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Isaiah 19 · a question people ask

Who is the "cruel lord" and "fierce king" of 19:4?

In the text

The chapter doesn't say. "I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them" (19:4), "says the Lord, GOD of Armies" (19:4), and the verse names no one else. The next chapter names the king of Assyria: "so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia" (Isaiah 20:4), but it doesn't say that he is 19:4's cruel lord. These notes don't name him either, and add no history of Egypt from outside the Bible. What the verse does say is who gives Egypt over: the one who speaks says, "I will give over the Egyptians" (19:4).

The verses

“I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies.”
Isaiah 19:4 · World English Bible
“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.”
Isaiah 20:4 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Isaiah 19

Isaiah 19: The burden of Egypt

Isaiah 19 has words that Exodus has in Egypt's story. Egypt cries to the LORD "because of oppressors" (19:20), with the verb of Exodus 3:9, and he sends them a savior; "The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing" (19:22), with the verb Exodus has at the Passover. And he calls Egypt by a name Isaiah elsewhere gives his own people: "Egypt my people" (19:25).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions