Isaiah 19:11 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 19:11
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
advice · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
wise
חַכְמֵי֙chakh.Mei
H2450
wise · adjective, masculine plural construct
counsellors
יָעַץyâʻats
H3289
to advise
Pharaoh
פַרְעֹ֔הfar.'Oh
H6547
Paroh · noun, masculine singular absolute
brutish
נִבְעָרָ֑הniv.'a.Rah
H1197
to kindle · verb, niphal active participle, feminine singular absolute
say
תֹּאמְר֣וּto.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Pharaoh
פַּרְעֹ֔הpar.'Oh
H6547
Paroh · noun, masculine singular construct
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
wise
חֲכָמִ֥יםcha.kha.Mim
H2450
wise · adjective, masculine plural absolute
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
ancient
קֶֽדֶםKe.dem
H6924
the front · noun, common masculine singular absolute
kings
מַלְכֵיmal.khei-
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine plural construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 13:22 And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built s…
1 Kings 4:30 And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
Psalms 78:43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
Isaiah 30:4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
Acts 7:22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
Genesis 41:38-39 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
Psalms 78:12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Job 5:12-13 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 19:1-17
Though the land of Egypt had of old been a house of bondage to the people of God, where they had been ruled with rigour, yet among the unbelieving Jews there still remained much of the humour of their fathers, who said, Let us make us a captain and return into Egypt. Upon all occasions they trusted to Egypt for help (Isa 30:2), and thither they fled, in disobedience to God's express command, when things were brought to the last extremity in their own country, Jer 43:7. Rabshakeh upbraided Hezekiah with this, Isa 36:6. While they kept up an alliance with Egypt, and it was a powerful ally, they stood not in awe of the judgments of God; for against them they depended upon Egypt to protect them.…
Zoan--The Greeks called it Tanis, a city of Lower Egypt, east of the Tanitic arms of the Nile, now San; it was one the Egyptian towns nearest to Palestine (Num 13:22), the scene of Moses' miracles (Psa 78:12, Psa 78:43). It, or else Memphis, was the capital under Sethos.
I am . . . son of the wise . . . kings--Ye have no advice to suggest to Pharaoh in the crisis, notwithstanding that ye boast of descent from wise and royal ancestors. The priests were the usual "counsellors" of the Egyptian king. He was generally chosen from the priestly caste, or, if from the warrior caste, he was admitted into the sacred order, and was called a priest. The priests are, therefore, meant by the expression,…
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools,.... Zoan was a very ancient city of Egypt, it was built within seven years of Hebron in the land of Judah, Numbers 13:22 here it was that the Lord did those miracles, by the hands of Moses and Aaron, before Pharaoh and his people, in order to oblige him to let Israel go, Psalm 78:12 by which it appears that it was then the royal city, as it seems to have been now; since mention is made of the princes of it, who usually have their residence where the court is. The Targum, Septuagint, and Vulgate Latin versions, call it Tanis, which was the metropolis of one of the nomes or provinces of Egypt, called from it the Tanitic nome (q); near it was one of the gat…
The Church Fathers
And the Father says to him: Return to me, calling him from the earth to heaven, whom he had sent for our salvation. Therefore, raising up his only-begotten Son, he frustrated the plan of the slanderers. Hence, Isaiah also says: The futile plan of your spirit. And the one who had been accusing and directing arrows like a hunter, has disarmed everything: he has crushed the power of those who relied on their own strength and not on God.
(Vers. 11-13.) The foolish princes of Tanis, the wise counselors of Pharaoh, gave foolish counsel: How can you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you and make known what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt. The foolish princes of Tanis have become fools; the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have caused Egypt to stagger, the cornerstone of its peoples. Tanis was the capital of Egypt, as the Psalmist declares, where Moses performed many signs that are described in Exodus: He set his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Tanis (Ps. 78:11). Memphis, also dedicated to magical arts, still shows traces of error from ancient times to the present. And this is briefly indicated, that with the coming of the Babylonian devastation, all the plans of the Magi, and of those who promised knowledge of the future, are proven foolishness, and with the advent of Christ everything is reduced to nothingness, not finding the advice of the Egyptian seers on how to suppress the Christian doctrine. However, the language of the Scriptures is that they place the angle for the kingdom, since it contains the peoples, and is the strongest in the whole house. And Christ, containing the walls of two peoples, is called the cornerstone (Ephesians II). And what he brings in: How will you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings, signifies that the Egyptians imitate their heroes and gods, namely Horus, Isis, Osiris, and Typhon.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Egypt — The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. The Egyptians belonged to the white race, and their original…
Zoan — (Old Egypt. Sant= “stronghold,” the modern San). A city on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, called by the Greeks Tanis. It was built seven years after Hebron in Palestine (Num. 13:22). This great and…
Egypt · Had princes and counsellors — Had princes and counsellors
Sorcery · .By the Egyptians — .By the Egyptians
Zoan · Wise men from, were counselors of Pharaoh — Wise men from, were counselors of Pharaoh
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools. Here he joins wisdom with folly, and not without reason; for it is impossible to take away from men a conviction of their wisdom, which leads them to believe, in opposition to God himself, that they are wise. It is therefore a kind of acknowledgment, when he calls those persons wise whom he at the same time accuses of folly or stupidity. Though the Hebrew particle 'k, (ach,) sometimes means but, yet as the Prophet appears to attack the Egyptians, I choose rather to render it "surely," or "truly," or "now at least;" for he scoffs at the counselors of Pharaoh for wishing to be regarded, and believing themselves to be, exceeding wise, though they are the mo…
The prophet now dwells upon the punishment which falls upon the pillars of the land, and describes it in Isa 19:11-13 : "The princes of Zoan become mere fools, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh; readiness in counsel is stupefied. How can ye say to Pharaoh, I am a son of wise men, a son of kings of the olden time? Where are they then, thy wise men? Let them announce to thee, and know what Jehovah of hosts hath determined concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan have become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; and they have led Egypt astray who are the corner-stone of its castes." The two constructives יעצי חכמי do not stand in a subordinate relation, but in a co-ordinate one (see at Psa 78:…
The prophet taunted the leaders and wise men of Egypt, who were helpless to avert tragedy.
19:11 Zoan was the capital of Egypt, located in the Nile delta (see Num 13:22). • officials . . . best counsel: The king depended on the strategies and counsel of wise men (Isa 19:12; see Gen 41:39-40). • The officials of Zoan were known for all their wise ancestors, and Egypt liked to brag about them.
Rashi on Isaiah 19:11
How will you say from now on to Pharaoh, each one of you about himself, I am a son of the wise? Since he will fail because of your counsel, how will you boast before him to say, We are sons of the wise, O you who are a son of the kings of old.
