Skip to Content

Isaiah 20

ישעיהו פרק כ׳

Section: נביאים · נביאים אחרונים | Book: Isaiah | Chapter: 20 of 66 | Day: 167 of 742

Date: July 28, 2026

קלאוד על הנ״ך

Chapter 20 is the shortest chapter in Yeshayahu, yet it opens with something exceedingly rare in this book: a precise historical date. “In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon king of Assyria” (בשנת בא תרתן אשדודה) anchors the prophecy to a specific military campaign — the Assyrian conquest of the Philistine city of Ashdod, a coastal stronghold on the road to Egypt. Tartan is not a personal name but an Assyrian title for the commander-in-chief, as we find again at the siege of Yerushalayim (II Melachim 18:17). Radak, citing the tradition of Chazal that Sancheriv had eight names, identifies Sargon with Sancheriv himself, and situates the chapter within the chronology of Chizkiyahu’s reign: the fall of Ashdod preceded Assyria’s campaign against Egypt and Cush, which in turn preceded the confrontation at Yerushalayim in Chizkiyahu’s fourteenth year. Metzudat David adds the larger frame — this was the moment Assyria “began to perform mighty deeds and conquer the lands of the nations.” The dated superscription thus signals that this prophecy is not a timeless oracle but a word spoken into a rapidly closing window of history.

What follows belongs to the genre of the prophetic sign-act, in which the navi does not merely speak the message but embodies it. Hashem commands Yeshayahu to loosen the sackcloth from his loins — which, Metzudat David and Radak explain, he had been wearing in mourning for the exile of the ten tribes — and to remove his sandals, going “naked and barefoot” (ערום ויחף). Rashi, following Targum Yonatan, softens the literal force: ערום means clad in torn and worn garments, not actual nakedness. Radak goes further and articulates a principle with wide application in Nevi’im: the entire command was experienced במראה הנבואה, in prophetic vision, not enacted in the street — for it is unthinkable, he says, that God would command His prophet to walk about naked. He groups this with Hoshea’s marriage to a wife of harlotry and Yechezkel’s shaving of his head and beard: extended sign-actions that unfold over what seems like years within the vision, yet are seen in a single prophetic experience. The three years of verse 3 thus become, on Radak’s reading, the duration within the vision that corresponds to the interval between Ashdod’s fall and the Assyrian deportation of Egypt and Cush.

The interpretation of the sign is given explicitly in verses 3-4. Yeshayahu’s degradation is an “אות ומופת” — a sign and portent — against Egypt and Cush: just as the prophet went naked and barefoot, “so shall the king of Assyria drive the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks bared” (וחשופי שת). The imagery is deliberately shaming; Rashi even sees in it a measure-for-measure retribution reaching back to Cham, the ancestor of Mitzrayim and Cush, who saw his father’s nakedness and did not cover it. Radak and Metzudat David note that the shame of Egypt is singled out “because of their great disgrace,” invoking Yechezkel’s coarse characterization of Egypt. The prophet’s body becomes a preview of the prisoners’ march: the great southern powers, paraded in humiliation by the very empire in which Yehudah’s politicians were tempted to see Egypt as the counterweight.

That political temptation is the chapter’s real target, and it surfaces in the closing verses. “They shall be dismayed and ashamed of Cush their hope and of Egypt their glory” (וחתו ובשו) — and Radak and Metzudat David are explicit that “they” means Yisrael, the remnant of Yehudah and Binyamin who looked to Tirhakah of Cush and to Egypt to fight Assyria on their behalf. Verse 6 gives them a voice: “the dweller of this coastland” (יושב האי הזה) — identified by Rashi, Radak, and Metzudat David alike as Eretz Yisrael, which sits on the border of the sea — will say in that day, “Behold, such is our expectation, to which we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?” If the rescuer could not save himself, what hope for those who trusted him? The rhetorical question is left hanging, unanswered, as the chapter ends.

Within the architecture of the oracles against the nations (chapters 13-23), chapter 20 functions as the historical seal on the Egypt material of chapters 18-19: the poetic burdens against Cush and Mitzrayim are here converted into a dated, enacted, and interpreted sign. And it opens a polemic that Yeshayahu will press relentlessly in chapters 30-31 — “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help” — against the pro-Egyptian party in Yerushalayim. The theological point is the same throughout: reliance on Egypt is not merely bad strategy but misplaced trust, a substitution of a doomed human power for the Holy One of Israel. The unanswered “how shall we escape?” of verse 6 finds its answer only in the Chizkiyahu narratives of chapters 36-37, where deliverance comes not from Egyptian chariots but from the word of Hashem alone.

