Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 19:6
And they shall turn the rivers far away; [and] the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
6. The verse reads: And the streams shall stink, the canals of Egypt shall become feeble and dry up, &c. The word for “stink” is an anomalous form in Hebr. That rendered in A.V. “defence” is a rare name for Egypt ( Mar, cf. Assyr. Muur, Arab. Mir), found also in ch. Isa 37:25; 2Ki 19:24; Mic 7:12. “Canals” (A.V. “brooks”) is literally “Niles” (cf. Isa 7:18).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they shall turn the rivers far away – ( he’ezenychu), probably from zanach, to have an offensive smell; to be rancid, or putrid. The word in this form occurs nowhere else. It is in the Hiphil conjugation, and is probably a form made from a mixture with the Chaldee. The sense is not doubtful. It means the rivers shall become putrid – or have an offensive smell; that is, shall become stagnant, and send forth unwholesome miasmata producing sickness, as stagnant waters often do. The Vulgate renders it, And the rivers shall fail. The Septuagint, And the Egyptians shall drink the waters from the sea, but the river shall fail, and be dried up, and the rivers shall fail, and the streams ( dioruches) of the river, and all the assembling ( sunagoge) waters shall be dried up.
And the brooks of defense – Hebrew, The rivers of matsor. The word matsor often means straitness, affliction; then a siege, a wall, a bulwark, a fortification. But, probably, it here means Egypt, or the same as mtseraym (compare Isa 37:25; 2Ki 18:24; Mar 7:12). Perhaps the Hebrews may have thought of Egypt as a strongly fortified place, and thus have given the name to it; or possibly this may have been a modification of the name Mitsraim.
The reeds and flags – Which grew on the banks of the Nile – the papyrus, etc. (see the note at Isa 18:2)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Shall turn the rivers far away – “Shall become putrid”] heeznichu. This sense of the word, which Simonis gives in his Lexicon, from the meaning of it in Arabic, suits the place much better than any other interpretation hitherto given; and that the word in Hebrew had some such signification, is probable from 2Ch 29:19, where the Vulgate renders it by polluit, polluted, and the Targum, by profaned, and made abominable, which the context in that place seems plainly to require. The form of the verb here is very irregular; and the rabbins and grammarians seem to give no probable account of it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They shall turn the rivers far away; which is to be taken impersonally, as such expressions are very frequently, for, the rivers (those small rivulets by which the waters of Nilus were conveyed and distributed into several parts of the land)
shall be turned far away, as they must needs be, when the greater river Nilus, which fed them, was dried up.
The brooks of defence; the several branches of the river Nilus, which were a great defence to Egypt, as is well known.
The reeds and flags; which were very useful to them for making their boats, which were absolutely necessary in that country, and divers other things.
Shall wither; as they commonly do for want of water.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. they shall turn theriversrather, “the streams shall become putrid”;that is, the artificial streams made for irrigation shall becomestagnant and offensive when the waters fail [MAURER].HORSLEY, with theSeptuagint, translates, “And waters from the sea shall bedrunk”; by the failure of the river water they shall be reducedto sea water.
brooks of defencerather,”canals of Egypt“; “canals,” literally,”Niles,” Nile canals, the plural of theEgyptian term for the great river. The same Hebrew word,Matzor, whence comes Mitzraim, expresses Egypt,and a place of “defense.” HORSLEY,as English Version translates it, “embanked canals,”
reeds . . . flagsthepapyrus. “Reed and rush”; utter withering.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they shall turn the rivers far away,…. The river Nile, called “rivers”, the plural for the singular, because of the abundance of water in it; or its seven streams, with other rivulets, derived from it. Some make the “they” here to refer to the kings of Egypt, and interpret the words of some projects of theirs, by which the course of the river was turned to great disadvantage; particularly they understand it of the twelve tyrants that reigned after Sethon, to whom they ascribe the digging of the vast lake of Moeris, the two pyramids built in the midst of it, and a labyrinth near it, though only the labyrinth was made by them b; and as for the lake, it was made by Moeris, a king of Egypt, from whom it had its name, some hundred years before; and, besides, was of service, and not disservice, to the Nile; for it received its waters when it overflowed too much, and it furnished it with water by an outlet when it failed: rather therefore this passage may be illustrated by the attempt which Necus, the son of Psammiticus, whom the Scripture calls Pharaohnecho, made, to join the Nile and the Red Sea together, by making a canal from the one to the other; in which work he lost a hundred and twenty thousand men, and desisted from it without finishing it c; but it is thought hereby the river was greatly weakened:
[and] the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up; as the river of Nile and its streams were the defence of the land of Egypt, as well as made for the fruitfulness of it, for these must make it less accessible to a foreign enemy; and besides, here lay their shipping, which were their protection; and moreover, from hence brooks and courses of water might be derived and carried about their fortified cities, which added to the strength of them. The Targum renders it deep brooks or rivers; and Kimchi interprets it the brooks of Egypt, taking Matzor to signify Egypt, a word in sound near to Mitzraim, the common word used for Egypt. It looks, by this and other expressions in the context, as if more were designed than the above instance or instances will account for:
the reeds and flags shall wither; which grew in the brooks, and near them; and therefore much more the grass and corn, and other trees, which were at a distance; besides, these are mentioned, bemuse of the great usefulness they were of; for of these they made ships, barks, and boats, and mats for bedding, and nets fishing; as also paper to write on, as follows, and which was a staple commodity with them;
[See comments on Isa 18:2].
