Beginning
18 Ah, land beyond the upper reaches of the Nile,[a] where winged sailboats glide along the river! 2 Land that sends ambassadors in fast boats down the Nile! Let swift messengers return to you, O strong and supple nation feared far and wide, a conquering, destroying nation whose land the upper Nile divides.[b] And this is the message sent to you:
3 When I raise my battle flag upon the mountain, let all the world take notice! When I blow the trumpet, listen! 4 For the Lord has told me this: Let your mighty army now advance against the land of Israel.[c] God will watch quietly from his Temple in Jerusalem—serene as on a pleasant summer day or a lovely autumn morning during harvesttime. 5 But before you have begun the attack, and while your plans are ripening like grapes, he will cut you off as though with pruning shears. He will snip the spreading tendrils. 6 Your mighty army will be left dead on the field for the mountain birds and wild animals to eat; the vultures will tear bodies all summer, and the wild animals will gnaw bones all winter. 7 But the time will come when that strong and mighty nation, a terror to all both far and near, that conquering, destroying nation whose land the rivers divide, will bring gifts to the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem, where he has placed his name.
19 This is God’s message concerning Egypt:
Look, the Lord is coming against Egypt, riding on a swift cloud; the idols of Egypt tremble; the hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. 2 I will set them to fighting against each other—brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, province against province. 3 Her wise counselors are all at their wits’ end to know what to do; they plead with their idols for wisdom and call upon mediums, wizards, and witches to show them what to do. 4 I will hand over Egypt to a hard, cruel master, to a vicious king, says the Lord Almighty.
5 And the waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields; the ditches will be parched and dry, 6 their channels fouled with rotting reeds. 7 All green things along the riverbank will wither and blow away. All crops will perish; everything will die. 8 The fishermen will weep for lack of work; those who fish with hooks and those who use the nets will all be unemployed. 9 The weavers will have no flax or cotton, for the crops will fail. 10 Great men and small—all will be crushed and broken.
11 What fools the counselors of Zoan are! Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is utterly stupid and wrong. Will they still boast of their wisdom? Will they dare tell Pharaoh about the long line of wise men they have come from? 12 What has happened to your “wise counselors,” O Pharaoh? Where has their wisdom gone? If they are wise, let them tell you what the Lord is going to do to Egypt. 13 The “wise men” from Zoan are also fools, and those from Memphis are utterly deluded. They are the best you can find, but they have ruined Egypt with their foolish counsel. 14 The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so that all their suggestions are wrong; they make Egypt stagger like a sick drunkard. 15 Egypt cannot be saved by anything or anybody—no one can show her the way.
16 In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women, cowering in fear beneath the upraised fist of God. 17 Just to speak the name of Israel will strike deep terror in their hearts, for the Lord Almighty has laid his plans against them.
18 At that time five of the cities of Egypt will follow the Lord Almighty and will begin to speak the Hebrew language.[d] One of these will be Heliopolis, “The City of the Sun.” 19 And there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt in those days and a monument to the Lord at its border. 20 This will be for a sign of loyalty to the Lord Almighty; then when they cry to the Lord for help against those who oppress them, he will send them a savior—and he shall deliver them.
21 In that day the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. Yes, they will know the Lord and give their sacrifices and offerings to him; they will make promises to God and keep them. 22 The Lord will smite Egypt and then restore her! For the Egyptians will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their plea and heal them.
23 In that day Egypt and Iraq[e] will be connected by a highway, and the Egyptians and the Iraqis will move freely back and forth between their lands, and they shall worship the same God. 24 And Israel will be their ally; the three will be together, and Israel will be a blessing to them. 25 For the Lord will bless Egypt and Iraq because of their friendship[f] with Israel. He will say, “Blessed be Egypt, my people; blessed be Iraq, the land I have made; blessed be Israel, my inheritance!”
20 In the year when Sargon, king of Assyria, sent the commander-in-chief of his army against the Philistine city of Ashdod and captured it, 2 the Lord told Isaiah, the son of Amoz, to take off his clothing, including his shoes, and to walk around naked and barefoot. And Isaiah did as he was told.
3 Then the Lord said, My servant Isaiah, who has been walking naked and barefoot for the last three years, is a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia. 4 For the king of Assyria will take away the Egyptians and Ethiopians as prisoners, making them walk naked and barefoot, both young and old, their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5-6 Then how dismayed the Philistines[g] will be, who counted on “Ethiopia’s power” and their “glorious ally,” Egypt! And they will say, “If this can happen to Egypt, what chance have we?”
