The burden concerning Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall tremble at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 19:1 Go To Isaiah 19
Bede
AD 735
The psalmist spoke of this solemnity [when he said], “God has ascended with a shout of jubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.” He ascended with a shout of jubilation, since he sought heaven as the disciples rejoiced in the glory of his being lifted up. He ascended with the sound of the trumpet, since he went up to the throne of his heavenly kingdom as the angels heralded his return to judge the living and the dead.
How God, who is present always and everywhere and does not change from place to place, ascended, the same [inspired writer] declares elsewhere, saying, “He who makes a cloud his stairway and walks upon the wings of the winds.” He calls the substance of human weakness with which “the sun of righteousness” clothed himself, that [the sight of him] might be borne by human beings, a cloud. Hence Isaiah says, “Behold, the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud and will enter Egypt, and the idols of Egypt will be shaken before his face.” The Lord ascended upon a swift cloud so that when he entered Egypt he might overturn its idols when “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” He took upon himself a body immune from all stains of iniquity and entered the world in it, so that he might destroy the cult of idolatry and make clear the true light of divinity to the shadowy and dark hearts of the Gentiles. He who is not enclosed in a place willed to go from place to place by means of this cloud, his human nature; in it he who always remains invisible in his divinity willed to suffer mockery, scourging and death; by means of it he who fills the heavens in the power of his divinity ascended into heaven, crowned with the power of his resurrection.
