Isaiahchapter 20
6 verses · BSBIsaiah book hub →
Speaks with:Jeremiah 13×2Isaiah 30×22 Kings 18×1Jeremiah 25×11 Samuel 5×11 Samuel 19×1
Summary
Chapter summary
Sargon of Assyria's capture of Ashdod through his commander Tartan dates this brief sign-act oracle. Jehovah commands Isaiah the son of Amoz to strip off sackcloth and sandals, and the prophet walks naked and barefoot for three years as "a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia." The enacted meaning follows: the king of Assyria will lead away Egypt's captives and Ethiopia's exiles the same way: young and old, naked, barefoot, buttocks uncovered, to Egypt's shame. Those who trusted these powers, "Ethiopia their expectation" and "Egypt their glory," are left dismayed, and the inhabitants of the coast-land close the chapter with the stranded question: if this is what became of the refuge we fled to, "how shall we escape?"
Context
Prophecy · Isaiah — Isaiah overview
- A. 1–2 Isaiah Walks Naked and Barefoot
- B. 3–6 A Three-Year Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia
The outline
A.Isaiah Walks Naked and Barefootvv. 1 to 2
Read vv. 1 to 2 →B.A Three-Year Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopiavv. 3 to 6
Read vv. 3 to 6 →
The world behind this chapter
Isaiah 20The history
This chapter names Sargon king of Assyria, and it is the only place in the Bible he appears. For a long time no other record of him was known and his existence was doubted. Then in 1843 his palace was uncovered at Khorsabad, with room after room of his annals carved on the walls — including his account of the Ashdod campaign. The chapter also names the officer who led it by his Assyrian title, the tartan, the commander-in-chief.
Ashdod was a Philistine city on the coastal plain that revolted against Assyria and tried to recruit Judah, Edom, and Moab into the rebellion, with Egyptian backing promised. Sargon's own inscriptions describe crushing it. Judah stayed out — and this chapter is part of the reason.
The sign Isaiah performs is a prisoner-of-war display. Assyrian palace reliefs show captives stripped, barefoot, and driven along in columns; that was the standard way of moving a defeated population, and it was designed to humiliate. Isaiah walked around Jerusalem that way for three years so that everyone could see in advance what an Egyptian alliance bought.
What he took off is worth noting. Sackcloth was the coarse dark cloth of goat hair worn by mourners and by prophets, the plainest garment there was. Even that comes off.
What it meant to them
The point is stated in one sentence at the end: so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians and the Cushites, naked and barefoot — and then, they shall be afraid and ashamed of Cush their expectation and Egypt their glory.
Judah's political class had a hope, and the hope had a name. Isaiah spent three years walking through the city being what that hope would look like.
Sources cited
- The Annals of Sargon II (Khorsabad inscriptions)
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Isaiah 20. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.