Isaiah 19

New Life Version

Word about Egypt

19 The special word about Egypt: See, the Lord is traveling on a fast cloud and is coming to Egypt. The false gods of Egypt shake in fear before Him. The hearts of the Egyptians become weak. ² “I will make Egyptians go against Egyptians. Each of them will fight against his brother, and each against his neighbor. City will fight against city, and nation against nation. ³ Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become weak within them. And I will bring their plans to nothing. They will go to false gods and spirits of the dead for help, and to those who speak with spirits of the dead and use their secret ways. ⁴ Then I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a bad ruler. An angry king will rule over them,” says the Lord God of All.

⁵ The waters of the sea will dry up. The river will become dry. ⁶ Manmade rivers will smell bad. The small rivers of Egypt will dry up. And the plants by the rivers will waste away. ⁷ The grass by the side of the Nile and all that is planted by the Nile will become dry, will be driven away, and be no more. ⁸ The fishermen will cry in sorrow. All those who fish for a living in the Nile River will be filled with sorrow. And those who put out nets on its waters will become weak. ⁹ Those who make linen and white cloth will be very troubled. ¹⁰ The pillars of Egypt will be crushed. All the able workmen will be filled with sorrow.

¹¹ The king’s sons of Zoan are very foolish. The words of Pharaoh’s wisest men are foolish words. How can you men say to Pharaoh, “I am a son of the wise, a son of early kings”? ¹² Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you. And let them understand what the Lord of All has planned against Egypt. ¹³ The king’s sons of Zoan have become fools. The king’s sons of Memphis have been fooled. The heads of her family groups have led Egypt from the right way. ¹⁴ The Lord has mixed a troubled spirit within her. They have led Egypt the wrong way in all that it does, as a drunk man walks from side to side in what he has spit up. ¹⁵ And there will be no work in Egypt and nothing can be done by anyone, its head or tail, its palm branch or river-grass.

Good Will Come to Egypt, Assyria and Israel

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shake with fear because of the hand which the Lord of All is going to wave over them. ¹⁷ The land of Judah will fill Egypt with fear. Whoever hears its name will be afraid of it, because of the plan which the Lord of All is making against them.

¹⁸ In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and promising to follow the Lord of All. One will be called the City of Destruction.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the center of the land of Egypt, and an altar to the Lord by the side of its land. ²⁰ It will be something special to see, to make the Lord of All known in the land of Egypt. For they will cry to the Lord because of those who make it hard for them. And He will send a Powerful One to save them, and He will take them out of trouble. ²¹ The Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and in that day the Egyptians will know the Lord. They will even worship with gifts on the altar. They will make promises to the Lord and keep them. ²² And the Lord will punish Egypt, but then He will heal them. So they will return to the Lord, and He will answer their prayers and heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians will go to Assyria. The Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third country with Egypt and Assyria, a good and respected nation on the earth, ²⁵ to whom the Lord of All has brought good, saying, “Good will come to Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My chosen people.”