Isaiah 19:1–17

A Message about Egypt

This message came to me concerning Egypt:

Look! The Lord is advancing against Egypt,

riding on a swift cloud.

The idols of Egypt tremble.

The hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear.

²“I will make Egyptian fight against Egyptian—

brother against brother,

neighbor against neighbor,

city against city,

province against province.

³The Egyptians will lose heart,

and I will confuse their plans.

They will plead with their idols for wisdom

and call on spirits, mediums, and those who consult the spirits of the dead.

⁴I will hand Egypt over

to a hard, cruel master.

A fierce king will rule them,”

says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

⁵The waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields.

The riverbed will be parched and dry.

⁶The canals of the Nile will dry up,

and the streams of Egypt will stink

with rotting reeds and rushes.

⁷All the greenery along the riverbank

and all the crops along the river

will dry up and blow away.

⁸The fishermen will lament for lack of work.

Those who cast hooks into the Nile will groan,

and those who use nets will lose heart.

⁹There will be no flax for the harvesters,

no thread for the weavers.

¹⁰They will be in despair,

and all the workers will be sick at heart.

¹¹What fools are the officials of Zoan!

Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is stupid and wrong.

Will they still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom?

Will they dare brag about all their wise ancestors?

¹²Where are your wise counselors, Pharaoh?

Let them tell you what God plans,

what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies is going to do to Egypt.

¹³The officials of Zoan are fools,

and the officials of Memphis are deluded.

The leaders of the people

have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them,

so all their suggestions are wrong.

They cause Egypt to stagger

like a drunk in his vomit.

¹⁵There is nothing Egypt can do.

All are helpless—

the head and the tail,

the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women. They will cower in fear beneath the upraised fist of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ¹⁷Just to speak the name of Israel will terrorize them, for the Lord of Heaven’s Armies has laid out his plans against them.