Isaiah 19

The Message

Anarchy and Chaos and Killing!

19 A Message concerning Egypt:

Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,
moving in on Egypt!
The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,
Egyptians paralyzed by panic.

^2-4God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,
    brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,
City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—
    anarchy and chaos and killing!
I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.
    They won’t know coming from going.
They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;
    they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.
But I’ll turn the Egyptians
    over to a tyrant most cruel.
I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”
    Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^5-10The River Nile will dry up,
    the riverbed baked dry in the sun.
The canals will become stagnant and stink,
    every stream touching the Nile dry up.
River vegetation will rot away
    the banks of the Nile-baked clay,
The riverbed hard and smooth,
    river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.
Fishermen will complain
    that the fishing’s been ruined.
Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers
    and workers in linen and cotton and wool
Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—
    everyone who works for a living, jobless.

^11-15The princes of Zoan are fools,
    the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.
How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,
    “Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.
    Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?
There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.
    If there were, one of them would tell you
    what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.
As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools
    and the princes of Memphis, idiots.
The honored pillars of your society
    have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.
God has scrambled their brains,
    Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.
Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,
    a senile, doddering old fool.

* * *

^16-17On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.

¹⁸On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”

^19-22On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.

²³On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!

^24-25On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”

Isaiah 19

New King James Version

Proclamation Against Egypt

19 The ^(A)burden^[a] against Egypt.

Behold, the Lord ^(B)rides on a swift cloud,
And will come into Egypt;
^(C)The idols of Egypt will ^[b]totter at His presence,
And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

²“I will ^(D)set Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
³The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst;
I will destroy their counsel,
And they will ^(E)consult the idols and the charmers,
The mediums and the sorcerers.
⁴And the Egyptians I will give
^(F)Into the hand of a cruel master,
And a fierce king will rule over them,”
Says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

⁵^(G)The waters will fail from the sea,
And the river will be wasted and dried up.
⁶The rivers will turn foul;
The brooks ^(H)of defense will be emptied and dried up;
The reeds and rushes will wither.
⁷The papyrus reeds by ^[c]the River, by the mouth of the River,
And everything sown by the River,
Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.
⁸The fishermen also will mourn;
All those will lament who cast hooks into the River,
And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.
⁹Moreover those who work in ^(I)fine flax
And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;
¹⁰And its foundations will be broken.
All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

¹¹Surely the princes of ^(J)Zoan are fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel.
^(K)How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise,
The son of ancient kings?”
¹²^(L)Where are they?
Where are your wise men?
Let them tell you now,
And let them know what the Lord of hosts has ^(M)purposed against Egypt.
¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools;
^(N)The princes of ^[d]Noph are deceived;
They have also ^[e]deluded Egypt,
Those who are the ^[f]mainstay of its tribes.
¹⁴The Lord has mingled ^(O)a perverse spirit in her midst;
And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work,
As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
¹⁵Neither will there be any work for Egypt,
Which ^(P)the head or tail,
Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶In that day Egypt will ^(Q)be like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, ^(R)which He waves over it. ¹⁷And 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 ^(S)determined against it.

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed

¹⁸In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will ^(T)speak the language of Canaan and ^(U)swear by the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of ^[g]Destruction.

¹⁹In that day ^(V)there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the ^(W)Lord at its border. ²⁰And ^(X)it 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 ^(Y)Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. ²¹Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will ^(Z)know the Lord in that day, and ^(AA)will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. ²²And the Lord will strike Egypt, He will strike and ^(AB)heal it; they will return to the Lord, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

²³In that day ^(AC)there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will ^(AD)serve with the Assyrians.

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

Footnotes

Isaiah 19:1 oracle, prophecy
Isaiah 19:1 Lit. shake
Isaiah 19:7 The Nile
Isaiah 19:13 Ancient Memphis
Isaiah 19:13 Lit. caused to stagger
Isaiah 19:13 cornerstone
Isaiah 19:18 Some Heb. mss., Arab., DSS, Tg., Vg. Sun; LXX Asedek, lit. Righteousness

The Message (MSG)

New King James Version (NKJV)

Isaiah 19 The Message