פרק כ׳ · Chapter 20

פסוק א׳ · Verse 1

Hebrew:

בִּשְׁנַ֨ת בֹּ֤א תַרְתָּן֙ אַשְׁדּ֔וֹדָה בִּשְׁלֹ֣חַ אֹת֔וֹ סַֽרְג֖וֹן מֶ֣לֶךְ אַשּׁ֑וּר וַיִּלָּ֥חֶם בְּאַשְׁדּ֖וֹד וַֽיִּלְכְּדָֽהּ׃

English:

It was the year that the TartanaTartan An Assyrian title meaning “General”; cf. 2 Kings 18.17 and note. came to Ashdod—being sent by King Sargon of Assyria—and attacked Ashdod and took it.

A rare dated superscription anchors the prophecy: in the year the Tartan (the Assyrian commander-in-chief), sent by Sargon, captured the Philistine city of Ashdod on the road to Egypt. Radak identifies Sargon with Sancheriv — citing Chazal that he had eight names — and places the event in the years leading up to the assault on Yerushalayim in Chizkiyahu's fourteenth year, while Metzudat David notes this was when Assyria began its career of world conquest.

פסוק ב׳ · Verse 2

Hebrew:

בָּעֵ֣ת הַהִ֗יא דִּבֶּ֣ר יְהֹוָה֮ בְּיַ֣ד יְשַֽׁעְיָ֣הוּ בֶן־אָמוֹץ֮ לֵאמֹר֒ לֵ֗ךְ וּפִתַּחְתָּ֤ הַשַּׂק֙ מֵעַ֣ל מׇתְנֶ֔יךָ וְנַעַלְךָ֥ תַחֲלֹ֖ץ מֵעַ֣ל רַגְלֶ֑ךָ וַיַּ֣עַשׂ כֵּ֔ן הָלֹ֖ךְ עָר֥וֹם וְיָחֵֽף׃ {ס}        

English:

Previously,bPreviously Lit. “At that time.” GOD had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, untie the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” which he had done, going naked and barefoot.

Hashem commands Yeshayahu to loosen the sackcloth from his loins — worn, Metzudat David and Radak explain, in mourning for the exile of the ten tribes — remove his sandals, and go 'naked and barefoot.' Rashi, following Targum Yonatan, understands 'naked' as clad in torn, worn garments rather than actual nakedness, while Radak holds the whole command occurred in prophetic vision (במראה הנבואה), not literally — like Hoshea's marriage and Yechezkel's sign-acts.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
ופתחת השק מעל מתניך. ת"י ותיסר סקא בחרצך והדברים מוכיחים שהרי עד עכשיו לא ציוהו לחגור שק שהוא אומר לו להתירה ועוד שהוא אומר ונעלך תחלוץ והוא סימן לאבלות ופי' ופתחת כמו (שמו' לט) מפותחות פתוחי חותם לחגור שק בדוחק על בשרו כדי שתרא' חקוקה בבשרו: מעל מתניך. למעלה ממתניך: ערום. ת"י פחיח בבגדים קרועים ובלואים ולא ערום ממש:
and you shall gird sackcloth over your loins (וּפִתַּחְתָּ) Jonathan renders: "And you shall gird the sackcloth over your loins." And his interpretation is evidenced by the fact that until now, He had not commanded him to gird himself with sackcloth, that He should tell him to remove it. Moreover, when He tells him, "And you shall remove your shoes from upon your feet," this is a sign of mourning. (It is, therefore, likely that He commanded him to gird himself with sackcloth, also a sign of mourning.) And the meaning of וּפִתַּחְתָּ is like: (Exodus 39:6) "Engraved like the engravings of a seal (מְפֻתָּחוֹת פִּתּוּחֵי חוֹתָם)," to gird himself with sackcloth tightly on his flesh, so that it appears to be engraved in his flesh. over your loins above your loins. naked (עָרוֹם). Jonathan renders: פְּחֵיחַ, with torn and worn out clothing, but not actually naked.

פסוק ג׳ · Verse 3

Hebrew:

וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֔ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר הָלַ֛ךְ עַבְדִּ֥י יְשַֽׁעְיָ֖הוּ עָר֣וֹם וְיָחֵ֑ף שָׁלֹ֤שׁ שָׁנִים֙ א֣וֹת וּמוֹפֵ֔ת עַל־מִצְרַ֖יִם וְעַל־כּֽוּשׁ׃

English:

And now GOD said, “It is a sign and a portent for Egypt and Cush. Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years,

Hashem now interprets the sign-act: the prophet's three years of going naked and barefoot are an 'ot u-mofet' — a sign and portent — against Egypt and Cush. Rashi calculates from here that Ashdod fell three years before Sancheriv's downfall, when he paraded the captives of Egypt and Tirhakah king of Cush before Yerushalayim; Radak notes that Yeshayahu heard this interpretation within the prophetic vision itself.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
שלש שנים. ילך כן לאות ולמופת למצרים ולכוש שלסוף שלש שנים ינהג מלך אשור את שבי מצרים וגו' למדנו שכבש תרתן את אשדוד שלש שנים לפני מפלתו של סנחרב שהרי מפלתו היתה כשהביא את שבי מצרים ותרהקה מלך כוש לפני ירושלים בקולרין כשבא לצור על חזקיהו:
three years shall he go in this manner as a sign and a symbol for Egypt and for Cush, that, at the end of three years the king of Assyria shall lead the captivity of Egypt... We learn that Tartan conquered Ashdod three years prior to the downfall of Sennacherib, for his downfall was when he brought the captives of Egypt and Tirhakah the king of Cush before Jerusalem in chains, when he came to besiege Hezekiah.

