Isaiah 30:5

5 They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

Isaiah 30:5 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 30:5

They were all ashamed of a people [that] could not profit
them
The princes, the ambassadors that were sent unto them, and the king or people, or both, that sent them, who hoped for and expected great things from them, but, being disappointed, were filled with shame; because either the Egyptians, who are the people here meant, either could not help them, or would not, not daring to engage with so powerful an enemy as the Assyrian monarch, which is illustrated and confirmed by repeating the same, and using other words: nor be an help, nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach:
so far from being of any advantage to them, by helping and assisting them against their enemy, wanting either inclination or capacity, or both, that it not only turned to their shame, but even was matter of reproach to them, that ever they made any application to them, or placed any confidence in them for help.

Isaiah 30:5 In-Context

3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors are come to Hanes.
5 They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can't profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit [them].
7 For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab who sits still.
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