Isaiah19

¹ A prophecy against Egypt: See, 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 with fear.

² “I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian— brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

³ The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the 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, the Lord Almighty.

⁵ The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.

⁶ The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither,

⁷ also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown field along the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more.

⁸ The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away.

⁹ Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linen will lose hope.

¹⁰ The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

¹¹ The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings”?

¹² Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the Lord Almighty has planned against Egypt.

¹³ The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴ The Lord has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

¹⁵ There is nothing Egypt can do— head or tail, palm branch or reed.

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will become weaklings. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the Lord Almighty raises against them.

¹⁷ And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the Lord Almighty is planning against them.

¹⁸ In that day five cities in Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the heart of Egypt, and a monument to the Lord at its border.

²⁰ It will be a sign and witness to the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them.

²¹ So the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them.

²² The Lord will strike Egypt with a plague; he will strike them and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.

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

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.

²⁵ The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”