Berean Standard Bible

Isaiah 19:2-16

2“So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.3Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.4I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of a harsh master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.5The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.6The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.7The bulrushes by the Nile, by the mouth of the river, and all the fields sown along the Nile, will wither, blow away, and be no more.

8Then the fishermen will mourn,all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament,and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.9The workers in flax will be dismayed,and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale.10The workers in cloth1 will be dejected,and all the hired workers will be sick at heart.

11The princes of Zoan are mere fools;Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice.How can you say to Pharaoh,“I am one of the wise,a son of eastern kings”?12Where are your wise men now?Let them tell you and revealwhat the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt.

13The princes of Zoan have become fools;the princes of Memphis2 are deceived.The cornerstones of her tribeshave led Egypt astray.14The LORD has poured into hera spirit of confusion.Egypt has been led astray in all she does,as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.15There is nothing Egypt can do—head or tail, palm or reed.

16In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.

Read all of Isaiah 19

Notes

1. Isaiah 19:10 Or Its pillars ↩
2. Isaiah 19:13 LXX; Hebrew Noph ↩

Notes

Commentaries on Isaiah 19