia should be subdued by the Assyrians; or, that so long he should be in subduing them, or their calamities should last such a term of time. This sign was only seen by the Jews, for whose sake chiefly this prophecy was, to take off their dependence on the above nations; though probably this might be made known to the Egyptians and Ethiopians.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 77. 1. & Sabbat, fol. 114. 1.

Isaiah 20:3 In-Context

1 in anno quo ingressus est Tharthan in Azotum cum misisset eum Sargon rex Assyriorum et pugnasset contra Azotum et cepisset eam
2 in tempore illo locutus est Dominus in manu Isaiae filii Amos dicens vade et solve saccum de lumbis tuis et calciamenta tua tolle de pedibus tuis et fecit sic vadens nudus et disculciatus
3 et dixit Dominus sicut ambulavit servus meus Isaias nudus et disculciatus trium annorum signum et portentum erit super Aegyptum et super Aethiopiam
4 sic minabit rex Assyriorum captivitatem Aegypti et transmigrationem Aethiopiae iuvenum et senum nudam et disculciatam discopertis natibus ignominiam Aegypti
5 et timebunt et confundentur ab Aethiopia spe sua et ab Aegypto gloria sua
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.