Isaiah 19

1 A message about Egypt. Look, the Lord is riding on a fast-moving cloud on his way to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the Egyptians will become weak with fear.

[I received] this message [from Yahweh] about Egypt: “Listen to this! I, Yahweh, am coming to Egypt, riding on a fast-moving cloud. The idols in Egypt will tremble when [I appear], and the people of Egypt will be extremely afraid [IDM].

2 I will encourage Egyptians to attack other Egyptians. They will fight each other, neighbor versus neighbor, town versus town, and kingdom versus kingdom.

I will cause the people of Egypt to fight against each other: men will fight against their brothers, neighbors will fight against each other, people of one city will fight against the people of another city, people of one province will fight against the people of another province.

3 I will destroy the confidence of the Egyptians. I will have their plans become all mixed up. They will ask their idols and the spirits of the dead what to do through mediums and spiritists.

The people of Egypt will become very discouraged, and I will cause their plans not to be successful. They will plead with idols and sorcerers and those who talk with spirits of dead people to tell them what they should do.

4 I will hand the Egyptians over to a harsh dictator. A cruel king will rule over them, declares the Lord.

Then I will enable someone who will treat them very cruelly to become their king [DOU].” That is what I, the Commander of the armies of angels, say.

5 The waters of the Nile will fail, and its riverbed will be sunbaked and dry.

[Some day] the water in the [Nile] River will dry up, and the riverbed will become very dry [DOU].

6 The channels will start to stink; the branches of the Nile in Egypt will dry to a trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither away.

The branches of the river will all dry up [DOU] The canals along the river will stink because of the rotting reeds and (bulrushes/tall grass).

7 The vegetation along the banks of the Nile, and all the plants in the cultivated land along the Nile, will dry up and be blown away. Everything will be gone.

All the plants along the river and all the crops will dry up; then they will blow away and disappear.

8 Fishermen will mourn: all of them all who use hooks to fish in the Nile will weep and wail, along with those who fish by throwing nets into the water.

The fishermen will throw into the river lines with hooks on them and nets, and then they will groan and be very discouraged; they will be sad [because there will be no fish in the river].

9 The workers who prepare the flax for linen and the weavers of white fabric will be in despair.

Those who weave cloth from flax will not know what to do, because there will be no thread for them to weave.

10 The cloth workers will be depressed, and everyone who earns a wage will feel sick inside.

They will all despair and be very discouraged.

11 The leaders of Zoan are stupid. Pharaoh's wise counselors give advice that doesn't make sense. How can you tell Pharaoh, “I myself am a wise man, descended from ancient kings”?

The officials in Zoan [city in northern Egypt] are foolish. The advice that they gave to the king was worthless. Why do they continue to tell the king that they are wise, that they are descendants of wise kings who lived long ago [RHQ]?

12 So where are your wise counselors? Let them tell you so you can understand what the Lord Almighty has planned to do to Egypt.

King, (where are your wise counselors now?/You have no wise counselors now!) [RHQ] If you had any wise counselors, they could tell you what the Commander of the armies of angels has planned to do to Egypt [SAR]!

13 The leaders of Zoan have become stupid; the leaders of Memphis have been fooled; the important leaders of Egypt have misled their people.

[Yes], the officials of Zoan have become foolish, and the leaders in Memphis [city in northern Egypt] have deceived themselves. [All] leaders of the people have (caused their people to do wrong things/led their people astray).

14 The Lord has mixed up a spirit of confusion for them to drink, making the Egyptians stagger around in everything they do, like a drunk slipping up on his own vomit.

Yahweh has caused them to be very foolish, with the result that in everything that they do, [it is as though the people of] Egypt stagger like [SIM] a drunken person staggers [and slips] in his own vomit.

15 Nobody in Egypt can do anything, whoever they are—head or tail, palm tree or reed.

There is no one in Egypt, rich or poor, important or unimportant, [who will be able to help them].

16 At that time the Egyptians will become like women. They will shake with fear when the Lord Almighty raises his arm against them.

At that time, the people of Egypt will be [as helpless] as [SIM] women. They will tremble, being terrified [because they know that] the Commander of the armies of angels has raised his fist, [ready to strike/punish them].

17 The land of Judah will be a source of terror to Egypt for whenever Judah is mentioned, all Egyptians will tremble over what the Lord Almighty has planned to do to them.

The people of Egypt will be afraid of the people of Judah, and anyone who mentions Judah to them will cause them to be terrified, because [that will remind them] of what Yahweh, the Commander of the armies of angels, is planning to do to them.

18 At that time there will be five cities in Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and who have sworn to worship the Lord Almighty. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.

At that time, [people in] five cities in Egypt will solemnly declare that they will serve Yahweh. They will [learn to] speak the Hebrew language. One of those cities will be called ‘City of the Sun’.

19 At that time there will be an altar to the Lord right in the middle of Egypt, and a stone monument to the Lord on its border.

At that time, there will be an altar for worshiping Yahweh in the center of Egypt, and there will be a (pillar/large rock) to honor Yahweh at the border [between Egypt and Israel].

20 This will be a sign and a witness to the presence of the Lord Almighty in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the Lord for help because they are being oppressed, he will send them a savior to fight for them and to rescue them.

That will be a sign to indicate that the Commander of the armies of angels is worshiped in the land of Egypt. And when the people cry out to Yahweh to help them because others are (oppressing them/causing them to suffer), he will send to them someone who will defend and rescue them.

21 The Lord will make himself known to Egypt, and at that time Egypt will come to know the Lord. They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings; they will make promises to the Lord and keep them.

Yahweh will enable the people of Egypt to know who he is, and at that time they will have a close relationship with Yahweh and worship him and bring to him offerings of grain and other sacrifices. They will solemnly promise to do things for Yahweh, and they will do what they promise.

22 The Lord will inflict a plague on Egypt. He will do this, but he will heal them. They will come back to the Lord. He will respond to their prayers and heal them.

After Yahweh has punished Egypt, he will cause their troubles to end. The people of Egypt will turn to Yahweh, and he will listen when they plead to him [for help], and he will cause their troubles to cease.

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

At that time, there will be a highway between Egypt and Assyria. [As a result], the people of Egypt will [be able to] travel [easily] to Assyria, and the people of Assyria [will be able to travel easily] to Egypt. And the people of both countries will worship [Yahweh].

24 At that time Israel will be the third part of this alliance, joining with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing to the whole of the earth.

And Israel will be their ally. All three nations will be [friendly to] each other, and the people of Israel will be a blessing to the people of the entire world.

25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt, my people, Assyria, the creation of my hands, and Israel, my special possession.”

The Commander of the armies of angels will bless them, saying, “[You people of] Egypt are now my people. You people of Assyria, I have established your country. You people of Israel are the people whom I have chosen to belong to me.”