Isaiah 17–20

God’s Message to Aram

17This is a message about Damascus:

“The city of Damascus will be destroyed;

only ruins will remain.

²People will leave the cities of Aroer.

Flocks will wander freely in those empty towns,

and there will be no one to bother them.

³The strong, walled cities of Israel will be destroyed.

The government in Damascus will end.

Those left alive of Aram will be

like the glory of Israel,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

⁴“At that time Israel’s wealth will all be gone.

Israel will be like someone who has lost much weight from sickness.

⁵That time will be like the grain harvest in the Valley of Rephaim.

The workers cut the wheat.

Then they cut the heads of grain from the plants

and collect the grain.

⁶That time will also be like the olive harvest,

when a few olives are left.

Two or three olives are left in the top branches.

Four or five olives are left on full branches,” says the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷At that time people will look to God, their Maker;

their eyes will see the Holy One of Israel.

⁸They will not trust the altars they have made,

nor will they trust what their hands have made,

not even the Asherah idols and altars.

⁹In that day all their strong cities will be empty. They will be like the cities the Hivites and the Amorites left when the Israelites came to take the land. Everything will be ruined.

¹⁰You have forgotten the God who saves you;

you have not remembered that God is your place of safety.

You plant the finest grapevines

and grapevines from faraway places.

¹¹You plant your grapevines one day and try to make them grow,

and the next day you make them blossom.

But at harvest time everything will be dead;

a sickness will kill all the plants.

¹²Listen to the many people!

Their crying is like the noise from the sea.

Listen to the nations!

Their crying is like the crashing of great waves.

¹³The people roar like the waves,

but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away.

They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind,

or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.

¹⁴At night the people will be very frightened.

Before morning, no one will be left.

So our enemies will come to our land,

but they will become nothing.

God’s Message to Cush

18How terrible it will be for the land beyond the rivers of Cush.

It is filled with the sound of wings.

²That land sends messengers across the sea;

they go on the water in boats made of reeds.

Go, quick messengers,

to a people who are tall and smooth-skinned,

who are feared everywhere.

They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations.

Their land is divided by rivers.

³All you people of the world, look!

Everyone who lives in the world, look!

You will see a banner raised on a mountain.

You will hear a trumpet sound.

⁴The Lord said to me,

“I will quietly watch from where I live,

like heat in the sunshine,

like the dew in the heat of harvest time.”

⁵The time will come, after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest,

when new grapes will be budding and growing.

The enemy will cut the plants with knives;

he will cut down the vines and take them away.

⁶They will be left for the birds of the mountains

and for the wild animals.

Birds will feed on them all summer,

and wild animals will eat them that winter.”

⁷At that time a gift will be brought to the Lord All-Powerful

from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned,

who are feared everywhere.

They are a powerful nation that defeats other nations.

Their land is divided by rivers.

These gifts will be brought to the place of the Lord All-Powerful,

to Mount Zion.

God’s Message to Egypt

19This is a message about Egypt:

Look, the Lord is coming on a fast cloud

to enter Egypt.

The idols of Egypt will tremble before him,

and Egypt’s courage will melt away.

²The Lord says, “I will cause the Egyptians to fight against themselves.

People will fight with their relatives;

neighbors will fight neighbors;

cities will fight cities;

kingdoms will fight kingdoms.

³The Egyptians will be afraid,

and I will ruin their plans.

They will ask advice from their idols and spirits of the dead,

from their mediums and fortune-tellers.”

⁴The Lord God All-Powerful says,

“I will hand Egypt over to a hard master,

and a powerful king will rule over them.”

⁵The sea will become dry,

and the water will disappear from the Nile River.

⁶The canals will stink;

the streams of Egypt will decrease and dry up.

All the water plants will rot;

⁷all the plants along the banks of the Nile will die.

Even the planted fields by the Nile

will dry up, blow away, and disappear.

⁸The fishermen, all those who catch fish from the Nile,

will groan and cry;

those who fish in the Nile will be sad.

⁹All the people who make cloth from flax will be sad,

and those who weave linen will lose hope.

¹⁰Those who weave cloth will be broken.

All those who work for money will be sad.

¹¹The officers of the city of Zoan are fools;

the wise men who advise the king of Egypt give wrong advice.

How can you say to him, ‘I am wise’?

How can you say, ‘I am from the old family of the kings’?

¹²Egypt, where are your wise men?

Let them show you

what the Lord All-Powerful has planned for Egypt.

¹³The officers of Zoan have been fooled;

the leaders of Memphis have believed false things.

So the leaders of Egypt

lead that nation the wrong way.

¹⁴The Lord has made the leaders confused.

They have led Egypt to wander in the wrong ways,

like drunk people stumbling in their own vomit.

¹⁵There is nothing Egypt can do;

no one there can help.

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will be afraid of the Lord All-Powerful, because he will raise his hand to strike them down. ¹⁷The land of Judah will bring fear to Egypt. Anyone there who hears the name Judah will be afraid, because the Lord All-Powerful has planned terrible things for them. ¹⁸At that time five cities in Egypt will speak Hebrew, the language of Canaan, and they will promise to be loyal to the Lord All-Powerful. One of these cities will be named the City of Destruction. ¹⁹At that time there will be an altar for the Lord in the middle of Egypt and a monument to the Lord at the border of Egypt. ²⁰This will be a sign and a witness to the Lord All-Powerful in the land of Egypt. When the people cry to the Lord for help, he will send someone to save and defend them. He will rescue them from those who hurt them.

²¹So the Lord will show himself to the Egyptians, and then they will know he is the Lord. They will worship God and offer many sacrifices. They will make promises to the Lord and will keep them. ²²The Lord will punish the Egyptians, but then he will heal them. They will come back to the Lord, and he will listen to their prayers and heal them.

²³At that time there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians will go to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship God together. ²⁴At that time Israel, Assyria, and Egypt will join together, which will be a blessing for the earth. ²⁵The Lord All-Powerful will bless them, saying, “Egypt, you are my people. Assyria, I made you. Israel, I own you. You are all blessed!”

Assyria Will Defeat Egypt and Cush

20Sargon king of Assyria sent a military commander to Ashdod to attack that city. So the commander attacked and captured it. ²Then the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Take the rough cloth off your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” So Isaiah obeyed and walked around naked and barefoot.

³Then the Lord said, “Isaiah my servant has walked around naked and barefoot for three years as a sign against Egypt and Cush. ⁴The king of Assyria will carry away prisoners from Egypt and Cush. Old people and young people will be led away naked and barefoot, with their buttocks bare. So the Egyptians will be shamed. ⁵People who looked to Cush for help will be afraid, and those who were amazed by Egypt’s glory will be shamed. ⁶People who live near the sea will say, ‘Look at those countries. We trusted them to help us. We ran to them so they would save us from the king of Assyria. So how will we be able to escape?’ ”