Text -- Isaiah 20:2-6 (NET)

20:2 At that time the Lord announced through Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments and barefoot. 20:3 Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush, 20:4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old. They will be in undergarments and barefoot, with the buttocks exposed; the Egyptians will be publicly humiliated. 20:5 Those who put their hope in Cush and took pride in Egypt will be afraid and embarrassed. 20:6 At that time those who live on this coast will say, ‘Look what has happened to our source of hope to whom we fled for help, expecting to be rescued from the king of Assyria! How can we escape now?’”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 20:2

¹ tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”

² tn The word used here (עָרוֹם, ’arom) sometimes means “naked,” but here it appears to mean simply “lightly dressed,” i.e., stripped to one’s undergarments. See HALOT 883 s.v. עָרוֹם. The term also occurs in vv. 3, 4.

NET Notes: Isa 20:4

¹ tn Heb “lightly dressed and barefoot, and bare with respect to the buttocks, the nakedness of Egypt.”

NET Notes: Isa 20:5

¹ tn Heb “and they will be afraid and embarrassed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their beauty.”

NET Notes: Isa 20:6

¹ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV).

² sn This probably refers to the coastal region of Philistia (cf. TEV).