The Book Of Isaiah. Day 78, A Prophecy Against Egypt, Part Two

Isaiah has a word from the Lord against the idolatrous land of Egypt. In yesterday's study we learned that several nations were going to subjugate the land of Egypt and that there would be civil unrest within the nation, causing it to break apart into a number of factions. Today's text begins with words about a natural disaster that's coming: drought.

"The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry." (Isaiah 19:5) The reference to "the river" can only be a reference to the Nile River, upon which Egypt was utterly dependent. The farming communities along the Nile could not raise their crops without the annual flooding of the Nile and without being able to irrigate their fields from the Nile.

Subsidiary waterways will run low too and many of the animals that live in the water will perish and decay. "The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither, also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more. The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away." (Isaiah 19:6-8)

This is a disaster for the farming industry and for the fishing industry. It's a disaster for the trade industry too. Not only will there be no crops or fish to eat or sell or trade, but the people will lack the materials to make some of the fine goods they normally sold for money to buy necessities. "Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope. The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart." (Isaiah 19:9-10)

Egypt has been on the decline for quite some time by Isaiah's day. It has problems within and without---and those problems are going to get worse, as Isaiah predicts. Not one of Egypt's pantheon of gods will be of any help. Neither will any of Egypt's sorcerers, wise men, or leaders. In our next study session we will see how futile is the help of idols or man. The only way Egypt would have been helped is if its people had forsaken their idols and turned to the Lord.