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Isaiah 20

Chapter 20 in 30 seconds

God tells Isaiah to take off his sackcloth and sandals and walk around stripped for three years as a living billboard. The message: Egypt and Cush, the allies Judah is trusting, will be led away by Assyria the same way. Do not put your hope in Egypt. Isaiah earned his paycheck that year.

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In this chapterThe Big QuestionSargon II, the Forgotten King · after verse 2

A Sign against Egypt and Cush

¹Before the year that the chief commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it, ²Yahweh had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.”

IS 20:1[ARCHAEOLOGY]Sargon II annals and the Ashdod stele

And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.

The Big Question

Sargon II, the Forgotten King

Isaiah 20:1 · 2 Kings 17:6

WHAT IT IS: The palace and written records of Sargon II, king of Assyria. His annals say he captured the Philistine city of Ashdod, threw out its king and set up his own man. Isaiah 20:1 says Sargon's chief commander took Ashdod.
HOW OLD IT IS: Sargon ruled from 722 to 705 BC. He captured Ashdod about 711 BC. His records were written during his reign, so the date is firm.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: For centuries Isaiah 20:1 was the only clear mention of Sargon anywhere, and some scholars doubted he was real. Then in 1843 the French consul Paul Emile Botta dug up his huge palace at Khorsabad, in modern Iraq, covered in carvings and writing. In 1963 pieces of a Sargon victory stone were found at Ashdod itself.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: Many palace carvings are in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The Ashdod pieces are in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
WHAT IT CONFIRMS: Sargon was real, he was king of Assyria, and he took Ashdod, just as Isaiah said. The Bible remembered him when the rest of history forgot.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: His records do not mention Isaiah walking around barefoot. They confirm the war, not the sermon.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH

³Then Yahweh said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush, ⁴so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.

IS 20:4[PROPHECY]Sargon (king of Assyria) would lead Egyptians and Ethiopians naked into captivity → HISTORY: Sargon II's army took Ashdod in 711 BC. Later Assyrian kings took Egyptian and Cushite captives when they conquered Egypt in 671 and 663 BC. Recorded in Assyrian royal records.MEDIUM

⁵Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed. ⁶And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’”

Isaiah 20

A Sign against Egypt and Cush

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