a year (as a revolution of time) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct
Tartan
תַרְתָּן֙tar.Tan
H8661
Tartan · noun, common masculine singular absolute
came
בֹּ֤אbo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal infinitive construct
Ashdod
אַשְׁדּ֔וֹדָה'ash.Do.dah
H795
Ashdod · proper noun, a place name + directional suffix
Sargon
סַֽרְג֖וֹןsar.Gon
H5623
Sargon · proper noun, a man's name
king
מֶ֣לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular construct
Assyria
אַשּׁ֑וּר'a.Shur
H804
Ashshur · proper noun, a place name
sent
בִּשְׁלֹ֣חbish.Loch
H7971
to send away · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
fought
וַיִּלָּ֥חֶםvai.yi.La.chem
H3898
to feed on · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Ashdod
בְּאַשְׁדּ֖וֹדbe.'ash.Dod
H795
Ashdod · preposition + proper noun, a place name
took
וַֽיִּלְכְּדָֽהּVai.yil.ke.Dah
H3920
to catch (in a net · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
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
2 Kings 18:17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they…
1 Samuel 5:1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer unto Ashdod.
1 Samuel 6:17 And these are the golden emerods which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the LORD; for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ask…
Jeremiah 25:20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah,…
Jeremiah 25:29-30 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for…
Amos 1:8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 20:1–end
God here, as King of nations, brings a sore calamity upon Egypt and Ethiopia, but, as King of saints, brings good to his people out of it. Observe,
I. The date of this prophecy. It was in the year that Ashdod, a strong city of the Philistines (but which some think was lately recovered from them by Hezekiah, when he smote the Philistines even unto Gaza, Kg2 18:8), was besieged and taken by an army of the Assyrians. It is uncertain what year of Hezekiah that was, but the event was so remarkable that those who lived then could by that token fix the time to a year. He that was now king of Assyria is called Sargon, which some take to be the same with Sennacherib; others think he was his immediate…
In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod,.... Or Azotus, as the Septuagint here call it; and which is its name in the New Testament; see Gill on Acts 8:40. This Tartan, or whom the Septuagint names Tanathan, and the Arabic version Tathan, was one of Sennacherib's generals, 2 Kings 18:17,
(when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him); to the above place to besiege it. This Sargon is generally thought to be the same with Sennacherib, since Tartan was one of his generals, who might have more names than one. Jerom says he had seven; the Jewish Rabbins (h) eight; though some think a predecessor of his is meant, Shalmaneser; and others his son Esarhaddon, who in the Apocrypha:
"And there passed not…
In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod. In the preceding chapter Isaiah prophesied about the calamity which threatened Egypt, and at the same time promised to it the mercy of God. He now introduces the same subject, and shews that Israel will be put to shame by this chastisement of the Egyptians, because they placed their confidence in Egypt. He now joins Ethiopia, which makes it probable that the Ethiopians were leagued with the Egyptians, as I have formerly remarked, and as we shall see again at the thirty-seventh chapter.
First, we must observe the time of this prediction. It was when the Jews were pressed hard by necessity to resort, even against their will, to foreign nations for assis…
The Church Fathers
Isaiah goes naked without blushing as a type of captivity to come.
That it may be more fully clear that prophets look not to themselves or what lies at their feet but to heavenly things, Stephen, when he was being stoned, saw the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Then he did not feel the blows of the stones, he did not heed the wounds of his body, but, fastening his eyes on Christ, he clung to him. So, too, Isaiah did not notice his nakedness but made himself the instrument of God's voice, that he might proclaim what God spoke within him.
Someone perhaps will say, "Was it not disgraceful for a man to walk naked among the people since he must meet both men and women? Must not his appearance have shocked the gaze of all, but especially that of women? Do we not ourselves generally abhor the sight of naked men? And are not men's private parts covered with clothing that they may not offend the gaze of onlookers by their unsightliness?" I agree, but you must consider what this act represented and what was the reason for this outward show; it was that the young Jewish youths and maidens would be led away into exile and walk naked, "as my servant Isaiah walked," he says, "naked and barefoot." This might have been expressed in words, but God chose to enforce it by an example that the very sight might strike more terror, and what they shrank from in the body of the prophet they might utterly dread for themselves. Wherein lay the greater abhorrence: in the body of the prophet or in the sins of the disbelievers?
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
Ashdod — Stronghold, a Philistine city (Josh. 15:47), about midway between Gaza and Joppa, and 3 miles from the Mediterranean. It was one of the chief seats of the worship of Dagon (1 Sam. 5:5). It belonged…
Captive — One taken in war. Captives were often treated with great cruelty and indignity (1 Kings 20:32; Josh. 10:24; Judg. 1:7; 2 Sam. 4:12; Judg. 8:7; 2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Chr. 20:3). When a city was taken by…
No — Or No-A’mon, the home of Amon, the name of Thebes, the ancient capital of what is called the Middle Empire, in Upper or Southern Egypt. “The multitude of No” (Jer. 46:25) is more correctly rendered,…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Sargon — (In the inscriptions, “Sarra-yukin” [the god] has appointed the king; also “Sarru-kinu,” the legitimate king.) On the death of Shalmaneser (B.C. 723), one of the Assyrian generals established himself…
Tartan — An Assyrian word, meaning “the commander-in-chief.” (1.) One of Sennacherib’s messengers to Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:17). (2.) One of Sargon’s generals (Isa. 20:1).
Ashdod · Conquest by Tartan — Conquest by Tartan
Isaiah · kings of — kings of
Sargon · A king of Assyria — A king of Assyria
Tartan · An Assyrian general — An Assyrian general
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).
This section, commencing in the form of historic prose, introduces itself thus: "In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, Sargon the king of Asshur having sent him (and he made war against Ashdod, and captured it): at that time Jehovah spake through Yeshayahu the son of Amoz as follows," i.e., He communicated the following revelation through the medium of Isaiah (b'yad, as in Isa 37:24; Jer 37:2, and many other passages). The revelation itself was attached to a symbolical act. B'yad (lit. "by the hand of") refers to what was about to be made known through the prophet by means of the command that was given him; in other words, to Isa 20:3, and indirectly to Isa 20:2. Tartan (probably the same…
Ashdod’s reliance on Egypt and Ethiopia was useless. As a complement to his words, Isaiah walked about exposed and barefoot, a symbolic action for what God would do.
20:1 Sargon of Assyria is Sargon II (721–705 BC). • Ashdod was one of the five Philistine cities that rebelled against Assyria in 713 BC.
