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19. Prophecy About Egypt

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. Some manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, Dead Sea Scrolls, Symmachus and Vulgate; most manuscripts of the Masoretic Text City of Destruction

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 Or Assyria, whose names will be used in blessings (see Gen. 48:20); or Assyria, who will be seen by others as blessed on the earth. ²⁵ The LORD Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

16. In that day shall Egypt be like women. He again repeats what he had formerly said, that the Egyptians will have nothing that is manly. Some think that he alludes to an effeminate custom, on account of which the ancient historians censured the Egyptians, namely, that, by inverting the order of things, women appeared in public and transacted the affairs of state, and men performed the occupations of women. It is possible that the Prophet may have had this in his eye, but when I take a more careful view of the whole passage, this conjecture cannot be admitted; for here he threatens a judgment of God, which will hold up men to astonishment. If he were speaking of an ordinary custom, this would not apply to the matter in hand, for he does not charge the hearts of the Egyptians with being effeminate, but, on the contrary, threatens that they shall be struck with such dread that in no respect will they differ from women. The Egyptians not only thought that they were able to maintain war, but attacked without provocation, and gave aid to other nations. We see that heathen writers relate many of the exploits of the Egyptians, and expatiate largely on their praises; and, therefore, although the Egyptians were feeble and effeminate in comparison with other nations, yet they wished to retain the praise and renown of warlike men.

Because of the shaking of the hand of Jehovah of hosts. ³⁹³⁹ {Bogus footnote} The sudden change which is now effected is a striking display of the judgment of heaven, and therefore he adds, that the shaking of the hand of God will be the cause of the terror. By these words he shews that this war will be entirely carried on by the Lord, and therefore that the Egyptians cannot stand against it, because they have not to do with men. What Isaiah declares concerning Egypt ought to be likewise applied to other nations; for if wars arise and insurrections spring up, we ought to acknowledge it to be a judgment of God when men lose courage and are overwhelmed with terror. We see how the most warlike nations give way, and shew themselves to be less courageous than women, and are vanquished without any preparations of war, whenever the Lord strikes their minds with dread.