Isaiah 19

CHAPTER 19

An Oracle Concerning Egypt

¹The ^1aoracle concerning ^bEgypt.

Behold, Yahweh is ^criding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;

The ^didols of Egypt will shake 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 emptied to destruction within them;

And I will confuse their counsel,

So that ^athey will seek 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 ¹strong king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

^5aThe waters from the sea will dry up,

And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶The ^arivers will emit a stench,

The ^1bstreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;

^cThe reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷The 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.

⁸And 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 ²languish.

⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax

And the weavers of white ^acloth will be ashamed.

¹⁰And ¹the ^apillars of Egypt will be crushed;

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The princes of ^1aZoan are merely ignorant fools;

The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become ²senseless.

How can you men say to Pharaoh,

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

¹²Well then, where are your wise men?

Please let them tell you,

And let them ¹understand what Yahweh of hosts

Has ^acounseled against Egypt.

¹³The princes of ¹Zoan have acted as ignorant fools,

The princes of ^aMemphis are deluded;

Those who are the ^bcornerstone of her tribes

²Have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of ^adistortion;

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

As a ^cdrunken man ²strays into his vomit.

¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt

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

Yahweh Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in ^adread because of the ^bwaving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them.

¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a ¹terror to Egypt; everyone ²to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the ^acounsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them.

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and ^aswearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of ¹Destruction.

¹⁹In that day there will be an ^aaltar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a ^bpillar to Yahweh near its border.

²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a ^aSavior and a ^1bChampion, and He will deliver them.

²¹Thus Yahweh will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with ^asacrifice and offering, and they will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it.

²²And Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but ^ahealing; so they will ^breturn to Yahweh, and He will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them.

²³In that day there will be a ^ahighway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will ^bworship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,

²⁵whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is ^aEgypt My people, and Assyria ^bthe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”