Isaiah 19:1-17

Message to Egypt

¹The pronouncement concerning Egypt:

Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;

The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,

And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

2“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;

And they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbor,

City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

3“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;

And I will confuse their strategy,

So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead,

And to mediums and spiritists.

4“Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master,

And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord God of armies.

5The waters from the sea will dry up,

And the river will be parched and dry.

6The canals will emit a stench,

The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;

The reeds and rushes will rot away.

7The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile

And all the sown fields by the Nile

Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

8And the fishermen will grieve,

And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn,

And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

9Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax

And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.

10And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

11The officials of Zoan are mere fools;

The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

12Well then, where are your wise men?

Please let them tell you,

And let them understand what the Lord of armies

Has planned against Egypt.

13The officials of Zoan have turned out to be fools,

The officials of Memphis are deluded;

Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes

Have led Egypt astray.

14The Lord has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;

They have led Egypt astray in all that it does,

As a drunken person staggers in his vomit.

15There will be no work for Egypt

Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of armies, which He is going to wave over them. ¹⁷The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the Lord of armies which He is making against them.