b Herodot. l. 2. c. 148, 149. c Ib. c. 158.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6. And the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up. (31) What he adds about fortifications is to the same purpose with what he had stated immediately before. He alludes to the embankments, which not only restrained the overflowing of the Nile, but protected the whole country; as if he had said that the embankments will not be needed, because the Nile will be dried up. Now, it is certain that the Nile was not laid dry, and yet the Prophet did not foretell what was not accomplished. We must therefore call to remembrance what we have already said, that on account of our stupidity those calamities are represented to us in a lively manner, which places them as it were before our eyes; for we need to have a representation made to us which is fitted to impress our minds, and to arouse us to consider the judgments of God, which otherwise we despise. We ought to observe the haughtiness of the Egyptians, whose resources were so various and abundant, and who thought that it was impossible for them to be overtaken by such a calamity.
(31) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) And they shall turn the rivers far away.Better, the river shall stagnate; i.e., in consequence of the Niles inundation failing.
The brooks of defence.The latter noun (Heb., matzor) is better treated as a proper name, the singular of the dual form Mitsraim, commonly used for Egypt. Here it would seem to be used for Lower Egypt, the region of Zoan and Memphis, as distinct from Upper Egypt or the Thebaid. The same form occurs in Isa. 37:25; 2Ki. 19:24; Mic. 7:12. Its primary meaning is that of a fortified land. The flags are strictly the papyrus of the Nile; the brooks are the canals or Nile-branches of the Delta.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6, 7. Shall turn the rivers Many famines have occurred in Egypt owing to failure of the rains in the south. The river becomes low and stagnant and putrid. Instead of “they shall turn the rivers,” the Speaker’s Commentary renders, “The rivers shall become loathsome;” and Lange, “shall become a stench.”
Brooks of defence The Nile canals were a “defence” in two ways: the first, in giving fertility and defending from starvation; the second in being unbridged moats against invading hordes; but being dried up, they would allow a foe to approach the walls of the city. Reeds flags
paper reeds The first two of these mean the papyrus, doubtless; (see chap. Isa 18:2😉 “paper reeds” is from a different word in Hebrew. Gesenius supposes, from its root, that bare places along the banks covered with grass are intended. The meaning is, the Nile is unavailing to the people. It brings no food by its fertility. It brings no commerce, on account of the half-anarchical condition of the country; but it does bring stench, disease, and death by its stagnancy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 19:6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; [and] the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
Ver. 6. And they shall turn the rivers far away. ] The Assyrians shall, or some of their own fond and vainglorious princes shall drain the river Nile at several passages and in several places, to the impairing of the river and the impeaching of the state. a
The reeds and flags shall wither.
a Herodot., lib. ii.
b Plin., lib. xiii. cap. 11.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they shall turn, &c. = the arms of the river shall stink.
brooks = canals of Matzor : i.e. Egypt. See note on Isa 7:18.
emptied = shallow.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
and the: Isa 37:25, 2Ki 19:24
the reeds: Isa 18:2, Exo 2:3, Job 8:11
Reciprocal: Job 40:21 – the reed Isa 35:7 – grass with reeds
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
19:6 And they shall turn the {f} rivers far away; [and] the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
(f) For the Nile ran into the sea by seven streams, as though they were many rivers.