Isaiah 19:20

20 et erit in signum et in testimonium Domino exercituum in terra Aegypti clamabunt enim ad Dominum a facie tribulantis et mittet eis salvatorem et propugnatorem qui liberet eos

Isaiah 19:20 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 19:20

And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord
of hosts in the land of Egypt
This refers either to what goes before, that the altar and pillar were signs and witnesses that the Lord was believed in, professed, and worshipped there; or to what follows after, that the Lord's hearing the cries of men, and answering them, by sending a great Saviour to them, is a token and testimony for him of his great love unto them:

for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors;
as men awakened and convinced do, feeling the oppressions of a guilty conscience, and a tempting devil, and an ensnaring wicked world:

and he shall send them a Saviour, and a great one, and he shall
deliver them;
this is Christ, whom God sent in the fulness of time to be the Saviour of lost sinners; and he is a "great" one indeed, the great God, and our Saviour, ( Titus 2:13 ) who is the Son of God, the true God, and eternal life, who has all the perfections of deity in him; the Creator and Upholder of all things; and must have therefore great and sufficient abilities to save sinners to the uttermost; and those that come to God by him he does save and deliver from all their sins, and out of the hands of all their enemies, and from wrath, ruin, and destruction. Abarbinel ^F5 owns that the Messiah is here meant, as undoubtedly he is; and not the angel that destroyed Sennacherib's army, as Kimchi; for the text speaks not of the Jews, but of the Egyptians. Vitringa thinks that either Alexander, called the Great, or else Ptolemy the son of Lagus, who had the same epithet, and who was also called "Soter", the saviour, is here meant.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 Mashmiah Jeshua, fol. 13. 1.

Isaiah 19:20 In-Context

18 in die illa erunt quinque civitates in terra Aegypti loquentes lingua Chanaan et iurantes per Dominum exercituum civitas Solis vocabitur una

19 in die illa erit altare Domini in medio terrae Aegypti et titulus iuxta terminum eius Domini

20 et erit in signum et in testimonium Domino exercituum in terra Aegypti clamabunt enim ad Dominum a facie tribulantis et mittet eis salvatorem et propugnatorem qui liberet eos

21 et cognoscetur Dominus ab Aegypto et cognoscent Aegyptii Dominum in die illa et colent eum in hostiis et muneribus et vota vovebunt Domino et solvent

22 et percutiet Dominus Aegyptum plaga et sanabit eam et revertentur ad Dominum et placabitur eis et sanabit eos