The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 317

EXPOSITION. OlIAPTER XIX. over Tirhe.kah Immediately followed by the p~ntation to_him in.his camp of Egyptian Vera.1-li.-THE BURDJ,:N OF ElGYPT. It de1t1es (G. Smith, 'History of Asshur-bRni• has been doubted whether this prophecy pal,' p. 20, l. 1), i.e. of their images. These refers to the conquest of Egypt by Piankhi, were probably ta.ken to Nineveh, or else ns related in the monument which he set up destroyed. At a later date, tho same monnroh deprived an Egyptian temple of two of ita at Napata, or to that by Esarhaddon, of sacred obelisks (ibid., p. 54, ll. 4, 5). The whicl. we gain OUl' knowledge from the heart of Egypt lhall melt (comp. eh. xiii. 7; inscriptions of his son, AeshUl'-bani-pal. In Pe. xxii. 14), the former C&BC, we must suppose it written Ver. 2.-1 will aet the Egyptiam against es early 11s B.C. 735; in the latter, its date the Egyptian■. The disintegration of Egypt might be as late as B.c. 690. The division commenced abont u.o. 760-750, towards the close of the twenty-second dynasty. About of Egypt, "kingdom against kingdom," is a u.c. 735 a struggle began between Pian- circumstance rather in favour of the earlier khi, King of Upper Egypt, and Tafnekht, date ; but the " cruel lord," and the mention King of Se.is and Memphis, in which the of the "princes of Zoan and Noph," are other princes took different sides. Ten or decisive for the later. Pian.kbi is anything twelve years later there was a struggle between Bocchoris and Se.baco. From this ratli•)r than a" cruel lord," being particularly time onwards, untilPsamati.k I.re-est11blishecl mild and clement; Naps.ta (Noph) is under the unity of Egypt (about u.c. 650), the him, nnd cannot be said to have been country was always more or less divided, and "deceived" or to have •• seduced Egypt;" on the occurrence of any orisis the princes and Zoan plays no part in the history of the were apt to make war one upon another. Kingdom againBt kingdom. During the period. Esarhaddon, on the contrary, we.a period of disintegration, the title of " king" decidedly a " cruel " prince, and treated was assumed by most of the. petty princes, Egypt with great severity, splitting it up though they were little more than ohiefs of into a number of governments. Zoan was cities (see 'Records of the Past,' vol. ii. p. one of the leading cities of the time, and 100; G. Smith, 'Histoey of Asshur-brmi- pal,' pp. 20-22). Noph wu the leading power on the Egyptian Ver. 3.-They shall seek to the idols. Tbo side, the bead of the patriotic party which Egyptians believed that their gods gave resisted the Assyrian monarch, but to no them oracles. Menephthah clo.ims to have purpose. We may, therefore, regard this been warned by Phthah, the god of Memphis, prophecy as one of Isaiah's latest, placed not to take the field in person agaimt the where it is merely on account of its Lead- Libyans when they invaded the Delta, but to leave the task of contending with them to ing-the compiler having placed all the bis generals (Brngsch, 'History of Egypt,' " burdens" against foreign countries to- vol. ii. p. 119). Herodotus speaks of there gether. being several well-known oracular shrines in Ver. 1.-The Lord rideth upon a swift Egypt, the most trustworthy being that of cloud. Naturul imagery to express the Maut, at the city which be calls Buto (ii. rapidity of Divine visitations (comp. Ps. 152; comp. eh. 111). The oharmera . . . civ. 3). God, being about to visit Egypt them that have familiar spirit■ . . . wizards. with a jndgment of extreme severity, is Classes of men corresponding to the " magi- represented as entering the land in person cians" and "wise men" of earlier times (so in eh. xiii. 5). The idols of Egypt shall (Gen. xii. 8). (On the large place which be moved. Neither Piankhi nor any other magic occupied in the thoughta of the Ethiopian conqueror me.de war on the Egyptians, see 'Pulpit Commentary' on Egyptian idoli! ; but the A.Bsyrians were Exod. vii. 11.) There wns no diminution alw .. ys bent on humbling the gods of the of the confidence reposed in !hew as time hostile countries (see above, eh. x. 10; and went on ; and some remains of their practices comp. eh. x.u:vL 18-20). We have no seem to survive to the present day. detailed account of Esarhaddon's campaign; Ver. 4.-The Emtians will I give over , but we find Auhur-be.ni-pal's first victory into the hand of a ora.el lord, It hns been  (ltl, :irx, 1-211.J TBE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 313