21 This is God’s message concerning Babylon:[h]
Disaster is roaring down upon you from the terrible desert, like a whirlwind sweeping from the Negeb. 2 I see an awesome vision: oh, the horror of it all! God is telling me what he is going to do. I see you plundered and destroyed. Elamites and Medes will take part in the siege. Babylon will fall, and the groaning of all the nations she enslaved will end. 3 My stomach constricts and burns with pain; sharp pangs of horror are upon me, like the pangs of a woman giving birth to a child. I faint when I hear what God is planning; I am terrified, blinded with dismay. 4 My mind reels; my heart races; I am gripped by awful fear. All rest at night—so pleasant once—is gone; I lie awake, trembling.
5 Look! They are preparing a great banquet! They load the tables with food; they pull up their chairs[i] to eat. . . . Quick, quick, grab your shields and prepare for battle! You are being attacked!
6-7 Meanwhile (in my vision)[j] the Lord had told me, “Put a watchman on the city wall to shout out what he sees. When he sees riders in pairs on donkeys and camels, tell him, ‘This is it!’”
8-9 So I put the watchman on the wall, and at last he shouted, “Sir, day after day and night after night I have been here at my post. Now at last—look! Here come riders in pairs!”
Then I heard a voice shout out, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the idols of Babylon lie broken on the ground.”
10 O my people, threshed and winnowed, I have told you all that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said.
11 This is God’s message to Edom:[k]
Someone from among you keeps calling, calling to me: “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? How much time is left?” 12 The watchman replies, “Your judgment day is dawning now. Turn again to God, so that I can give you better news. Seek for him, then come and ask again!”
13 This is God’s message concerning Arabia:
O caravans from Dedan, you will hide in the deserts of Arabia. 14 O people of Tema, bring food and water to these weary fugitives! 15 They have fled from drawn swords and sharp arrows and the terrors of war! 16 “But a long year from now,”[l] says the Lord, “the great power of their enemy, the mighty tribe of Kedar, will end. 17 Only a few of its stalwart archers will survive.” The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.
22 This is God’s message concerning Jerusalem:[m]
What is happening? Where is everyone going? Why are they running to the rooftops? What are they looking at? 2 The whole city is in terrible uproar. What’s the trouble in this busy, happy city?[n] Bodies! Lying everywhere, slain by plague and not by sword. 3 All your leaders flee; they surrender without resistance. The people slip away but they are captured too. 4 Leave me alone to weep. Don’t try to comfort me—let me cry for my people as I watch them being destroyed. 5 Oh, what a day of crushing trouble! What a day of confusion and terror from the Lord God of heaven’s armies! The walls of Jerusalem are breached, and the cry of death echoes from the mountainsides. 6-7 Elamites are the archers; Syrians drive the chariots; the men of Kir hold up the shields. They fill your choicest valleys and crowd against your gates.
8 God has removed his protecting care. You run to the armory for your weapons! 9-11 You inspect the walls of Jerusalem to see what needs repair! You check over the houses and tear some down for stone for fixing walls. Between the city walls, you build a reservoir for water from the lower pool! But all your feverish plans will not avail, for you never ask for help from God, who lets this come upon you. He is the one who planned it long ago. 12 The Lord God called you to repent, to weep and mourn, to shave your heads in sorrow for your sins, and to wear clothes made of sackcloth to show your remorse. 13 But instead, you sing and dance and play, and feast and drink. “Let us eat, drink, and be merry,” you say: “What’s the difference, for tomorrow we die.” 14 The Lord Almighty has revealed to me that this sin will never be forgiven you until the day you die.
15-16 Furthermore, the same Lord God of the armies of heaven has told me this: Go and say to Shebna, the palace administrator: “And who do you think you are, building this beautiful sepulchre in the rock for yourself? 17 For the Lord who allowed you to be clothed so gorgeously will hurl you away, sending you into captivity, O strong man! 18 He will wad you up in his hands like a ball and toss you away into a distant, barren land; there you will die, O glorious one—you who disgrace your nation!
19 “Yes, I will drive you out of office,” says the Lord, “and pull you down from your high position. 20 And then I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, to replace you. 21 He shall have your uniform and title and authority, and he will be a father to the people of Jerusalem and all Judah. 22 I will give him responsibility over all my people; whatever he says will be done; none will be able to stop him. 23-24 I will make of him a strong and steady peg to support my people; they will load him with responsibility, and he will be an honor to his family name.” 25 But the Lord will pull out that other peg that seems to be so firmly fastened to the wall! It will come out and fall to the ground, and everything it supports will fall with it, for the Lord has spoken.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.