Message to Egypt

1 The 1aoracle concerning bEgypt.

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

The didols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,

And the eheart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

2 “So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;

And they will aeach fight 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 confound their strategy,

So that athey will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead

And to 1mediums and spiritists.

4 “Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a acruel master,

And a 1mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord 2God of hosts.

5 aThe waters from the sea will dry up,

And the river will be parched and dry.

6 The 1acanals will emit a stench,

The 2bstreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;

cThe reeds and rushes will rot away.

7 The bulrushes by the aNile, by the 1edge of the Nile

And all the sown fields by the Nile

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

8 And the afishermen will lament,

And all those who cast a 1line into the Nile will mourn,

And those who spread nets on the waters will 2pine away.

9 Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax

And the weavers of white acloth will be 1utterly dejected.

10 And 1the apillars of Egypt will be crushed;

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

11 The princes of 1aZoan are mere fools;

The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become 2stupid.

How can you men say to Pharaoh,

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

12 Well then, where are your wise men?

Please let them tell you,

And let them 1understand what the Lord of hosts

Has apurposed against Egypt.

13 The princes of 1Zoan have acted foolishly,

The princes of aMemphis are deluded;

Those who are the bcornerstone of her tribes

Have 2led Egypt astray.

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

bThey have led Egypt astray in all 1that it does,

As a cdrunken man 2staggers in his vomit.

15 There will be no work for Egypt

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