Isaiah 19:6
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And the rivers shall become foul; the streams of Egypt shall be diminished and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither away.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of Egypt will become small and dry: all the water-plants will come to nothing.
Webster's Revision
And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
World English Bible
The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.
English Revised Version (ERV)
And the rivers shall stink; the streams of Egypt shall be minished and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither away.
Definitions for Isaiah 19:6
Clarke's Isaiah 19:6 Bible Commentary
Shall turn the rivers far away "Shall become putrid" - האזניחו heeznichu. This sense of the word, which Simonis gives in his Lexicon, from the meaning of it in Arabic, suits the place much better than any other interpretation hitherto given; and that the word in Hebrew had some such signification, is probable from 2 Chronicles 29:19, where the Vulgate renders it by polluit, polluted, and the Targum, by profaned, and made abominable, which the context in that place seems plainly to require. The form of the verb here is very irregular; and the rabbins and grammarians seem to give no probable account of it.
Barnes's Isaiah 19:6 Bible Commentary
And they shall turn the rivers far away - (האזיּחוּ he'ezenı̂ychû), probably from זנח zânach, "to have an offensive smell; to be rancid, or putrid." The word in this form occurs nowhere else. It is in the Hiphil conjugation, and is probably a form made from a mixture with the Chaldee. The sense is not doubtful. It means 'the rivers shall become putrid - or have an offensive smell;' that is, shall become stagnant, and send forth unwholesome "miasmata" producing sickness, as stagnant waters often do. The Vulgate renders it, 'And the rivers shall fail.' The Septuagint, 'And the Egyptians shall drink the waters from the sea, but the river shall fail, and be dried up, and the rivers shall fail, and the streams (διὼρυχες diōruches) of the river, and all the assembling (συναγωγή sunagōgē) waters shall be dried up.'
And the brooks of defense - Hebrew, 'The rivers of מצור mâtsôr. The word מצור mâtsôr often means "straitness, affliction;" then a siege, a wall, a bulwark, a fortification. But, probably, it here means "Egypt," or the same as מצרים mı̂tserayı̂m (compare Isaiah 37:25; 2 Kings 18:24; Mark 7:12). Perhaps the Hebrews may have thought of Egypt as a strongly fortified place, and thus have given the name to it; or possibly this may have been a modification of the name "Mitsraim."
The reeds and flags - Which grew on the banks of the Nile - the papyrus, etc. (see the note at Isaiah 18:2)
Wesley's Isaiah 19:6 Bible Commentary
19:6 Rivers - The rivers (those rivulets by which the waters of Nile were distributed into several parts of the land) shall be turned far away, as they must needs be, when the river which fed them was dried up. Brooks - The several branches of the river Nile, which were a great defence to Egypt. Reeds - Which were useful to them for making their boats. Whither - As they commonly do for want of water.