And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that [have] no [rain]; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Ver. 18. And if the family of Egypt] So called from one Aiguptos, a king there. In the Hebrew it is called mostly Mizraim, from one of that name, Genesis 10:6; sometimes, for its power and pride, it is called Rahab, Psalms 87:4; Psa 89:11 Isaiah 51:9. The family of Egypt is here put for the whole nation (see the like Amo 3:1), because, after the confusion of tongues especially, nations took their origin and denomination from the head of some family; as did the Egyptians from Mizraim, Shem's second son.
Go not up, and come not] But they did receive the Christian religion with the first; had Christian schools, doctors, and professors, alter that St. Mark had there planted a Church at Alexandria, now called Scanderoon. This was before prophesied Isaiah 19:21 "The Lord shall be known to Egypt," &c. "And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it," &c., he shall cause them to pass under the rod, and so bring them into the bond of the covenant, as it is Ezekiel 20:37 .
That have no rain] Others read it thus, It shall not rain upon them. For they also needed rain in some measure, as well as other nations, see Psalms 105:32, though not so much, by reason of the overflowings of the river Nile, which, if it rise to a just height, sc. of fifteen or sixteen cubits, as Pliny tells us, it makes the land very fruitful: so that they do but throw in the seed, and have four rich harvests in less than four months. Indeed, where the Nile arrives not there is nothing, they say, in Egypt, but a whitish sand, bearing no grass, but two little weeds, called Suhit and Gazul; which, burnt to ashes, and conveyed to Venice, makes the finest crystal glasses. The Chaldee renders it, Non crescet eius Nile. God loves to confute men in their confidences, to dry up their Nile, see Ezekiel 29:3 ; Eze 29:9 Isa 19:5-6 as he did for two years together in the time of Cleopatra, a little before Christ s birth, and once before for nine years' time (Sen. Nat. Quaest. 1. xiv. c. 2).
There shall be the plague] q.d. If they escape the forethreatened evil a worse thing abides them: their preservation from famine is but a reservation to those everlasting burnings, Zechariah 14:12. And though here they abound even to satiety and surfeit (the Egyptians were wont to boast that they could feed all men, and feast all the gods, without any sensible diminution of their provision), yet at the last day they shall be cut short enough, eat fire, drink brimstone, God himself uttering those or the like words, Isaiah 65:13 "Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit."