Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
it—the altar and pillar.
a sign—(of the fulfilment of prophecy) to their contemporaries.
a witness—to their descendants.
unto the Lord—no longer, to their idols, but to Jehovah.
for they shall cry—or, "a sign . . . that they cried, . . . and He sent to them a saviour"; probably, Alexander the Great (so "a great one"), whom the Egyptians welcomed as a deliverer (Greek, Soter, a title of the Ptolemies) out of the hands of the Persians, who under Cambyses had been their "oppressors." At Alexandria, called from him, the Old Testament was translated into Greek for the Greek-speaking Jews, who in large numbers dwelt in Egypt under the Ptolemies, his successors. Messiah is the antitype ultimately intended (compare Acts 2:10, "Egypt").
In that day, etc.—Suffering shall lead to repentance. Struck with "terror" and "afraid" (Isaiah 19:17) because of Jehovah's judgments, Egypt shall be converted to Him: nay, even Assyria shall join in serving Him; so that Israel, Assyria, and Egypt, once mutual foes, shall be bound together by the tie of a common faith as one people. So a similar issue from other prophecies (Isaiah 18:7; Isaiah 23:18).
five cities—that is, several cities, as in Isaiah 17:6; Isaiah 30:17; Genesis 43:34; Leviticus 26:8. Rather, five definite cities of Lower Egypt (Isaiah 19:11, Isaiah 19:13; Isaiah 30:4), which had close intercourse with the neighboring Jewish cities [MAURER]; some say, Heliopolis, Leontopolis (else Diospolis), Migdol, Daphne (Tahpanes), and Memphis.
language of Canaan—that is, of the Hebrews in Canaan, the language of revelation; figuratively for, They shall embrace the Jewish religion: so "a pure language" and conversion to God are connected in Zephaniah 3:9; as also the first confounding and multiplication of languages was the punishment of the making of gods at Babel, other than the One God. Pentecost (Acts 2:4) was the counterpart of Babel: the separation of nations is not to hinder the unity of faith; the full realization of this is yet future (Zechariah 14:9; John 17:21). The next clause, "swear to the Lord of Hosts," agrees with this view; that is, bind themselves to Him by solemn covenant (Isaiah 45:23; Isaiah 65:16; Deuteronomy 6:13).
city of destruction—Onias; "city of the sun," that is, On, or Heliopolis; he persuaded Ptolemy Philometer (149 BC) to let him build a temple in the prefecture (nome) of Heliopolis, on the ground that it would induce Jews to reside there, and that the very site was foretold by Isaiah six hundred years before. The reading of the Hebrew text is, however, better supported, "city of destruction"; referring to Leontopolis, the site of Onias' temple: which casts a reproach on that city because it was about to contain a temple rivalling the only sanctioned temple, that at Jerusalem. MAURER, with some manuscripts, reads "city of defense" or "deliverance"; namely, Memphis, or some such city, to which God was about to send "a saviour" (Isaiah 19:20), to "deliver them."
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Isaiah 19:20:
Isaiah 19:18-22
Isaiah 19:22
Isaiah 45:14
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