Isaiah 19
19
XIX
1THE ORACLE CONCERNING EGYPT.
Behold, Jehovah rideth
Upon a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt:
And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence,
And the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of her.
2And I will excite the Egyptians against the Egyptians,
And they shall fight, every man against his brother, and every man against his neighbour:
City against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof;
And I will destroy her counsel:
And they shall seek to the idols, and to the sorcerers,
And to the necromancers, and to the soothsayers.
4And I will deliver up the Egyptians into the hands of a cruel lord,
And a fierce king shall rule over them:
Saith the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
5Then shall the waters fail from the sea,
And the river shall be wasted and dried up:
6And the rivers shall send forth stench,
The canals of Egypt shall waste away and become dry,
The reed and the rush shall wither:
7The meadows by the river, even at the mouth of the river,
And every thing sown by the river,
Shall be dried up, scattered by the wind, and be no more.
8The fishers also shall mourn,
And all they that cast angle into the river shall lament;
And they that spread nets upon the face of the waters shall languish.
9And the workers of combed flax shall be confounded,
And they that weave white linen.
10And her foundations are broken in pieces,
And all workers for hire are afflicted in soul.
11Surely, the princes of Zoan are fools:
As for the wise counsellors of Pharaoh,
Their counsel is become foolish.
How will ye say unto Pharaoh,
I am the son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?
12Where now are they, thy wise men?
And let them tell thee now, if they know,
What Jehovah of hosts hath determined against Egypt.
13The princes of Zoan are become foolish, the princes of Noph are deceived;
And they, even the heads of her tribes, have caused Egypt to err.
14 Jehovah hath mingled in the midst of her a spirit of giddiness;
And they have caused Egypt to err in all her works,
As a drunkard staggereth in his vomit.
15Neither shall there be done by Egypt any work,
Which the head or tail, the branch or rush, may do.
16In that day the Egyptians shall be as women;
And they shall tremble and fear,
At the shaking of the hand of Jehovah of hosts,
Which he shall shake over them.
17And the land of Judah shall become a terror to the Egyptians:
Every one to whom a mention is made of it shall fear;
Because of the counsel of Jehovah of hosts,
Which he hath counselled against them.
18In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt,
Speaking the language of Canaan,
And swearing by Jehovah of hosts:
One of them shall be called, The city of Destruction.
19In that day there shall be an altar to Jehovah
In the midst of the land of Egypt;
And a pillar at the boundary thereof to Jehovah:
20And it shall be for a sign, and for a witness,
To Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt;
For that they cried unto Jehovah because of oppressors,
And he sent unto them a saviour, and a defender, and he delivered them.
21And Jehovah shall be known to Egypt,
And the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day;
And they shall offer up sacrifice and oblation,
Yea they shall vow a vow unto Jehovah, and shall perform it.
22And Jehovah shall smite Egypt, smiting and healing her;
And they shall turn unto Jehovah, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.
23In that day there shall be a highway from Egypt towards Assyria;
And the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria:
And the Egyptian shall worship with the Assyrian.
24In that day shall Israel be the third
With Egypt and with Assyria,
Even a blessing in the midst of the earth:
25Whom Jehovah of hosts shall bless, saying:
Blessed be Egypt my people,
And Assyria, the work of my hands;
And Israel mine inheritance.
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Isaiah 19: TEG
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.
Isaiah 19
19
Anarchy and Chaos and Killing!
1A Message concerning Egypt:
Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud,
moving in on Egypt!
The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake,
Egyptians paralyzed by panic.
2-4God says, “I’ll make Egyptian fight Egyptian,
brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor,
City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom—
anarchy and chaos and killing!
I’ll knock the wind out of the Egyptians.
They won’t know coming from going.
They’ll go to their god-idols for answers;
they’ll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers.
But I’ll turn the Egyptians
over to a tyrant most cruel.
I’ll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king.”
Decree of the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
5-10The River Nile will dry up,
the riverbed baked dry in the sun.
The canals will become stagnant and stink,
every stream touching the Nile dry up.
River vegetation will rot away
the banks of the Nile-baked clay,
The riverbed hard and smooth,
river grasses dried up and gone with the wind.
Fishermen will complain
that the fishing’s been ruined.
Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers
and workers in linen and cotton and wool
Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness—
everyone who works for a living, jobless.
11-15The princes of Zoan are fools,
the advisors of Pharaoh stupid.
How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh,
“Trust me: I’m wise. I know what’s going on.
Why, I’m descended from the old wisdom of Egypt”?
There’s not a wise man or woman left in the country.
If there were, one of them would tell you
what God-of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt.
As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools
and the princes of Memphis, idiots.
The honored pillars of your society
have led Egypt into detours and dead ends.
God has scrambled their brains,
Egypt’s become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk.
Egypt’s hopeless, past helping,
a senile, doddering old fool.
* * *
16-17On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say “Judah” to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies’ plan against Egypt.
18On that Day, more than one city in Egypt will learn to speak the language of faith and promise to follow God-of-the-Angel-Armies. One of these cities will be honored with the title “City of the Sun.”
19-22On that Day, there will be a place of worship to God in the center of Egypt and a monument to God at its border. It will show how the God-of-the-Angel-Armies has helped the Egyptians. When they cry out in prayer to God because of oppressors, he’ll send them help, a savior who will keep them safe and take care of them. God will openly show himself to the Egyptians and they’ll get to know him on that Day. They’ll worship him seriously with sacrifices and burnt offerings. They’ll make vows and keep them. God will wound Egypt, first hit and then heal. Egypt will come back to God, and God will listen to their prayers and heal them, heal them from head to toe.
23On that Day, there will be a highway all the way from Egypt to Assyria: Assyrians will have free range in Egypt and Egyptians in Assyria. No longer rivals, they’ll worship together, Egyptians and Assyrians!
24-25On that Day, Israel will take its place alongside Egypt and Assyria, sharing the blessing from the center. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who blessed Israel, will generously bless them all: “Blessed be Egypt, my people! . . . Blessed be Assyria, work of my hands! . . . Blessed be Israel, my heritage!”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.