^20:1The Lord revealed the following message during the year in which King Sargon of Assyria sent his commanding general to Ashdod, and he fought against it and captured it.¹^20:2At that time the Lord announced through² Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments³ and barefoot. ^20:3Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush, ^20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old. They will be in undergarments and barefoot, with the buttocks exposed; the Egyptians will be publicly humiliated.⁴^20:5Those who put their hope in Cush and took pride in Egypt will be afraid and embarrassed.⁵^20:6At that time⁶ those who live on this coast⁷ will say, ‘Look what has happened to our source of hope to whom we fled for help, expecting to be rescued from the king of Assyria! How can we escape now?’ ”

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Footnotes

1 Heb “In the year the commanding general came to Ashdod, when Sargon king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and captured it.” This probably refers to the Assyrian campaign against Philistia in 712 or 711 b.c.
2 Heb “spoke by the hand of.”
3 The word used here (עָרוֹם, ’arom) sometimes means “naked,” but here it appears to mean simply “lightly dressed,” i.e., stripped to one’s undergarments. See עָרוֹם. The term also occurs in vv. 3, 4.
4 Heb “lightly dressed and barefoot, and bare with respect to the buttocks, the nakedness of Egypt.”
5 Heb “and they will be afraid and embarrassed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their beauty.”
6 Heb “in that day” (so ).
7 This probably refers to the coastal region of Philistia (cf. ).