Bible Strands
Isaiah 19:16
In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah delivers this oracle concerning Egypt's impending judgment to the audience of Judah and the nations. The declaration follows a statement of Egypt's complete helplessness before divine action.
The words — The Hebrew כַּנָּשִׂים (ka.nāšîm) means "like women," while חָרַד (chārad) and פָּחַד (pāchad) denote trembling and dread. The text states that Egypt will experience paralyzed fear beneath the LORD's brandished hand.
The thread — This theme of exhausted martial capacity appears in Nahum 3:13, where troops are compared to women, and Jeremiah 51:30, where Babylonian warriors stop fighting and sit exhausted in their strongholds. The pattern shows divine judgment neutralizing human military readiness.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge that national power offers no protection against divine sovereignty. It demands a sober assessment of human vulnerability when opposed by God's direct action.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 51:30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.
- Nahum 3:13 Look at your troops—they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.
- Isaiah 11:15 The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals.
- Jeremiah 30:5 Yes, this is what the LORD says: “A cry of panic is heard—a cry of terror, not of peace.
- Jeremiah 50:37 A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
- Isaiah 10:32 Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem.
- Zechariah 2:9 I will surely wave My hand over them, so that they will become plunder for their own servants. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me.”
- Psalms 48:6 Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.
- Isaiah 30:17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee, until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.
- Isaiah 30:30 And the LORD will cause His majestic voice to be heard and His mighty arm to be revealed, striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire, and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.