In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to the LORD.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 19:19 Go To Isaiah 19
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
The prophet Isaiah says this about Egypt: “In that day there will be an altar of the Lord in the land of the Egyptians and an inscription to the Lord at its border. It will be a sign forever to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, for they will cry to the Lord against their assailants, and the Lord will send them a savior who will be determined to save them. And the Lord will be known to the Egyptians, and they will fear the Lord in that day and make sacrifices to him and promise vows to him and fulfill them. And the Lord will strike the Egyptians with plagues and heal them by his mercy, and they will turn to the Lord, and he will listen to them and heal them.” What do they [i.e., members of the Donatist sect] say to this? Why do they not share with the church what was foretold of the Egyptians? Or, if Egypt signifies the world by prophetic prefiguration, why are they not in communion with the church of the world? Consequently, they search the Scriptures and, against so many sure and clear witnesses through which the church of Christ is shown to be diffused throughout the entire world, they offer just one witness in an attempt to demonstrate that the church of Christ perished from all other peoples and remained only in Africa, as though from another beginning, not from Jerusalem but from Carthage, where they first elevated one bishop against another.
