The city of destruction (Isa 19:18). Smitten with "terror" at Jehovah's judgments, Egypt shall be converted to Him. "Five cities shall speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts." Some think the five are Heliopolis, Leontopolis, Migdol, Daphne (Tahpanhes), and Memphis. Leontopolis is perhaps "the city of destruction," so-called in disparagement, because here Onias, who had failed to get the high priesthood at Jerusalem, built a temple in rivalry of that at Jerusalem which was the only lawful one. Onias read "city of the sun" (ha-heres), i.e. On or Heliopolis, in the nome (prefecture) of which he persuaded Ptolemy Philometer (149 B.C.) to let him build the temple, in order to tempt the Jews to reside there. He alleged that this site was foreappointed by Isaiah's prophecy 600 years before.

So 16 manuscripts, also Vulgate. The conversion (through the Jewish settlement in Egypt and the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament) of many Ethiopians to the God of the Jews (Ac 2:6,10-11), e.g. Queen Candace's chamberlain whom Philip met on his return from worshipping at Jerusalem, is an earnest of a fuller conversion to come (Zep 3:9; Zec 14:9; Re 7:9). The "altar" and "pillar" foretold (Isa 19:19-20) are memorial and spiritual (Jos 22:22-26; Ge 28:18; Mal 1:11); for one only sacrificial altar was lawful, namely, that at Jerusalem. Alexander the Great, the temporal "saviour" of Egypt from the Persians, was a type of the true Saviour. Onion, a Jewish city in Egypt, is supposed in Smith's Bible Dictionary to be "the city of destruction"; its destruction by Titus being thus foretold.

In Isa 19:18 the name to be given in the ideal future to one of the 'five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Jehovah of hosts'; AV and RV 'one shall be called, The city of destruction.' The usually accepted explanation of the passage is that the name 'city of heres, or destruction,'