Isaiah 18:1–19:25

Proclamation Against Ethiopia

18 Woe ato the land shadowed with buzzing wings,

Which is beyond the rivers of 1Ethiopia,

2 Which sends ambassadors by sea,

Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,

“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,

To a people terrible from their beginning onward,

A nation powerful and treading down,

Whose land the rivers divide.”

3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:

bWhen he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;

And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.

4 For so the Lord said to me,

“I will take My rest,

And I will 2look from My dwelling place

Like clear heat in sunshine,

Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect

And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,

He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks

And take away and cut down the branches.

6 They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey

And for the beasts of the earth;

The birds of prey will summer on them,

And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

7 In that time ca present will be brought to the Lord of hosts

3From a people tall and smooth of skin,

And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,

A nation powerful and treading down,

Whose land the rivers divide—

To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,

To Mount Zion.

Proclamation Against Egypt

19 The aburden 1against Egypt.

Behold, the Lord brides on a swift cloud,

And will come into Egypt;

cThe idols of Egypt will 2totter at His presence,

And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

2 “I will dset Egyptians against Egyptians;

Everyone will fight against his brother,

And everyone against his neighbor,

City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

3 The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;

I will destroy their counsel,

And they will econsult the idols and the charmers,

The mediums and the sorcerers.

4 And the Egyptians I will give

fInto the hand of a cruel master,

And a fierce king will rule over them,”

Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

5 gThe waters will fail from the sea,

And the river will be wasted and dried up.

6 The rivers will turn foul;

The brooks hof defense will be emptied and dried up;

The reeds and rushes will wither.

7 The papyrus reeds by 3the River, by the mouth of the River,

And everything sown by the River,

Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.

8 The fishermen also will mourn;

All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,

And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.

9 Moreover those who work in ifine flax

And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;

10 And its foundations will be broken.

All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

11 Surely the princes of jZoan are fools;

Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.

kHow do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,

The son of ancient kings?”

12 lWhere are they?

Where are your wise men?

Let them tell you now,

And let them know what the Lord of hosts has mpurposed against Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan have become fools;

nThe princes of 4Noph are deceived;

They have also 5deluded Egypt,

Those who are the 6mainstay of its tribes.

14 The Lord has mingled oa perverse spirit in her midst;

And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,

As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

15 Neither will there be any work for Egypt,

Which pthe head or tail,

Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

16 In that day Egypt will qbe like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, rwhich He waves over it. 17 And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts which He has sdetermined against it.

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will tspeak the language of Canaan and uswear by the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of 7Destruction.

19 In that day vthere will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the wLord at its border. 20 And xit will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of the oppressors, and He will send them a ySavior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. 21 Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will zknow the Lord in that day, and awill make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. 22 And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and bheal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

23 In that day cthere will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will dserve with the Assyrians.

24 In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, 25 whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria ethe work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”