Isaiah 19:8, commentary and pictures

The verse belongs to the burden of Egypt, describing the mourning of fishers, the lament of all who cast angle into the brooks, and the languishing of those who spread nets upon the waters as part of the judgment and distress foretold for that nation. It shows how important the Nile fishery was, in that its fishers and net-casters would mourn when the river's waters failed. The drying up of Egypt's waters stands among the prophetic judgments threatening the country's habitability and prosperity, because the Nile supports its fields and its fisheries so that its decline brings mourning and hardship to fishers.

The verse pictures dried waters leaving those who catch fish with hooks and those who spread nets in grief and distress, as part of a scene of dried rivers and brooks. That scene of dried rivers and brooks belongs to the same dreadful period as the plagues and the day of the Lord. The verse belongs to the portion of the prophecy concerning Egypt that has already been fulfilled centuries ago, and is not a prophecy to be fulfilled in modern times.

The verse stands in Isaiah 19:1-13, which foretells the subjection of Egypt to the Macedonians by Alexander the Great, in a chapter describing the revolutions and state of Egypt. It means Egypt would be invaded, conquered and spoiled, fall into the hands of strangers forever, become the basest of kingdoms, lose its native princes, have its idols destroyed and have its rivers dry up. This was fulfilled over more than twenty-four centuries by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, then by the Persians under Cambyses, then by Alexander, then by nearly three centuries under the Ptolemies, then under the Roman yoke about thirty years before the Christian era, then successively by Saracens, Mamelukes and Turks, leaving Egypt without a middle class and in poverty, slavery and tyranny. The prophecy concerning Egypt containing the verse refers to the preaching of the Gospel in both Egypt and Assyria in New Testament times.