Isaiah 19:16

16 In that day Egypt shall be as (weak as) women, and they shall be astonied, and shall dread of the face of the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he moved on it. (On that day the Egyptians shall become as weak as women, and they shall be astonished, and they shall fear the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall move against them.)

Isaiah 19:16 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 19:16

In that day shall Egypt be like unto women
Weak and feeble, as the Targum; fearful and timorous, even their military force; and devoid of wisdom, even their princes and nobles: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the
hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it:
which the Lord may be said to do, when he lifts up his rod, and holds it over a people, and threatens them with ruin and destruction; perhaps this may refer to what was done in Judea by Sennacherib's army, which was an intimation to the Egyptians that their turn was next; and if the shaking of the Lord's hand over a people is so terrible, what must the weight of it be? Some think there is an allusion to Moses's shaking his rod over the Red sea when the Egyptians were drowned, in which the hand or power of the Lord was so visibly seen, and which now might be called to mind. Ben Melech observes, that when one man calls to another, he waves his hand to him to come to him; so here it is as if the Lord waved with his hand to the enemy to come and fight against Egypt, which caused fear and dread.

Isaiah 19:16 In-Context

14 The Lord meddled a spirit of error in the midst thereof; and they made Egypt for to err in all his work, as a drunken man and spewing erreth. (The Lord mixed in a spirit of error in its midst; and so the leaders made Egypt to err in all its ways and works, like a drunken man who wandereth about in his own spewing, or his own vomit.)
15 And work shall not be to Egypt, that it make an head and tail bowing and refraining. (And there shall not be work in Egypt, not for head nor tail, nor for the palm tree or the bulrush.)
16 In that day Egypt shall be as (weak as) women, and they shall be astonied, and shall dread of the face of the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he moved on it. (On that day the Egyptians shall become as weak as women, and they shall be astonished, and they shall fear the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall move against them.)
17 And the land of Judah shall be to Egypt into dread; each that shall think on it, shall dread of the face of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he thought on it. (And the land of Judah shall be feared by the Egyptians; and everyone who shall think about it, shall fear the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath thought against them.)
18 In that day five cities shall be in the land of Egypt, and shall speak with the tongue of Canaan, and shall swear by the Lord of hosts; the city of the sun shall be called one. (On that day five cities shall be in the land of Egypt, and they shall speak with the tongue of Canaan, and shall swear by the Lord of hosts; one shall be called The city of the sun, or Heliopolis.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.