Isaiah 19:5

5 et arescet aqua de mari et fluvius desolabitur atque siccabitur

Isaiah 19:5 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 19:5

And the waters shall fail from the sea
Which Kimchi understands figuratively of the destruction of the Egyptians by the king of Assyria, compared to the drying up of the waters of the Nile; and others think that the failure of their trade by sea is meant, which brought great revenues into the kingdom: but, by what follows, it seems best to take the words in a literal sense, of the waters of the river Nile, which being dried up, as in the next clause, could not empty themselves into the sea, as they used, and therefore very properly may be said to fail from it; nay, the Nile itself may be called a sea, it being so large a confluence of water: and the river shall be wasted and dried up;
that is, the river Nile, which was not only very useful for their trade and navigation, but the fruitfulness of the country depended upon it; for the want of rain, in the land of Egypt, was supplied by the overflow of this river, at certain times, which brought and left such a slime upon the earth, as made it exceeding fertile; now the drying up of this river was either occasioned by some great drought, which God in judgment sent; or by the practices of some of their princes with this river, by which it was greatly impaired, and its usefulness diminished.

Isaiah 19:5 In-Context

3 et disrumpetur spiritus Aegypti in visceribus eius et consilium eius praecipitabo et interrogabunt simulacra sua et divinos suos et pythones et ariolos

4 et tradam Aegyptum in manu dominorum crudelium et rex fortis dominabitur eorum ait Dominus Deus exercituum

5 et arescet aqua de mari et fluvius desolabitur atque siccabitur

6 et deficient flumina adtenuabuntur et siccabuntur rivi aggerum calamus et iuncus marcescet

7 nudabitur alveus rivi a fonte suo et omnis sementis inrigua siccabitur arescet et non erit