Blessings for Egypt, Assyria, and Israel (19:16–25)

Egyptians will be like women (19:16). A stele of Piankhy/Piye describes him as the personification of the god Horus, defeating opposing kings, designated as “bulls”: “Hail to you, Horus, mighty King, Bull attacking bulls.” The stele closes with praise to the pharaoh: “O mighty ruler, O mighty ruler, Piye, mighty ruler! You return having taken Lower Egypt, you made bulls into women!”568 The mighty and fearless will lose their strength. A treaty between Ashurnirari V of Assyria and Matiʾilu of Arpad places a curse on the latter if he breaks it: “May Matiʾilu become a prostitute, his soldiers women.”569

Five cities (19:18). The identity of these five is unclear, though four cities in Egypt are mentioned by Jeremiah as being inhabited by Jews over a century later (Jer. 44:1). They include Migdol, apparently a fortified site in the northeastern Nile delta570 and listed among the cities conquered by Thutmoses III and later Egyptian kings;571 Tahpanhes, possibly in the same area;572 Memphis (see 19:13), longtime Egyptian capital settled during the First Dynasty and residence of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty pharaohs just south of Cairo,573 taken by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon and occupied by his son Ashurbanipal in the seventh century;574 and Pathros/Upper Egypt, an unidentified area taken by Esarhaddon, who calls it Paturisi, lying between Egypt and Nubia further south.574 Aramaic archives from Elephantine show the existence of Jewish communities in the area at this period.576

Language of Canaan (19:18). “Canaanite” is the general designation of one branch of Northwest Semitic that includes Old Canaanite, Hebrew, Phoenician, Ammonite, Moabite, and Edomite.577 This language was probably Hebrew, though other Semitic groups were also settled in Egypt as slaves and captives, so this could refer to their dialect.578 This would reflect a major change of heart among the Egyptians, who at some points in their history did not generally take kindly to foreigners. The Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe pictures him living among the barbarian “sandfarers” and being encouraged by one person he met who said, “You will be happy with me; you will hear the language of Egypt.”579

Tale of Sinuhe

Lenka Peacock, courtesy of the British Museum

Altar to the LORD in the heart of Egypt (19:19). The numerous Jewish residents in Egypt continued to worship their God, and so they needed shrines in which to do so. They are joined by Egyptians who, in times of crisis, will also call on Israel’s God for help (v. 21).580 A fifth-century Aramaic letter from Elephantine speaks of a temple of Yaho (Yahweh): “Now, our forefathers built this temple in the fortress of Elephantine back in the days of the kingdom of Egypt, and when Cambyses came to Egypt he found it built”581 (Cambyses undertook this campaign in 525 B.C.).582 This shrine, which was requested to be rebuilt in this same letter, served the Jews living in Egypt. There is no evidence of a Yahwistic temple serving as a place of worship for the Egyptians, the situation envisioned by Isaiah.

Monument to the LORD at its border (19:19). This term (maṣṣēbâ) designates a sacred standing stone and is viewed, either positively or negatively, as part of pagan practice.583 Their exact function is unclear.584 In Israel examples have been found from Tel Dan in the north to Arad in the south.585 Those in Israel are without inscription, though some found in the Sinai desert at Serabit el-Khadem are inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics.586 An Old Aramaic stela bears the inscription, “Monument of Bir-Hadad . . . erected for his lord Melqart.”587

Boundary stele of Senusret III

Magnus Manske/Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA

Here the maṣṣēbâ is dedicated to Yahweh, the God of Israel, rather than to a pagan deity. Its location at the border could show that it is a boundary stone, set up to guard a border or even to claim it as Yahweh’s territory (see 10:13).

Vows to the LORD (19:21). Solemn promises to one’s god are not only part of Israel’s experience with her covenant with God, but also among her neighbors. Mesopotamian legal practice helped ascertain the truth of a claim by taking a vow before a deity.588 Esarhaddon remembers his father’s actions with his older brothers: “He made them swear a powerful oath before Assur, Sin, Shamash, Nabu, and Marduk, the gods of Assyria, the divine inhabitants of heaven and earth.”589 The purpose of doing such a thing in the god’s presence is spelled out in an Akkadian text from Turkey, where, after a list of gods, we read: “May they be witnesses to this oath.”590 While these can be designated “oaths of the gods,” they differ from the vow made here, which is made “to,” not “by,” Israel’s God.

Israel my inheritance (19:25). Ugaritic texts also see territory as the “inheritance” of a god. Of Mot, the god of death, “a low bog (?) is the seat of his dwelling; a mire his inheritance land.”591