1In the year Tartan came to Ashdod when Sargon king of Assyria sent him, and he battled against Ashdod and captured it. 2At that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from your loins and take off your sandals from your feet.” And so he did, going naked and barefoot. 3And the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot three years, it is a sign and portent for Egypt and for Nubia. 4Just so shall the king of Assyria drive off the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Nubia, lads and elders, naked and barefoot with bare buttocks—the nakedness of Egypt. 5And they shall be dismayed and ashamed of Nubia, in which they trusted, and of Egypt, their glory. 6And the dweller of this coastland shall say on that day: ‘Why, if it is thus with those we looked to, to whom we fled for help to be saved before the king of Assyria, how shall we escape?’”
CHAPTER 20 NOTES
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1. In the year Tartan came to Ashdod when Sargon king of Assyria sent him. This notation refers to an actual historical event. In 714 B.C.E. the coastal city of Ashdod rebelled against Assyria. Sargon dispatched a force against Ashdod under the command of Tartan, and in 711 the rebellion was suppressed, its leader taken prisoner, and the city reduced to subject status. All this leads one to suspect that precisely at this moment, Isaiah undertook the symbolic act spelled out in the following verses, even though it is directed to the fate of Egypt and Nubia, not Ashdod.
2. going naked and barefoot. This kind of symbolic act performed by the prophet at God’s behest occurs a number of times in Hosea and Ezekiel, but this is the sole instance in Isaiah.
4. Just so shall the king of Assyria drive off the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Nubia. It should be kept in mind that this was a period of repeated armed confrontation between Assyria and Egypt, with inner divisions in Judah between pro-Egyptian groups and those who sought to pursue accommodation with Assyria.
captives . . . exiles. The Hebrew uses abstractions (“captivity,” “exile”) to indicate persons.
with bare buttocks. It was unclear how complete Isaiah’s “nakedness” was. Now, however, this detail is added that strongly emphasizes the shameful exposure of the Egyptians.
the nakedness of Egypt. The term is used both literally and figuratively. The exiles stripped of their garments are literally naked, while “the land’s nakedness,” a phrase Joseph uses to his brothers referring to Egypt, means that which should not be exposed, or in this case, the shame of Egypt.
5. in which they trusted. The received text has mabatam, “their look,” but the Qumran Isaiah reads mivtaham, “their trust.” The scribal error was probably influenced by the appearance of mabat in the next verse.