Warning against the folly of an alliance with Egypt

20 At that time Isaiah the son of Amoz received a message from the Lord, bidding him go and take the sackcloth from his loins and the sandals from his feet; and this he did, going about without 2 mantle or shoe. Then in the year that the Tartan, who had been despatched by Sargon King of Assyria, 3 came to Ashdod and took it by storm, the Lord said, ‘Just as my servant Isaiah has gone for three years without mantle of shoe for a sign and a symbol to 4 Egypt and Ethiopia, so will the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, be led away by the King of Assyria – without mantle or 5 shoe, and with buttocks exposed. Then those who had looked with hope to Ethiopia and made their boast of Egypt, will be put to shame and dismay. 6 And in that day the people who live in the coast-land will say, ’If this be the fate of those to whom we had fled in expectation of help and deliverance from the King of Assyria, how can we escape?’