Isaiah 19

Chapter 19

Message to Egypt

¹The ^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.

^5aThe waters from the sea will dry up,

And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶The ^1acanals will emit a stench,

The ^2bstreams 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 ²pine away.

⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax

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

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

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The 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”?

¹²Well then, where are your wise men?

Please let them tell you,

And let them ¹understand what the Lord of hosts

Has ^apurposed against Egypt.

¹³The princes of ¹Zoan have acted foolishly,

The princes of ^aMemphis are deluded;

Those who are the ^bcornerstone of her tribes

Have ²led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The 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.

¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt

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

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 the Lord of hosts, which He is going to wave over them.

¹⁷The land of Judah will become a ¹terror to Egypt; everyone ²to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the ^apurpose of the Lord of hosts which He is purposing against them.

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

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

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

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

²²The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but ^ahealing; so they will ^breturn to the Lord, and He will respond to them 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 the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is ^aEgypt My people, and Assyria ^bthe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”