Isaiah 19:8

8 And lamented have the fishers, And mourned have all casting angle into a brook, And those spreading nets on the face of the waters have languished.

Isaiah 19:8 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 19:8

The fishers also shall mourn
Because there will be no fish to catch, the waters of the river being dried up, and so will have none to sell, and nothing to support themselves and families with; and this must also affect the people in general, fish being the common food they lived upon, see ( Numbers 11:5 ) , not only because of the great plenty there usually was, but because they killed and ate but very few living creatures, through a superstitious regard unto them; though Herodotus says ^F8 the Egyptian priests might not taste of fishes, yet the common people might; for, according to that historian ^F9, when the river Nile flowed out of the lake of Moeris, a talent of silver every day was brought into the king's treasury, arising from the profit of fish; and when it flowed in, twenty pounds; nay, he expressly says ^F11, that some of them live upon fish only, gutted, and dried with the sun:

and all they that cast angle,
or hook,

into the brooks shall lament;
which describes one sort of fishermen, and way of catching fishes, with the angle and hook, as the following clause describes another sort:

and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish;
be dispirited and enfeebled for want of trade and subsistence, and with grief and horror.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 37.
F9 Ibid. c. 149.
F11 Ibid. c. 92.

Isaiah 19:8 In-Context

6 And they have turned away the flowings, Weak and dried up have been brooks of the bulwark, Reed and flag have withered.

7 Exposed things by the brook, by the edge of the brook, And every sown thing of the brook, hath withered, It hath been driven away, and is not.

8 And lamented have the fishers, And mourned have all casting angle into a brook, And those spreading nets on the face of the waters have languished.

9 And ashamed have been makers of fine flax, And weavers of net-works.

10 And its foundations have been smitten, All making wages [are] afflicted in soul.