Isaiah 19:1-15
International Standard Version
A Rebuke to Egypt
19 A message[a] about Egypt:
“Watch out! The Lord rides on a swift cloud,
and is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him,
and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.
2 I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
and everyone will fight against his brother,
everyone against his neighbor,
city[b] against city,
kingdom against kingdom.
3 The spirits of the Egyptians within them will be drained of courage,[c]
and I will bring their plans to nothing.
They will consult idols[d] and spirits of the dead,
and mediums and spiritists.
4 I will hand the Egyptians over
to the power of a cruel master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,”
declares the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies.
A Rebuke to Egypt’s Ecology and Industry
5 “The water sources[e] of the Nile[f] will be dried up,
and the river[g] will become dry and parched.
6 The canals will stink,
and[h] the tributaries of Egypt will dwindle and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will wither away.[i]
7 And the bulrushes along the Nile,[j]
along the mouth of the Nile,[k] will wither away.
All the sown fields of the Nile will become parched,
and[l] they will be blown away;
there will be nothing left.[m]
8 The fishermen will groan,
and all who cast hooks into the Nile will lament;
those who spread nets upon the water
will become weaker and weaker.
9 The workers[n] in combed flax
and the weavers of white linen
will be in despair.
10 Egypt’s[o] workers in cloth[p] will be crushed,
and all who work for wages will be sick at heart.”
A Rebuke to Egypt’s Leaders
11 Zoan’s princes are nothing but fools;
the wisest advisors of Pharaoh give stupid advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I’m a descendant of wise men,
a descendant of ancient kings”?
12 Where are your wise men now?
Let them tell you,
let them make known
what the Lord[q] has planned against Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools,
and the princes of Memphis deluded;
the leaders[r] of its tribes
have led Egypt astray.
14 The Lord has mixed[s] within them[t] a spirit of confusion;
so they make Egypt stagger in all that it does,
like a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
15 As a result, there will be nothing for Egypt
that head or tail, palm branch or reed, can do.[u]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 19:1 Lit. An oracle
- Isaiah 19:2 So 1QIsaa; MT LXX lack and
- Isaiah 19:3 1QIsaa MT lack of courage
- Isaiah 19:3 So 1QIsaa; MT reads consult the idols; LXX reads consult their idols
- Isaiah 19:5 1QIsaa MT lack sources
- Isaiah 19:5 Or the sea
- Isaiah 19:5 I.e. the Nile
- Isaiah 19:6 So 1QIsaa LXX; the Heb. lacks and
- Isaiah 19:6 So 4QIsab MT; 1QIsaa lacks this line
- Isaiah 19:7 So 1QIsaa MT; LXX lacks this line
- Isaiah 19:7 Lit. the River
- Isaiah 19:7 So 1QIsaa; the Heb. lacks and
- Isaiah 19:7 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsab MT read and will be no more; LXX lacks this line
- Isaiah 19:9 So 1QIsaa 4QIsab; MT LXX read And the workers
- Isaiah 19:10 Lit. Its
- Isaiah 19:10 Lit. Its weavers
- Isaiah 19:12 So 1QIsaa; 1QIsaa corrector MT LXX read Lord of the Heavenly Armies
- Isaiah 19:13 Or cornerstones
- Isaiah 19:14 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; 4QIsab reads has poured
- Isaiah 19:14 Lit. it
- Isaiah 19:15 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; 4QIsab reads do at that time
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