Isaiah 19:1-17

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁵ And the waters of the Nile will be dried up,
    and the river will be parched and dry;
⁶ and its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up,
    reeds and rushes will rot away.
⁷ There will be bare places by the Nile,
    on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
    be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ The fishermen will mourn and lament,
    all who cast hook in the Nile;
and they will languish
    who spread nets upon the water.
⁹ The workers in combed flax will be in despair,
    and the weavers of white cotton.
¹⁰ Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,
    and all who work for hire will be grieved.

¹¹ The princes of Zo′an are utterly foolish;
    the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
    “I am a son of the wise,
    a son of ancient kings”?
¹² Where then are your wise men?
    Let them tell you and make known
    what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
¹³ The princes of Zo′an have become fools,
    and the princes of Memphis are deluded;
those who are the cornerstones of her tribes
    have led Egypt astray.
¹⁴ The Lord has mingled within her a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all her doings
    as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ And there will be nothing for Egypt
    which head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.