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This last reference was called mizpah by Jacob, a beacon and watch-tower, for he said
"The Lord watch between me and thee . . . . . I will not pass over . . . . . thou shalt not
pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm" (Gen. 31: 44-52). Something of
the same intent seems to be implied by the pillar set up at Egypt's frontier "in that day", a
respect for the sovereignty of both Israel and of Egypt in their own allotted lands. The
reader should note the paranomasia of the two Hebrew words translated "altar" and
"pillar". The former is made up of M,Z,B,CH, the latter of M,TS,B,H, as though the link
between them was intentional and important.
It appears from Isa. 19: 18 that there will be a number of cities in Egypt that will
have become converts to the teaching of the Bible,
"Five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan."
The following passages will indicate the attitude of Israel and their conception of truth
with a "language".
"When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange
language" (Psa. 114: 1).
"He went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood
not" (Psa. lxxxi.5).
"The Jews . . . . . had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon and of Moab, and their
children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language"
(Neh. 13: 23, 24).
"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).
One of these cities that speak the language of Canaan and who are loyal to the Lord
will be "The City of the Sun" (Isa. 19: 18). The Hebrew words for "sun" is cheres, and
for destruction is heres, hence the different renderings (see margin of R.V. and note in
Companion Bible). Heliopolis, "the city of the sun", is the Greek name for the Egyptian
city named "On" at the apex of the delta of the Nile. It will be remembered that Joseph
married a daughter of a priest of On (Gen. 41: 45). Helios is Greek for the sun, polis for
city. In the Hebrew this would be represented by beth, a house, and shemesh, the sun,
hence the city called Bethshemesh in Jer. 43: 13 is this same city of Isa. 19: 18, even
as the "images" which are to be broken there are the same as the "pillar" of Isa. 19: 19.
In the former reference, the sanctity of frontiers found no respect from Nebuchadnezzar.
Returning to Isa. 19:, we find that associated with this altar and pillar is the sending
of a "Saviour, a great one" who shall deliver such as cry unto the Lord, and as a
consequence "the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day" (verse 21). If these events
take place at the time of the end "The Saviour, a great One" could refer to the Lord
Himself, particularly as the word translated "Saviour", which occurs nine times in Isaiah,
in every reference apart from Isa. 19: 20, refers to God beside Whom, he declares, "is
no Saviour". Egypt is to be smitten, but is to be healed, they shall return unto the Lord
and He shall heal them. Every one of these words is said in like manner of Israel. Once
the Lord smote the Egyptians in the day of Israel's exodus, and no healing followed
(Exod. 12: 23, 27), but at long last healing is now near, not only for Israel but for her
hereditary foe and seducer, Egypt!