Isaiah 17-20

New American Standard Bible

⁴ Now on that day the ^(J)glory of Jacob will ^[e]fade,
And ^(K)the fatness of his flesh will become lean.
⁵ It will be ^(L)like the ^[f]reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the ^(M)Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Yet ^(N)gleanings will be left in it like the ^[g]shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost branch,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
⁷ On that day man will ^(O)look to his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
⁸ And he will not look to the ^(P)altars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his ^(Q)fingers have made,
Even the ^[h](R)Asherim and incense altars.
⁹ On that day ^[i]their strong cities will be like ^[j]abandoned places in the forest,
Or like branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And ^[k]the land will be a desolation.
¹⁰ For ^(S)you have forgotten the ^(T)God of your salvation
And have not remembered the ^(U)rock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine shoots of a strange god.
¹¹ On the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the ^(V)morning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will ^(W)flee
On a day of illness and incurable pain.

¹² Oh, the uproar of many peoples
^(X)Who roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the ^(Y)rumbling of mighty waters!
¹³ The ^(Z)nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will ^(AA)rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
And be chased ^(AB)like chaff on the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
¹⁴ At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning ^(AC)they are gone.
This will be the ^[l]fate of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.

^5 (AY)The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
⁶ The ^[y](AZ)canals will emit a stench,
The ^[z](BA)streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
^(BB)The reeds and rushes will rot away.
⁷ The bulrushes by the ^(BC)Nile, by the ^[aa]edge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ And the ^(BD)fishermen will grieve,
And all those who cast a ^[ab]line into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.
⁹ Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white ^(BE)cloth will be ^[ac]utterly dejected.
¹⁰ And ^[ad]the ^(BF)pillars of Egypt will be crushed;
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹ The officials of ^[ae](BG)Zoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become ^[af]stupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the ^(BH)wise, a son of ancient kings”?
¹² Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them ^[ag]understand what the Lord of armies
Has ^(BI)planned against Egypt.
¹³ The officials of ^[ah]Zoan have turned out to be fools,
The officials of ^(BJ)Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the ^(BK)cornerstone of her tribes
Have ^[ai]led Egypt astray.
¹⁴ The Lord has mixed within her a spirit of ^(BL)distortion;
^(BM)They have led Egypt astray in all ^[aj]that it does,
As a ^(BN)drunken person ^[ak]staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵ There will be no work for Egypt
^(BO)Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.