Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 19:7
The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more].
7. The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks ] Usually rendered as in R.V., “The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile.” The word for “meadows,” which does not occur again, is supposed to mean literally “bare place,” hardly a suitable designation! A safer translation would be, Bare places are on the Nile, on the (very) brink of the Nile. The LXX. has an entirely different text, which might suggest: “Bare is all verdure on the brink of the Nile.”
every thing sown ] A unique term. Perhaps “seed-field,” but note the verb “driven away” which follows. “Seed-field of the Nile” might mean the alluvial deposit produced by the inundation, which is the source of Egypt’s fertility.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The paper reeds – ( arot). This is not the word which occurs in Isa 18:2, and which, it is supposed, means there the papyrus (see the note on that place). Interpreters have been divided in regard to the meaning of the word here. Gesenius derives it from arah, to be naked, open, bare; and supposes that it means an open place, a place naked of wood, and that it here denotes the pastures on the banks of the Nile. So Rosenmuller interprets it of the green pastures on the banks of the Nile; and the Hebrew commentators generally so understand it. The Vulgate renders it, And the bed (alveus) of the river shall be dried up from the fountain. So the Chaldee, And their streams shall be desolate. It probably denotes, not paper reeds, but the green pastures that were beside the brooks, or along the banks of the Nile.
By the brooks – Hebrew, Rivers ( ye‘orey). By the brooks here, in the plural number, the prophet probably means the artificial canals which were cut in every direction from the Nile for the purpose of conveying the waters to various parts of the land.
By the mouth of the brooks – At the mouth of the canals, or where they emptied into the Nile. Such meadows, being near the Nile, and most sure of a supply of water, would be more valuable than those which were remote, and are, therefore, particularly specified.
Shall wither … – That is, there shall be utter and entire desolation. If the Nile ceased to overflow; if the streams, reservoirs, and canals, could not be filled, this would follow as a matter of course. Everything would dry up.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The paper reeds; which by a needle, or other fit instrument, were divided into thin and broad leaves, which being dried and fitted, were used at that time for writing, as our paper is; and consequently was a very good commodity.
Sown by the brooks; and much more what was sown in more dry and unfruitful places.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. paper-reedsrather,pastures, literally, “places naked” of wood, and famed forrich herbage, on the banks of the Nile [GESENIUS].Compare Gen 13:10; Deu 11:10.HORSLEY translates,”nakedness upon the river,” descriptive of the appearanceof a river when its bottom is bare and its banks stripped of verdureby long drought: so Vulgate.
the brooksthe river.
mouthrather, “thesource” [Vulgate]. “Even close to the river’s sidevegetation shall be so withered as to be scattered in the shape ofpowder by the wind” (English Version, “driven away”)[HORSLEY].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks,…. Not at the fountain or origin of the Nile and its streams, but by the sides thereof; on the banks of which grew a reed or rush, called by the Greeks “papyrus” and “biblus”; from whence come the words “paper” and “bible”, or book, of which paper was anciently made; even as early as the times of Isaiah, and so, many hundreds of years before the times of Alexander the great, to which some fix the era of making it.
“According to Pliny d, its root is of the thickness of a man’s arm, and ten cubits long; from this arise a great number of triangular stalks, six or seven cubits high, each thick enough to be easily spanned. Its leaves are long, like those of the bulrush; its flowers stamineous, ranged in clusters at the extremities of the stalks; its roots woody and knotty, like those of rushes; and its taste and smell near akin to those of the cyprus.—-The manner of making the Egyptian paper was this: they began with lopping off the two extremes of the “papyrus”, viz. the head and root, as of no use in this manufacture; the remaining stem they slit lengthwise, into equal parts; and from each of these they stripped the thin scaly coats, or pellicles, whereof it was composed, with a point of a penknife (or needle, as some); the innermost of these pellicles were looked on as the best, and those nearest the rind or bark the worst; they were kept apart accordingly, and constituted different sorts of paper. As the pellicles were taken off, they extended them on a table; then two or more of them were laid over each other transversely, so as that their fibres made right angles; in this state they were glued together by the muddy waters of the Nilus. These being next pressed to get out the water, then dried, and lastly flatted and smoothed, by beating them with a mallet, constituted paper; which they sometimes polished further, by rubbing it with a hemisphere of glass, or the like. There were paper manufactures in divers cities of Egypt; but the greatest and most celebrated was that at Alexandria, where, according to Varro’s account, paper was first made. The trade and consumption of this commodity were in reality incredible. Vopiscus relates, that the tyrant Firmus, who rebelled in Egypt, publicly declared he would maintain an army only, “papyro et glutine”, with paper and glue e.”
