So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians captives and the Ethiopians exiles: The connector so introduces the application to the comparison in the previous verse. It may be rendered “In the same manner.” The use of captives and exiles is an example of all-inclusive parallelism. The Assyrian king will take captives from both Egypt and Cush and exile them to Assyria. Another way to express this whole clause is “Likewise, the Assyrian king will lead away the Egyptians and the Ethiopians as captives and exiles.” Captives and exiles can be combined into one expression if necessary; for example, Good News Translation has “prisoners he captures.” For the concept of “exile,” see the comments on 5.13.

Both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered expands the description of the captives. They includes both the young and the old. This expression renders two Hebrew words that are masculine, but these words together refer to all the people, both men and women. Naked and barefoot repeats the adjectives used to describe Isaiah above. However, here the additional phrase with buttocks uncovered emphasizes that the captives’ private parts were exposed. Translators may need to find a non-offensive way to express this.

To the shame of Egypt: The Egyptians will be utterly humiliated when the Assyrians take them captive and force them to go naked into exile.

For the translation of this verse we suggest the following examples:

• In the same manner the Assyrian emperor will carry off the Egyptians and the Ethiopians as captives and exiles. Young and old alike will go naked and barefoot with their private parts exposed, to Egypt’s utter humiliation.

• So the king of Assyria will lead the Egyptians away as captives and the Cushites as exiles, young and old together, all naked and barefoot with bare buttocks. Egypt’s shame!

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .