Isaiah
Isaiah 20
Big idea: The most uncomfortable sign-act in the book: three years of walking stripped and barefoot through Jerusalem, and its target is a foreign policy — the alliance with Egypt and Cush that the previous chapters have been arguing against.
Sargon II's capture of Ashdod in 711 BC is recorded in Assyrian annals, which makes this the most precisely dated passage in the book.
20:1–6 — Naked and barefoot for three years
The dating is unusually precise: in the year the Assyrian commander-in-chief came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, and fought against Ashdod and took it. Ashdod was a Philistine city that had rebelled trusting Egyptian support, and the support did not arrive. That is the situation the sign is about.
1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; 2 at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3 Yahweh said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, 4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6 The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).