Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 19:14
The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken [man] staggereth in his vomit.
14. Their intellectual confusion is caused by “a spirit” from Jehovah (but not personified as in 1Ki 22:21 f.) a perverse spirit ] Better a spirit of perverseness (R.V.). Cf. “spirit of deep slumber,” ch. Isa 29:10.
err staggereth ] The same verb should be used in both places “wander” or “stray.” The strong figure has a parallel in ch. Isa 28:7. Cf. Job 12:25.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord hath mingled – The word masak, to mingle, is used commonly to denote the act of mixing spices with wine to make it more intoxicating Pro 9:2, Pro 9:5; Isa 5:22. Here it means that Yahweh has poured out into the midst of them a spirit of giddiness; that is, has produced consternation among them. National commotions and calamities are often thus traced to the overruling providence of God (see the note at Isa 19:2; compare Isa 10:5-6).
A perverse spirit – Hebrew, A spirit of perverseness. The word rendered perverse is derived from avah, to be crooked or perverted. Here it means, that their counsels were unwise, land such as tended to error and ruin.
To err as a drunken man … – This is a very striking figure. The whole nation was reeling to and fro, and unsettled in their counsels, as a man is who is so intoxicated as to reel and to vomit. Nothing could more strikingly express, first, the fact of their perverted counsels and plans, and secondly, Gods deep abhorrence of the course which they were pursuing.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. In the midst thereof] bekirbam; so the Septuagint, and perhaps more correctly.” – Secker. So likewise the Chaldee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hath mingled; or, hath poured out or given them to drink as appears from their drunkenness, expressed in the end of the verse; which also suits with the Scripture phrase whereby a cup signifies Gods judgments, as Isa 51:17,21-22; Jer 25:15.
A perverse spirit, Heb. a spirit of perversities or crookednesses; or, as the LXX. and Chaldee render it, of error or delusion; a disposition of mind very apt to mistake, and to mislead them into foolish and crooked counsels and courses; which God could easily effect, partly by laying occasions of stumbling in their way, and partly by withdrawing or darkening that wisdom which he had infused, by which alone men can discern their way.
In every work thereof; in all their designs and undertakings.
Staggereth in his vomit; when he is so excessively drunk, that he reels to and fro, and vomits up his drink.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. err in every workthereofreferring to the anarchy arising from their internalfeuds. HORSLEY translates,”with respect to all His (God’s) work”; theymisinterpreted God’s dealings at every step. “Mingled”contains the same image as “drunken”; as one mixesspices with wine to make it intoxicating (Isa 5:22;Pro 9:2; Pro 9:5),so Jehovah has poured among them a spirit of giddiness, sothat they are as helpless as a “drunken man.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof,…. A spirit of error, as the Targum, Septuagint, and Arabic versions; or of giddiness, as the Vulgate Latin: this he mingled in a cup for them, and poured it out, and gave them it to drink; and an intoxicating cup it was, such as men are made drunk with; to which the allusion is, as the last clause of the verse shows; so that the infatuation and want of wisdom in their counsels were from the Lord; who, because of the vain boasts of their wisdom in righteous judgment, gave them up to judicial blindness, stupidity, and folly:
and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof; both in religious and civil affairs, leading them into superstition and idolatry, to which they were of old inclined and addicted, and forming such schemes and projects, and putting them upon such works, as were very detrimental to the nation. Some think this refers to the twelve tyrants, who disagreeing among themselves, being actuated by a perverse spirit, greatly distracted the people; though rather it may refer to the times of Necho, and to his project in cutting a canal for the bringing of the Nile to the Red sea before mentioned, in which he lost several thousands of men without accomplishing it; and of his predecessor, in besieging Ashdod twenty nine years ere he took it w:
as a drunken [man] staggereth in his vomit; who is so very drunk, that his head is quite giddy, and cannot walk upright, but staggers as he goes, and vomits as he staggers, and falls down, and is rolled in it, as the Targum; just like such a man were the princes and governors of the Egyptian provinces.
