World English Bible
- In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;
- at that time the LORD 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.
- The LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia,
- 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.
- They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
- 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?’”
Isaiah’s strangest sermon had no pulpit and lasted three years.
Around 711 BC, Assyria took Ashdod, a city on the Philistine coast. Assyrian records also speak of the campaign. “Tartan,” in Isaiah’s opening line, is not a man’s name but an Assyrian title for a high military commander. The detail matters: this was not a vague fear of distant trouble. The empire was at the door, and its army had a chain of command.
God told Isaiah to remove his sackcloth and sandals and walk exposed. Scholars differ on precisely how much clothing he wore, but not on the disgrace of the sign. Bare feet and uncovered bodies were what captives carried into exile. Isaiah made visible, for three years, the human cost hidden behind talk of alliances. Before Egypt and Cush became failed entries in a strategy, they would be young and old people led away in shame. Cush lay largely in what is now Sudan; its rulers also held Egypt’s throne in this period. Together, these powers looked like a formidable shelter from Assyria.
Then comes a startling turn. God calls the exposed prophet “my servant.” The crowd might have seen only a man stripped of dignity. God names him by his faithfulness. Isaiah’s costly obedience tells us that being honored by God and being honored in public are not the same thing.
This chapter follows Isaiah 19, where God promises a future blessing for Egypt. The two chapters belong together. God’s love for Egypt does not make Egypt able to save Judah. A nation may have a place in God’s coming mercy without deserving our ultimate trust. We can bless what we must not worship.
At the end, the people stare at the power they had called “our expectation” and ask, “How will we escape?” Their hope has come home in chains. Isaiah does not condemn careful planning; he exposes the moment when a plan becomes a savior.
Centuries later, soldiers stripped Jesus of his garments (John 19:23–24). We should not flatten Isaiah’s sign into a simple prediction of the cross. Yet here is a deeper answer to the chapter’s final question: God did not remain safely distant from human exposure and shame. In Christ, he entered it, and through his resurrection opened a hope no empire could carry away.
For further reading: Isaiah 19:23–25; Hebrews 12:2; 2 Corinthians 1:9. A fitting hymn is “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less.”
Prayer: Lord, show us where our hopes have quietly become our masters. Teach us to see those whom power leaves exposed, and to trust the Savior who met us there. Amen.