Isaiah 19:1–23:18
19 A prophecyv against Egypt:w
See, the Lord rides on a swift cloudx
and is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him,
and the hearts of the Egyptians melty with fear.
2 “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian—
brother will fight against brother,z
neighbor against neighbor,
city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.a
3 The Egyptians will lose heart,b
and I will bring their plansc to nothing;d
they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,
the mediums and the spiritists.e
4 I will hand the Egyptians over
to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce kingf will rule over them,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
5 The waters of the river will dry up,g
and the riverbed will be parched and dry.h
6 The canals will stink;i
the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.j
The reedsk and rushes will wither,l
7 also the plantsm along the Nile,
at the mouth of the river.
Every sown fieldn along the Nile
will become parched, will blow away and be no more.o
8 The fishermenp will groan and lament,
all who cast hooksq into the Nile;
those who throw nets on the water
will pine away.
9 Those who work with combed flaxr will despair,
the weavers of fine linens will lose hope.
10 The workers in cloth will be dejected,
and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.
11 The officials of Zoant are nothing but fools;
the wise counselorsu of Pharaoh give senseless advice.v
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the wise men,w
a disciple of the ancient kings”?
12 Where are your wise menx now?
Let them show you and make known
what the Lord Almighty
has plannedy against Egypt.
13 The officials of Zoanz have become fools,
the leaders of Memphisa are deceived;
the cornerstonesb of her peoples
have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has poured into them
a spirit of dizziness;c
they make Egypt stagger in all that she does,
as a drunkard staggersd around in his vomit.
15 There is nothing Egypt can do—
head or tail, palm branch or reed.e
16 In that dayf the Egyptians will become weaklings.g They will shudder with fearh at the uplifted handi that the Lord Almighty raises against them. 17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified,j because of what the Lord Almighty is planningk against them.
18 In that dayl five citiesm in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiancen to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.a o
19 In that dayp there will be an altarq to the Lord in the heart of Egypt,r and a monuments to the Lord at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witnesst to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savioru and defender, and he will rescuev them. 21 So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledgew the Lord. They will worshipx with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them.y 22 The Lord will strikez Egypt with a plague;a he will strike them and heal them. They will turnb to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and healc them.
23 In that dayd there will be a highwaye from Egypt to Assyria.f The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worshipg together. 24 In that dayh Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria,i a blessingb j on the earth. 25 The Lord Almighty will blessk them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people,l Assyria my handiwork,m and Israel my inheritance.n”
A Prophecy Against Egypt and Cush
20 In the year that the supreme commander,o sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdodp and attacked and captured it—2 at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz.q He said to him, “Take off the sackclothr from your body and the sandalss from your feet.” And he did so, going around strippedt and barefoot.u
3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servantv Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years,w as a signx and portenty against Egyptz and Cush,a a 4 so the kingb of Assyria will lead away strippedc and barefoot the Egyptian captivesd and Cushitee exiles, young and old, with buttocks baredf—to Egypt’s shame.g 5 Those who trustedh in Cushi and boasted in Egyptj will be dismayed and put to shame.k 6 In that dayl the people who live on this coast will say, ‘See what has happenedm to those we relied on,n those we fled to for helpo and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?p’ ”
21 A prophecyq against the Desertr by the Sea:
Like whirlwindss sweeping through the southland,t
an invader comes from the desert,
from a land of terror.
2 A direu vision has been shown to me:
The traitor betrays,v the looter takes loot.
Elam,w attack! Media,x lay siege!
I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused.
3 At this my body is racked with pain,y
pangs seize me, like those of a woman in labor;z
I am staggered by what I hear,
I am bewildereda by what I see.
4 My heartb falters,
fear makes me tremble;c
the twilight I longed for
has become a horrord to me.
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink!e
Get up, you officers,
oil the shields!f
6 This is what the Lord says to me:
“Go, post a lookoutg
and have him report what he sees.
7 When he sees chariotsh
with teams of horses,
riders on donkeys
or riders on camels,i
let him be alert,
fully alert.”
“Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower;
every night I stay at my post.
9 Look, here comes a man in a chariotk
with a team of horses.
And he gives back the answer:
‘Babylonl has fallen,m has fallen!
All the images of its godsn
lie shatteredo on the ground!’ ”
10 My people who are crushed on the threshing floor,p
I tell you what I have heard
from the Lord Almighty,
from the God of Israel.
11 A prophecy against Dumahb:q
Someone calls to me from Seir,r
“Watchman, what is left of the night?
Watchman, what is left of the night?”
“Morning is coming, but also the night.
If you would ask, then ask;
and come back yet again.”
13 A prophecys against Arabia:t
You caravans of Dedanites,u
who camp in the thickets of Arabia,
14 bring water for the thirsty;
you who live in Tema,v
bring food for the fugitives.
15 They fleew from the sword,x
from the drawn sword,
from the bent bow
and from the heat of battle.
16 This is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a servant bound by contracty would count it, all the splendorz of Kedara will come to an end. 17 The survivors of the archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.b” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.c
22 A prophecyd against the Valleye of Vision:f
What troubles you now,
that you have all gone up on the roofs,g
2 you town so full of commotion,
you city of tumulth and revelry?i
Your slainj were not killed by the sword,k
nor did they die in battle.
3 All your leaders have fledl together;
they have been capturedm without using the bow.
All you who were caught were taken prisoner together,
having fled while the enemy was still far away.
4 Therefore I said, “Turn away from me;
let me weepn bitterly.
Do not try to console me
over the destruction of my people.”o
5 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a dayp
of tumult and tramplingq and terrorr
in the Valley of Vision,s
a day of battering down wallst
and of crying out to the mountains.
with her charioteers and horses;
Kirw uncovers the shield.
7 Your choicest valleysx are full of chariots,
and horsemen are posted at the city gates.y
8 The Lord stripped away the defenses of Judah,
and you looked in that dayz
to the weaponsa in the Palace of the Forest.b
9 You saw that the walls of the City of David
were broken throughc in many places;
you stored up water
in the Lower Pool.d
10 You counted the buildings in Jerusalem
and tore down housese to strengthen the wall.f
11 You built a reservoir between the two wallsg
for the water of the Old Pool,h
but you did not look to the One who made it,
or have regardi for the One who plannedj it long ago.
12 The Lord, the Lord Almighty,
called you on that dayk
to weepl and to wail,
to tear out your hairm and put on sackcloth.n
13 But see, there is joy and revelry,o
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!p
“Let us eat and drink,” you say,
“for tomorrow we die!”q
14 The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing:r “Till your dying day this sin will not be atoneds for,” says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
15 This is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:
“Go, say to this steward,
to Shebnat the palaceu administrator:v
16 What are you doing here and who gave you permission
to cut out a gravew for yourselfx here,
hewing your grave on the height
and chiseling your resting place in the rock?
17 “Beware, the Lord is about to take firm hold of you
and hurly you away, you mighty man.
18 He will roll you up tightly like a ball
and throwz you into a large country.
There you will die
and there the chariotsa you were so proud of
will become a disgrace to your master’s house.
19 I will depose you from your office,
and you will be oustedb from your position.c
20 “In that dayd I will summon my servant,e Eliakimf son of Hilkiah. 21 I will clothe him with your robe and fasten your sashg around him and hand your authorityh over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. 22 I will place on his shoulderi the keyj to the house of David;k what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.l 23 I will drive him like a pegm into a firm place;n he will become a seata of honoro for the house of his father. 24 All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots—all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.