Five Cities in Egypt

Examination of a strange text

"In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of hosts. One of these will be called the city of the Sun." (Isa.19:18 RSV).

A strange statement, one that most commentators have studiously avoided in consequence of its strangeness. Why should five particular cities in pagan Egypt, including one named after the Sun‑god, forsake their own language for that of the Canaanites and Hebrews, and declare their allegiance to the God of Israel? Whatever the meaning, its fulfilment must lie in future times, for never in past history has such a state of things existed in Egypt.

Look first at the setting. Verses 16‑25 clearly constitute a prophetic description of conditions involving Egypt at the end of this Age, when the "kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord" (Rev.11:15) and Christ is supreme in the Millennial world. The passage opens with Isaiah’s favourite introduction "in that day." In almost every instance of that phrase in his book it refers to the events surrounding the end of this Age and the commencement of the next. "The land of Judah" he says, "shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid." (v.17) Never in the past has Egypt stood in terror of Judah, whether ancient or modern. But in our own day it has become fact. But, says Isaiah, Egypt will cry unto the Lord and He shall deliver them. The Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall serve the Lord. They shall return to the Lord, and He shall heal them. And the chapter closes with the Lord saying "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." Here is a picture of three nations always in history at war with one another now joined together in a bond of peace, and united in their allegiance to the Lord. Such outcome can only be achieved in the Millennium, and the doctrine of the Millennium is essential to hold if this passage is to be understood.

So back to the five cities. Why five, and why one specifically identified? A certain amount of investigation does yield one interesting fact. Egypt under the Pharaohs was divided for political and administrative purposes into forty‑two nomes, or provinces, something like the States of the United States of America, each province having its own capital city. Of those forty‑two capital cities the Old Testament mentions and records the names of five. And one of those five is the city of On, whose High Priest’s daughter Asenath became the wife of Joseph in Egypt. (Gen.41:45; 46:20). Four centuries after Isaiah’s day, On was renamed Heliopolis by the then Greek rulers of Egypt, and that name means "city of the sun." Isaiah four centuries previously by inspiration of the Spirit foretold that name change! The names of these five cities, with their later Greek names, are: No (Thebes RSV) Jer.46:25; Hanes (Herakleopolis) Isa.30:4; Noph (Memphis RSV) Isa.19:13; On (Heliopolis AMP) Gen.41:45; Zoan (Tanis CEB) Num.13:22. These five, these five only.

They are to "speak the language of Canaan." This word "language" here is not "lashan" which denotes a national language in the ordinary sense, but "saphar," derived from the motion of the lips, as of one speaking. Again, "speak" in this text means to declare abroad rather than the mere act of speaking. Five cities are to proclaim the speech of Canaan, to ally themselves with what is said and declared by those in Canaan. And why "Canaan," a territorial name which had dropped out of use five or six centuries before the days of Isaiah? What had once been known as Canaan was now Judah in the south and Israel in the north! It would appear that there is a significance in this going back to the ancient name, which needs a little thought.

Back in the days when the land was known as Canaan, the worship of the Most High God was there. The worship of many gods with all its attendant degradation had come into the world only about five centuries before Abraham and it started in his native land of Sumer. He left that land for one "which God would show him," and so he came into Canaan where he found a people still worshipping the Most High God alone, ruled by their priest‑king Melchisedek. Not far away he encountered another Canaanite people subject to their equally devout king Abimelech. Here, in Abraham’s day, was a national faith purer and more sincere by far than that of Judah in the days of Isaiah—and this was the "speech of Canaan" to which the five cities are to turn rather than the mixture of one God and many gods characteristic of Judah and Israel in those later times. So the Egyptians are to turn, not to the adulterated faith of eighth century BC Judah but to that of second millennium BC Abraham. Back to the primitive faith which men knew when the world was young.

So the chapter closes with Egypt returning to the Lord in sincerity, first a partial move back, the five cities of v.18, then a more universal turning to him in vv.21‑22, and finally the full and complete conversion of v.25 which leads the Lord to say "Blessed be Egypt my people." All this must see its fulfilment in the Age to follow this present, the Millennial Age, under the beneficent reign of Christ, the day concerning which the Lord said to Zephaniah "for then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent" (Zeph.3:9)—the "language of Canaan."

AOH