Isaiah 19:1, commentary and pictures

It is the burden of Egypt, God's judgment upon Egypt. It is part of a prophecy concerning Egypt describing Egypt's future revolutions and state. It means the Lord would come into Egypt in judgment, its idols would be moved and made to cease, and its courage would melt.

It stands among God's judgments upon Damascus, the land of the rustling of wings, Philistia, the wilderness, the valley of vision, and Tyre, judgments upon various nations, sections and peoples that lead forward to God's judgments upon the whole earth. It predicts that Egypt, though ancient, powerful, populous, and naturally defensible by the Red Sea, trackless desert, navy, and inundation of the Nile, would be invaded, conquered, spoiled, fall into the hands of strangers permanently, become the basest of the kingdoms never again exalting itself or ruling over the nations, and renounce idolatry. Verses 1-13 were fulfilled in Egypt's subjection to the Macedonians by Alexander the Great, in sequence with its invasion by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, its subjection to the Persians under Cambyses, its rule by the Ptolemies, Romans, Saracens, Mamelukes, and Turks, its continuance for centuries without a native prince under foreign slaves and masters, its poverty and oppression, the cutting off of its images, and the drying up of its rivers.

The drying up of the waters of Egypt denounced in the prophecy would destroy it as a habitable land to that same extent, because the whole land depends on the inundations of the Nile for irrigation and a rich harvest. A great part of the chapter's prophecy has already been fulfilled there. Including its opening word about the Lord coming into Egypt, it has nothing to be fulfilled in modern times; it was all accomplished centuries ago. It belongs to a prophecy concerning Egypt which refers to the preaching of the gospel in Egypt and Assyria in New Testament times.