w Herodot. l. 2. c. 157, 158.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Isa 19:14 and Isa 19:15 this state of confusion is more minutely described: “Jehovah hath poured a spirit of giddiness into the heart of Egypt, so that they have led Egypt astray in all its doing, as a drunken man wandereth about in his vomit. And there does not occur of Egypt any work, which worked, of head and tail, palm-branch and rush.” The spirit which God pours out (as it also said elsewhere) is not only a spirit of salvation, but also a spirit of judgment. The judicial, penal result which He produces is here called , which is formed from (root , to curve), and is either contracted from , or points back to a supposed singular (vid., Ewald, 158, b). The suffix in b’kribah points to Egypt. The divine spirit of judgment makes use of the imaginary wisdom of the priestly caste, and thereby plunges the people, as it were, into the giddiness of intoxication. The prophet employs the hiphil to denote the carefully considered actions of the leaders of the nation, and the niphal to denote the constrained actions of a drunken man, who has lost all self-control. The nation has been so perverted by false counsels and hopes, that it lies there like a drunken man in his own vomit, and gropes and rolls about, without being able to find any way of escape. “No work that worked,” i.e., that averted trouble ( is as emphatic as in Dan 8:24), was successfully carried out by any one, either by the leaders of the nation or by the common people and their flatterers, either by the upper classes or by the mob.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
14. The Lord hath mingled a spirit of perverseness. Because it was a thing unexpected and incredible that the leaders of a sagacious and prudent nation would destroy the country by their stupidity, the Prophet therefore ascribes it to the judgment of God, that the Jews may not shut their eyes against an example so striking and remarkable, as irreligious men usually attribute the judgments of God to chance when anything new or unexpected has happened. The expression is metaphorical, as if one were to mix wine in a cup, that the Lord thus intoxicates the wise men of this world so that they are stunned and amazed, and can neither think nor act aright. The consequence is, that they deceive Egypt, because, first, they were themselves deceived. That the Egyptians suffer themselves to be imposed on, and cannot guard against the deception, is the judgment of the Lord.
And yet Isaiah does not represent God to be the Author of this folly in such a manner that the Egyptians could impute blame to him, but we ought to view the matter in this light: “Men have in themselves no understanding or judgment, for whence comes wisdom but from the Spirit of God, who is the only fountain of light, understanding, and truth? Now, if the Lord withhold his Spirit from us, what right have we to dispute with him? He is under no obligations to us, and all that he bestows is actually a free gift.” Yet when he strikes the minds of men with a spirit of giddiness, he does it always for good reasons, though they are sometimes concealed from us. But very frequently he punishes with blindness those wicked men who have risen up against him, as happened to those Egyptians who, puffed up with a conviction of their wisdom, swelled with pride and despised all other men. It is therefore superfluous to dispute here about predestination, for the Lord punishes them for open vice; and, accordingly, when God blinds men or gives them over to a reprobate mind, (Rom 1:28,) he cannot be accused of cruelty; for it is the just punishment of their wickedness and licentiousness, and he who acts justly in punishing transgressions cannot be called the Author of sin.
Let us now attend to the manner of punishing. He delivers them up to Satan to be punished; for he it is, strictly speaking, that mingles the spirit of giddiness and perverseness; but as he does nothing but by the command of God, it is therefore said that God does what Satan does. The statement commonly made, that it is done by God’s permission, is an excessively frivolous evasion; for the Prophet has expressed more than this, namely, that this punishment was inflicted by God, because he is a righteous judge. God therefore acts by means of Satan, as a judge by means of an executioner, and inflicts righteous punishment on those who have offended him. Thus in the book of Kings we read that Satan presented himself before God, and asked leave to deceive Ahab’s prophets; and having obtained it, he then obeyed the command of God, for he could have done nothing by himself. It is unnecessary to produce a multitude of quotations in a matter so obvious.
And they have misled Egypt in all her work. When he adds that her counsellors deceived her, he points out a second judgment of God; for it might have happened that the princes were deprived of understanding, and resembled drunkards, and yet the common people continued to possess some judgment; but here he says, that the impostors obtained also the power of leading astray so as to deceive the people. This is a two-fold vengeance of God, both on them that lead astray, and on those who are led astray by them.
As a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. By a vomit He means shameful drunkenness. This is added ( πρὸς αὔξησιν) by way of amplification, in order to shew that they were not ordinary drunkards, who have still some understanding left, but that they resembled swine.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit.Better, hath poured a spirit of giddiness. As in 1Ki. 22:22; 1Sa. 16:14, the infatuation of the Egyptian rulers is thought of as a judicial blindness. Prostrate or vacillating amid the wrecks of frustrated hopes and plans, they are as the drunkard staggering in his foulness. (Comp. Isa. 29:9.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Perverse spirit All such acts attributed to God are but declarations of the general fact, that if men will dash their heads against a stone wall their brains will come out. This is the part God performs in his sending moral infatuation among men. His laws cannot be broken with impunity. God was no further responsible than this for the bad counsel which caused Egypt to err.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Yahweh has mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her, and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every one of her works, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. Nor will there be for Egypt any work which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.’
God has been at work among the leaders resulting in perverse and bewildered behaviour. The wisdom that they claimed in Isa 19:11 is revealed to be totally lacking. The result is that all that they do is foolish and unwise. They are like drunken men staggering about to and fro and falling into their own vomit, that is, the mess that they have made of things.
