Isaiah 19:5-7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the waters shall fail— These verses should be rendered thus: And the waters shall fail from the sea, [from the Nile, which is frequently, both in Scripture, and in profane writers, termed the sea. See Nahum 3:8. Ezekiel 32:2-3 and Seneca, Quaest. Nat. lib. iv. c. 2.] and the river [the Nile] shall be wasted and dried up, Isaiah 19:6 and the rivers shall be turned back: The rivers of Egypt shall be emptied and dried up; the reed and the lotus shall languish; Isaiah 19:7 the papyrus near the brooks on the banks of the rivers, and every thing from by the river, shall wither: it shall be driven back; it shall be no more. See Vitringa. The prophet in these words exhibits the state of the kingdom of Egypt, spoiled, plundered, languishing; and in the next verses its general mourning and lamentation on that account, and both metaphorically. Here he supposes a great tempest to be raised in Egypt, which should drive back the waters of the Nile, dry up its rivulets and channels, and so break, throw down, and destroy, all the productions of the Nile, that they should entirely perish. The meaning of which is, that those enemies, or cruel lords, who should reduce Egypt into servitude, should destroy all the plenty and abundance of Egypt, and plunder all the good things of that kingdom. The Nile here figures out the whole kingdom of Egypt; the reed, the lotus, the papyrus, and the other productions of the Nile, signify the riches, merchandise, and whatever was found in the flourishing state of Egypt: and as, when the waters of the Nile are withdrawn, or dried up, or do not rise to their proper height, all things languish and wither in Egypt, and the greatest poverty and necessity ensue; so the kingdom of Egypt, being depressed under the dominion of its cruel lords, the Persians, who should rule it by rapacious governors, (for this is the exsiccation of the Nile,) all things should languish in that kingdom; the cities with the temples and ornaments be subverted; their riches consumed by strangers, and their lands left uncultivated. In short, the face of their country should be desolate and melancholy, as when the Nile withheld its necessary overflowings. See Vitringa, Exodus 7:19 and the Observations, p. 367; the author of which remarks, that the rivers mentioned in the 6th verse mean the branches of the Nile, by which its waters pass into the sea; as the brooks mean the canals drawn by Egyptian princes from the river.