פסוק ד׳ · Verse 4

Hebrew:

כֵּ֣ן יִנְהַ֣ג מֶֽלֶךְ־אַ֠שּׁ֠וּר אֶת־שְׁבִ֨י מִצְרַ֜יִם וְאֶת־גָּל֥וּת כּ֛וּשׁ נְעָרִ֥ים וּזְקֵנִ֖ים עָר֣וֹם וְיָחֵ֑ף וַחֲשׂוּפַ֥י שֵׁ֖ת עֶרְוַ֥ת מִצְרָֽיִם׃

English:

so shall the king of Assyria drive off the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot and with bared buttocks—to the shame of Egypt!

The sign is decoded: just as Yeshayahu went, so will the king of Assyria drive the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush — young and old alike — naked, barefoot, and with buttocks shamefully bared (וחשופי שת). Rashi sees measure-for-measure retribution reaching back to Cham, ancestor of Mitzrayim and Cush, who saw his father's nakedness and did not cover it; Radak and Metzudat David note Egypt is named for the shame though Cush is equally included.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
וחשופי שת. כמו חשף שת והיו"ד יתירה כיו"ד חלוני וחורי ושדי: שת. בית מוצא הרעי וכן (שמואל ב י׳:ד׳) ויכרות את מדויהם עד שתותיה' וגמול זה היה להם תחת חם אביהם אשר ראה ערות אביו ולא כסה אותה מדה כנגד מדה:
with bare buttocks (וַחֲשׂוּפַי), like חֲשׂוּף, and the yud is superfluous, like the yud of חַלּוֹנָי (the window), חוֹרָי, (nets), שָׂדָי (the field). buttocks Near the anus. Comp. (II Sam. 10:4): "And he cut off their garments in half, up to their buttocks (שְׁתוֹתֵיהֶם)." This retribution was due them because of Ham their ancestor, who saw his father's nakedness and did not cover it, payment in kind.

פסוק ה׳ · Verse 5

Hebrew:

וְחַתּ֖וּ וָבֹ֑שׁוּ מִכּוּשׁ֙ מַבָּטָ֔ם וּמִן־מִצְרַ֖יִם תִּפְאַרְתָּֽם׃

English:

And they shall be dismayed and chagrined because of Cush their hope and Egypt their boast.

The prophecy turns to its real audience: those who made Cush their hope (מבטם) and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed. Radak and Metzudat David identify them as Yisrael — the remnant of Yehudah who counted on Cush and Egypt to fight Assyria for them; when the supposed rescuers fall to the Assyrian king, that trust collapses with them.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
וחתו ובשו. כל המביטים ומצפים על עזרת כוש והמתפארים במשען מצרים: תפארתם. וונט"ש בלעז:
shall be broken and ashamed All those who look in expectation upon the aid of Cush and boast of the support of Egypt. their boasting vantance in O.F.

פסוק ו׳ · Verse 6

Hebrew:

וְ֠אָמַ֠ר יֹשֵׁ֨ב הָאִ֣י הַזֶּה֮ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַהוּא֒ הִנֵּה־כֹ֣ה מַבָּטֵ֗נוּ אֲשֶׁר־נַ֤סְנוּ שָׁם֙ לְעֶזְרָ֔ה לְהִ֨נָּצֵ֔ל מִפְּנֵ֖י מֶ֣לֶךְ אַשּׁ֑וּר וְאֵ֖יךְ נִמָּלֵ֥ט אֲנָֽחְנוּ׃ {פ}

English:

In that day, the dwellers of this coastland shall say, ‘If this could happen to those we looked to, to whom we fled for help and rescue from the king of Assyria, how can we ourselves escape?’”

The chapter closes with the despairing voice of 'the dweller of this coastland' (יושב האי הזה) — identified by Rashi, Radak, and Metzudat David as Eretz Yisrael, which sits on the border of the sea and had leaned on Egypt for rescue. If those to whom we fled for help could not save themselves from the king of Assyria, they ask, 'how shall we escape?' — a question left hanging, answered only later when deliverance comes from Hashem alone in the days of Chizkiyahu.
▶Commentaries (1)
רש״יRashi
יושב האי הזה. ארץ ישראל שהיו נשענים על פרעה לעזרה: האי. לשון איי הים:
the inhabitants of this isle The land of Israel, who relied on Pharoah for aid. isle like the islands of the sea.

← Isaiah 19 | Isaiah 21 →

Back to Isaiah | Back to Nach Yomi