The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
Isaiah 19:1-25; Isaiah 20:1-6 are connected, but with an interval between. Egypt had been held by an Ethiopian dynasty, Sabacho, Sevechus, or Sabacho II., and Tirhakah, for 40 or 50 years. Sevechus (called So, the ally of Hoshea, 2 Kings 17:4) retired from Lower Egypt on account of the resistance of the priests; and perhaps, also, as the Assyrians threatened Lower Egypt. On his withdrawal, Sethos, one of the priestly caste became supreme, having Tanis ("Zoan") or else Memphis as his capital, 718 BC; while the Ethiopians retained Upper Egypt, with Thebes as its capital, under Tirhakah. A third native dynasty was at Sais, in the West of Lower Egypt: to this at a later period belonged Psammitichus, the first who admitted Greeks into Egypt and its armies: he was one of the dodecarchy, a number of petty kings between whom Egypt was divided, and by aid of foreign auxiliaries overcame the rest, 670 BC To the divisions at this last time Gesenius refers Isaiah 19:2, and to Psammitichus, Isaiah 19:4, 'a cruel lord.' The dissensions of the ruling caste are certainly referred to. But the time referred to is much earlier than that of Psammitichus. In Isaiah 19:1 the invasion of Egypt is represented as caused by "the Lord;" and in Isaiah 19:17 "Judah" is spoken of as 'a terror to Egypt,' which it could hardly have been by itself. Probably, therefore, the Assyrian invasion of Egypt under Sargon, when Judah was the ally of Assyria, and Hezekiah had not yet refused tribute, as he did in the beginning of Sennacherib's reign, is meant. That Assyria was in Isaiah's mind, appears from the way in which it is joined with Israel and Egypt in the worship of Yahweh (Isaiah 19:24-25).
Thus the dissensions referred to (Isaiah 19:2) allude to the time of the withdrawal of the Ethiopians from Lower Egypt, probably not without a struggle, especially with the priestly caste; also to the time when Sethos usurped the throne, and entered on the contest with the military caste, by the aid of the town populations, when the Saitic dynasty was another cause of division. Sargon's reign was between 722 BC - 715 BC answering to 718 BC, when Sethos usurped his throne (G.V. Smith).
The burden of Egypt - (note, Isaiah 13:1.)
Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud - (Psalms 104:3; Psalms 18:10.)
And shall come into Egypt - to inflict vengeance. "Egypt," in Hebrew, Misraim: plural form, to express the two regions of Egypt. Bunsen observes, The title of their kings run thus: 'Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt.'
The idols of Egypt - the bull, the crocodile, etc.
Shall be moved at his presence. The idols, poetically, are said to be "moved" with fear at the presence of one mightier than even they were supposed to be (Exodus 12:12; Jeremiah 43:12).