Isaiah 19:1-25
19 The boding for Egypt:There is Jehovah riding a swift cloud; and he comes to Egypt and Egypt’s trumpery gods sway about before him, and the Egyptians’ hearts melt down within them.
2 And I will spur Egyptians against Egyptians, and they shall fight against brothers and against friends, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 * and the Egyptians’ wits will be flustered and I will make their policy a bungle; and they will resort to the trumpery gods and the conjurers and the different kinds of mediums.
4 * And I will hand Egypt over to a hard master, and a stern king shall rule them, quoth Jehovah of Armies.
5 And water will be dried up from the sea, and a river will be dried off and out,
6 and rivers will stink; the branches of Egypt’s Nile dwindle and are drying off; reeds and weeds are yellowed;
7 * there are bare places by the Nile, by the Nile bank, and all the Nile sowings are dried out, blown away and missing.
8 * And the fishermen grieve and mourn; all who throw hooks into the Nile and who spread seines over the water stand forlorn;
9 * and flax-workers are disappointed, combing women and weavers turn white;
10 * and boatmen are disconsolate, all who ply for fares downhearted.
11 Soan’s generals are mere ignoramuses, the Pharaoh’s wisest counselors are idiotic counsel; how are you to say to the Pharaoh “I am a son of wise men, a son of Eastern kings”!
12 * Where are your wise men, to inform you and make known what purpose Jehovah of Armies has formed against Egypt?
13 Soan’s generals have made fools of themselves, Memphis’s generals are deluded; the headmen of Egypt’s tribes have misled her.
14 Jehovah has mixed within her a spirit of warped thoughts that will set Egypt blundering about with all her business as a drunken man blunders about with his vomit;
15 and Egypt will have no business that head and tail, palm-leaf and rush, will do.
16 On that day the Egyptians will be like women, in panic and dread at the waving of the hand of Jehovah of Armies which he is waving over them;
17 and the soil of Judah will be a nightmare to the Egyptians, everyone to whom one mentions it will be in dread, because of the purpose of Jehovah of Armies that he has formed against them.
18 ** On that day there will be five cities in Egypt speaking the tongue of Canaan and swearing to Jehovah of Armies; one will be called City of the Sun.
19 On that day there will be an altar to Jehovah in the middle of Egypt, and beside its boundary an obelisk to Jehovah;
20 and it will be for a token and witness to Jehovah of Armies in Egypt, because they will cry to Jehovah because of invaders and he will send them a savior and defender who will deliver them;
21 and Jehovah will become known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know Jehovah on that day and worship with sacrifice and grain-offering and make vows to Jehovah and pay them.
22 And Jehovah will smite the Egyptians, smiting and curing; and they will come back to Jehovah and he will let himself be invoked for them and will cure them.
23 * On that day there will be a causeway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will be subject to the Assyrians.
24 On that day Israel will be a third to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing at the heart of the earth,
25 inasmuch as Jehovah of Armies will have blessed it, saying “Blessed is my people Egypt, and Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my estate.”
Footnotes
^ 19:3 Lit. the Egyptians’ spirits will be emptied out within them
^ 19:4 Var. quoth the Lord Jehovah of Armies
^ 19:7 (first words) Susp.
^ 19:8 (hooks) Or spears
^ 19:9 Codd. workers in combed flax (ungrammatical in the Hebrew) and weavers of white goods (unc.) are disappointed
^ 19:10 (boatmen) Unc.; susp.
^ 19:12 Var.* and know
^ 19:18 Or swearing by
^ 19:18 Var. City of Demolition Var. City of Right
^ 19:23 Or work with the Assyrians