‘Nor will there be for Egypt any work which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.’ See Isa 9:14-15. There these pictures referred to the leadership who were the head and the palm branch, and to the prophets who were the tail and the rushes. Neither civic leadership nor religious savants will be able to do anything sensible or worthwhile.
So Egypt is facing political, economic and social collapse. In view of that it would be folly to place trust in them. But in spite of this there is good news ahead. God has not determined to finally destroy Egypt like He has Babylon. One day, ‘in that day’, His blessing will come on them through the intervention of His own people.
In That Day – Yahweh’s Universal Triumph (Isa 19:16-25).
Here there follow five examples of what will happen ‘in that day’. In Egypt five was the number of completeness. Here we have therefore a full and complete description of the final end of Egypt.
‘In that day’ is a vague time reference which describes something that is to happen in the future as a result of what has been mentioned. It means ‘in the day when this prophecy is fulfilled whenever that might be’. Here it is being used to declare what will happen following what has previously been described, without any time limit being given.
It is in complete contrast to what has gone before. Egypt’s self-destruction will be followed by Yahweh’s deliverance. In a foreshortened vision of the future Isaiah sees God’s final purpose for Egypt. We must always keep in mind that the prophets were not trying to foretell specific events, they were proclaiming what God would do ‘in the future.’ Thus here Isaiah foresees the turmoil of Egypt going on, and even resulting in their being a subject nation, but as something which will finally result in God’s blessing on it. He knew that this must be so, for it is finally God’s purpose to bless the nations, and Egypt was not excepted.
The turmoil of Egypt, having begun, continued through the centuries. From then on Egypt, with an occasional resurgence, went ever downwards. When, however, the good news of Jesus Christ flowed out from Jerusalem Egypt was one of the first to respond and outwardly became a largely Christian nation. Thus what is described found its fulfilment then. Whether it is to find an even deeper fulfilment on earth in the future only time will tell, but we do know that its ultimate fulfilment will be in the new heaven and the new earth (Isa 66:22; Rev 21:1).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 19:14 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken [man] staggereth in his vomit.
Ver. 14. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit. ] Or, Given them to drink a spirit of giddiness. Heb., A spirit of extreme perversities; he hath stupified, and as it were intoxicated them with the “efficacy of error.”
And they have caused Egypt to err in every work.
a Herod., Euterp.
staggereth = goeth astray, as in preceding clause.
hath mingled: Isa 19:2, Isa 29:10, Isa 29:14, Isa 47:10, Isa 47:11, 1Ki 22:20-23, Job 12:16, Eze 14:7-9, 2Th 2:11
perverse spirit: Heb. spirit of perverseness
as a: Isa 28:7, Isa 28:8, Isa 29:9, Job 12:25, Jer 25:15, Jer 25:16, Jer 25:27, Jer 48:26
Reciprocal: Jdg 9:23 – God 2Ch 10:15 – the cause 2Ch 18:22 – the lord hath Job 17:4 – General Psa 99:1 – be moved Psa 107:27 – stagger Isa 24:20 – reel Isa 30:28 – to sift Isa 40:23 – General Oba 1:8 – even
19:14 The LORD hath mingled a {n} perverse spirit in the midst of it: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work of it, as a drunken [man] staggereth in his vomit.
(n) For the spirit of wisdom he has made them drunken and giddy with the spirit of error.
Though the wise men of Egypt could not reveal God’s actions (cf. Isa 19:1), the prophet of God could and did. The Lord had confounded the wisdom of the Egyptian leaders because they had resorted to idols and spirits rather than seeking Him (Isa 19:3; cf. Gen 11:1-9; Rom 1:18-32). Consequently their national behavior resembled that of a drunken man, not knowing where to turn and befouling himself in the messes that he made. Such a person cannot accomplish anything productive, and neither would Egypt. How foolish Judah would be to trust in such a disabled drunk of a nation!
"To join with Egypt would be to associate with a nation under divine wrath (1), trust the promises of a divided people (2), look for help to a collapsing economy (5-10), expect wisdom where there was only folly (11-13) and believe that those who were unable to solve their own problems (15) could solve the problems of others!" [Note: Ibid., p. 166.]
The following section (Isa 19:16-25) gives the Lord’s solution, point by point, to the problems of Egypt and, for that matter, of all powers and people that leave God out. The repetition of "in that day" (Isa 19:16; Isa 19:18-19; Isa 19:23-24) highlights a time yet future when God will reverse Egypt’s fortunes. Isaiah used this phrase 42 times, comprising half of all its occurrences in the prophets and a quarter of those in the Old Testament. The same "Yahweh Almighty" who would bring the former smiting (Isa 19:4; Isa 19:12) would also bring healing (Isa 19:18; Isa 19:20; Isa 19:25). Why turn to Egypt for help when one day Egypt will turn to Yahweh?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)