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Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 19:18

City of destruction, city of the sun, or city of righteousness?

"Five cities in the land of Egypt [shall] speak the language of Canaan… one shall be called, The city of destruction." The Masoretic Text reads ir ha-heres ("destruction"); the Great Isaiah Scroll and 4QIsa-b read ir ha-cheres ("the sun," one letter different), as do the Vulgate (Civitas solis) and Symmachus; the library's Greek reads "Asedek," (city of) righteousness. The City of the Sun is Heliopolis; a Jewish temple was later built in its district (Leontopolis).

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. 4QIsa-b (4Q56), Qumran Cave 41st century BC (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  4. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    …one will be called the City of the Sun (ir ha-cheres)

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 19:18. Reads ir ha-cheres, "city of the sun," where the Masoretic Text has ir ha-heres, "city of destruction" (one letter, ch for h). Otherwise as the Masoretic Text.

  3. 1st century BC (reported)

    4QIsa-b (4Q56), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 19:18. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. The surviving letters include ir ha-cheres, "city of the sun," in agreement with 1QIsa-a.

  4. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    In die illa erunt quinque civitates in terra Ægypti loquentes lingua Chanaan, et jurantes per Dominum exercituum: Civitas solis vocabitur una.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 19:18. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֡וּא יִהְיוּ֩ חָמֵ֨שׁ עָרִ֜ים בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֗יִם מְדַבְּרוֹת֙ שְׂפַ֣ת כְּנַ֔עַן וְנִשְׁבָּע֖וֹת לַיהוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת עִ֣יר הַהֶ֔רֶס יֵאָמֵ֖ר לְאֶחָֽת׃

    In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing by the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction (ir ha-heres)

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 19:18.

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.

  7. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Ce jour-là, il y aura cinq villes d’Égypte qui parleront la langue de Chanaan, et jureront par le Seigneur Dieu des armées. L’une de ces villes s’appellera Asédec.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 19:18. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: manuscript variant (ה/ח) with a third reading in the Greek. Two Qumran copies agree on "sun."

Many scholars think "sun" is older and "destruction" a deliberate or accidental change; others defend the Masoretic Text as a pun. The Targum combines readings (reported).

Josephus (Antiquities 13.62–73) says Onias IV appealed to Isaiah's prophecy (19:19) for his temple at Leontopolis, in the nome of Heliopolis (2nd century BC).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documented1QIsa-a and 4Q56 read "city of the sun." Transcription; image check open (ISA-C5).
  • DisputedThe Masoretic "city of destruction" is the original reading.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek reads "Asedek." Giguet; C check against Ziegler.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 19: Blessed Be Egypt My People →The LORD rides a swift cloud into Egypt; its idols tremble; Egyptian fights Egyptian; a cruel lord rules them (19:1–4). The Nile dries; fishermen, flax-workers and weavers despair (vv. 5–10). Pharaoh's wise men in Zoan and Noph are fools (vv. 11–15). Then, in five "in that day" sayings, the oracle turns: Egypt fears Judah; five cities speak the language of Canaan, one called "the city of destruction" (or "of the sun"); an altar to the LORD stands in Egypt; God sends a savior; Egypt and Assyria worship together; and God blesses them: "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance" (vv. 16–25).
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.