So that the withering and drying up of these paper reeds, here threatened, must be a great calamity upon the nation. And, besides paper, of this rush or reed were made sails, ropes, and other naval rigging, as also mats, blankets, clothes, and even ships were made of the stalk of the papyrus; and the Egyptian priests wore shoes made of it f. It may be observed, that paper was made of the pellicles or little skins stripped off of the inside of the stem of the papyrus; which shows with what propriety the word g for paper reeds is here used, which comes from a root which signifies to strip or make bare, and from which also is derived a word which signifies a skin.
And everything sown by the brooks shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more]; all sorts of fruitful plants, and grain of every kind, hemp and flax, after mentioned, and which are opposed to reeds and rushes, which grew of themselves; and if these which were sown by the sides of brooks and rivers withered and came to nothing, then much more what was sown at a greater distance.
d Nat Hist. l. 13. c. 11. e Chambers’s Cyclopaedia, in the word “Paper”. f Herodot, Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 37. g “ad” “nudari, inde” “pellis”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. And the reed and the rush shall wither. He mentions the reed and the rush, because they had abundance of them, and employed them for various purposes; or, it may be thought to mean that the marshes will be dried up.
By the mouth of the brooks. Some render it embankments, but it rather means the fountain itself, which seldom is dried up, though torrents or rivers fail. By the mouth, therefore, he means the source of the river which shall be dried up in such a manner that no part of the country can be watered. Though the source of the Nile was at a great distance, yet not without reason did the Prophet threaten that that river, on whose waters the fertility almost of the whole land depended, shall be dried up at its very source; for in that country rain seldom falls, but its place is supplied every year by the Nile. If that river overflow but scantily, it threatens scarcity and famine; and therefore, when the Prophet threatens that it will be dried up, he means that the whole country will be barren. For this reason he says also, that, even at its very mouth, from which the waters spring up, there will be a lack of waters, so that in that place the herbs will be withered.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) The paper reeds by the brooks.Better, the meadows by the Nile. And so in the other clauses, the Hebrew word for brooks being used specifically for that river. For shall wither and be driven away, read, shall dry up and vanish. The valley of the Nile is to become as parched and barren as the desert on either side of it.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile, will become dry, be driven away and be no more. The fishermen also will lament, and all those who cast hook into the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the water will languish.’
The centrality of the Nile to Egypt’s life comes out here. The fields which were fruitful because of their nearness to the Nile will cease to be fruitful, they will become dried up, they will cease to bear. And beyond them lay the desert. Those who fish in her with hook and net will discover that they catch little, for the fish will be sparse, and the fishermen will thus lament and mourn and languish. These methods of fishing are well depicted on Egyptian monuments.
Note the continuing threefold emphases indicating the completeness of the devastation. ‘Meadows – brink – all that is sown’, ‘dry – driven away – no more’, ‘fishermen – cast hook – spread nets’, ‘lament – mourn – languish’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 19:7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more].
Ver. 7. The paper reeds by the brooks, ] i.e., By the streams of Nile; for where this river arriveth not, is nothing but a whitish sand, bearing no grass but two little weeds called suhit and gazul, which, burnt to ashes, maketh the finest crystal glasses.
And everything sown by the brooks.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
paper reeds = meadows. Occurs only here.
wither = be dried up. and be no more: or, and disappear.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
every: Isa 32:20, Jer 14:4, Eze 19:13, Joe 1:17, Joe 1:18
be no more: Heb. shall not be
Reciprocal: Job 40:21 – the reed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
19:7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the {g} mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no [more].
(g) The Hebrew word is mouth, by which they mean the spring out of which the water gushes as out of a mouth.