Isaiah's Stripped Sign Warns against Trusting Egypt and Cush

Tartan, Ashdod, and a three-year stripped walk date the sign

In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and fought against Ashdod, and took it; at the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

The LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. The exceptional sign-act matches coming captivity. It does not authorize forced nudity, public humiliation, unsafe imitation, or contempt toward captured people.

Judah's hoped-for southern shelter is exposed as a captured hope

And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?

Coastal Judah sees the allies it trusted marched away. The point is failed reliance, not mockery of the prisoners' bodies. Do not reenact the sign, and do not treat captives as illustrations you may shame.