5 And failed have waters from the sea, And a river is wasted and dried up. 6 And they have turned away the flowings, Weak and dried up have been brooks of the bulwark, Reed and flag have withered. 7 Exposed things by the brook, by the edge of the brook, And every sown thing of the brook, hath withered, It hath been driven away, and is not. 8 And lamented have the fishers, And mourned have all casting angle into a brook, And those spreading nets on the face of the waters have languished. 9 And ashamed have been makers of fine flax, And weavers of net-works. 10 And its foundations have been smitten, All making wages 'are' afflicted in soul.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 19:5-10
Commentary on Isaiah 19:1-17
(Read Isaiah 19:1-17)
God shall come into Egypt with his judgments. He will raise up the causes of their destruction from among themselves. When ungodly men escape danger, they are apt to think themselves secure; but evil pursues sinners, and will speedily overtake them, except they repent. The Egyptians will be given over into the hand of one who shall rule them with rigour, as was shortly after fulfilled. The Egyptians were renowned for wisdom and science; yet the Lord would give them up to their own perverse schemes, and to quarrel, till their land would be brought by their contests to become an object of contempt and pity. He renders sinners afraid of those whom they have despised and oppressed; and the Lord of hosts will make the workers of iniquity a terror to themselves, and to each other; and every object around a terror to them.