Isaiah 19

¹An oracle concerning Egypt.

Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud

and comes to Egypt;

and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,

and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,

and they will fight, every man against his brother

and every man against his neighbor,

city against city, kingdom against kingdom;

³and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,

and I will confound their plans;

and they will consult the idols and the sorcerers,

and the mediums and the wizards;

⁴and I will give over the Egyptians

into the hand of a hard master;

and a fierce king will rule over them,

says the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

⁵And the waters of the Nile will be dried up,

and the river will be parched and dry;

⁶and its canals will become foul,

and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up,

reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷There 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.

⁸The fishermen will mourn and lament,

all who cast hook in the Nile;

and they will languish

who spread nets upon the water.

⁹The workers in combed flax will be in despair,

and the weavers of white cotton.

¹⁰Those who are the pillars of the land will be crushed,

and all who work for hire will be grieved.

¹¹The princes of Zoʹan are utterly foolish;

the wise counselors of Pharoah give stupid counsel.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am a son of the wise,

a son of ancient kings”?

¹²Where then are your wise men?

Let them tell you and make known

what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoʹan have become fools,

and the princes of Memphis are deluded;

those who are the cornerstones of her tribes

have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The 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.

¹⁵And there will be nothing for Egypt

which head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand which the Lord of hosts shakes over them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; every one to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose which the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.

¹⁸In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of the Sun.

¹⁹In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. ²⁰It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; when they cry to the Lord because of oppressors he will send them a savior, and will defend and deliver them. ²¹And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians; and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and burnt offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. ²²And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will heed their supplications and heal them.

²³In that day 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 worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage.”