Isaiah 19

Contemporary English Version

Egypt Will Be Punished

19 ^(A) This is a message about Egypt:

The Lord comes to Egypt,
    riding swiftly on a cloud.
The people are weak from fear.
Their idols tremble
    as he approaches and says,
²“I will punish Egypt
    with civil war—
neighbors, cities, and kingdoms
    will fight each other.

³“Egypt will be discouraged
    when I confuse their plans.
They will try to get advice
    from their idols,
from the spirits of the dead,
    and from fortunetellers.
⁴I will put the Egyptians
under the power of a cruel,
    heartless king.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
    have promised this.”

Trouble along the Nile

⁵The Nile River will dry up
    and become parched land.
⁶Its streams will stink,
    Egypt will have no water,
and the reeds and tall grass
    will dry up.
⁷Fields along the Nile
will be completely barren;
    every plant will disappear.

⁸Those who fish in the Nile
will be discouraged
and mourn.
⁹None of the cloth makers^[a]
will know what to do,
and they will turn pale.^[b]
¹⁰Weavers will be confused;
paid workers will cry and mourn.

Egypt's Helpless Leaders

¹¹The king's officials in Zoan^[c]
are foolish themselves
    and give stupid advice.
How can they say to him,
    “We are very wise,
and our families go back
    to kings of long ago?”
¹²Where are those wise men now?
    If they can, let them say
what the Lord All-Powerful
    intends for Egypt.

¹³The royal officials in Zoan
and in Memphis
    are foolish and deceived.
The leaders in every state
have given bad advice
    to the nation.
¹⁴The Lord has confused Egypt;
its leaders have made it stagger
    and vomit like a drunkard.
¹⁵No one in Egypt can do a thing,
    no matter who they are.

¹⁶When the Lord All-Powerful punishes Egypt with his mighty arm, the Egyptians will become terribly weak and will tremble with fear. ¹⁷They will be so terrified of Judah that they will be frightened by the very mention of its name. This will happen because of what the Lord All-Powerful is planning against Egypt.

The Lord Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁸The time is coming when Hebrew will be spoken in five Egyptian cities, and their people will become followers of the Lord. One of these cities will be called City of the Sun.^[d]

¹⁹In the heart of Egypt an altar will be set up for the Lord; at its border a shrine will be built to honor him. ²⁰These will remind the Egyptians that the Lord All-Powerful is with them. And when they are in trouble and ask for help, he will send someone to rescue them from their enemies. ²¹The Lord will show the Egyptians who he is, and they will know and worship the Lord. They will bring him sacrifices and offerings, and they will keep their promises to him. ²²After the Lord has punished Egypt, the people will turn to him. Then he will answer their prayers, and the Egyptians will be healed.

²³At that time a good road will run from Egypt to Assyria. The Egyptians and the Assyrians will travel back and forth from Egypt to Assyria, and they will worship together. ²⁴Israel will join with these two countries. They will be a blessing to everyone on earth, ²⁵then the Lord All-Powerful will bless them by saying,

“The Egyptians are my people.
I created the Assyrians
and chose the Israelites.”

Footnotes

19.9 cloth makers: Cloth was made from several kinds of plants that grew in the fields along the Nile.
19.9 turn pale: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
19.11 Zoan: The city of Tanis in the Nile delta.
19.18 City of the Sun: Some manuscripts of the Standard Hebrew Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and one ancient translation; most manuscripts of the Standard Hebrew Text have “City of Destruction.” This probably refers to Heliopolis which means “City of the Sun” (see Jeremiah 43.13).