Background
This short chapter is one of the few in Isaiah with an exact historical date. In 711 BC, the Philistine city of Ashdod rebelled against Assyria, counting on help from Egypt and Cush (Ethiopia). Judah was tempted to join. Sargon II of Assyria sent his tartan (commander in chief) and crushed the revolt. The promised Egyptian help never came.
Assyrian records confirm the episode. Sargon’s annals describe the Ashdod rebellion, the rebel king’s flight toward Egypt, and his eventual handover to Assyria.
During this crisis, the Lord told Isaiah to act out his message. For three years, Isaiah walked around Jerusalem stripped to a loincloth and barefoot, dressed like a prisoner of war.
The thread through the chapter
Isaiah 20 teaches with a picture instead of a poem, and the picture is uncomfortable on purpose.
The prophets sometimes acted out God’s messages. Jeremiah wore a yoke (Jer. 27:2); Ezekiel lay on his side for more than a year (Ezek. 4:4–6); Agabus bound himself with Paul’s belt (Acts 21:10–11). Isaiah’s sign is one of the most startling. He takes off his rough prophet’s garment and his sandals and walks around Jerusalem that way, day after day, for three years.
Why? Because that is how Assyrian soldiers marched their captives into exile: stripped, barefoot, and humiliated. Isaiah is showing Judah, in his own body, what will happen to Egypt and Cush, the very allies Judah was tempted to trust. If the “protectors” end up as barefoot captives, what hope is there in them?
The chapter ends with the people of the coastland admitting it: “Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help… and how shall we escape?” (verse 6). That is the question Isaiah wants Judah to ask before it is too late. The answer, repeated throughout the book, is not Egypt. It is the Lord.
There is also something moving about the obedience involved. Isaiah was a respected man, counselor to kings. For three years he accepted ridicule so that his people might be spared worse. Prophets sometimes pay a personal price to deliver an unwelcome message.
Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.
Stripped and barefoot
In the year that the Assyrian commander came to Ashdod, sent by King Sargon of Assyria, and fought against it and captured it, the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz: “Take the sackcloth off your waist and the sandals off your feet.” He did, and walked around stripped and barefoot.
1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;
2 At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
A sign against trusting Egypt
Then the Lord said: “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked stripped and barefoot for three years as a sign and a warning against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, stripped and barefoot, with their buttocks exposed, to Egypt’s shame. Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be terrified and ashamed. On that day the people who live on this coast will say, ‘Look what happened to those we relied on, the ones we ran to for help to save us from the king of Assyria! How will we escape now?’”
3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;
4 So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?
Seeing Christ in Isaiah 20
Isaiah’s humiliating obedience foreshadows the Savior’s. Isaiah was stripped as a sign so his people might avoid the shame of captivity. Jesus Christ was literally stripped of His garments (Matt. 27:28; John 19:23–24) and bore the ultimate shame so that we could be delivered from the captivity of sin. He “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2).
The chapter’s final question, “how shall we escape?”, finds its answer in Him. He is the one refuge that cannot be carried off.
Liken it to yourself
- What are my “Egypts and Cushes,” the resources I instinctively run to when I’m afraid? Have any of them ever been “led away barefoot”?
- Would I be willing to look foolish for three years if the Lord asked me to, for the sake of a message others needed?
- Verse 6 is a moment of honest realization. What would it look like to ask “how shall we escape?” before my props fail, rather than after?
Worth exploring next
- Sign-acts. Compare Isaiah 20 with Jer. 13:1–11, Jer. 27:1–11, Ezek. 4–5, Hosea 1–3, and Acts 21:10–11. Why might God choose actions instead of words?
- Trusting Egypt. Read Isa. 30:1–7 and Isa. 31:1–3. How does this chapter prepare for those later warnings?
Sources & further reading
- “Assyria and Babylonia”, Bible Dictionary.
- “Egypt”, Bible Dictionary.
- “Ethiopia or Cush”, Bible Dictionary.
- Chapter 14: A Voice of Warning to the Wicked (Isaiah 13–23), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
- John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986–1998.