The Judgment of Egypt, the Collapse of Human Power, and the Watchman’s Warning of Babylon’s Fall
Isaiah 19
1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, Yahweh rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt within it.
2 I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
3 The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.
4 I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
5 The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.
6 The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away.
7 The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish.
9 Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.
10 The pillars of Egypt will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.
11 The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?”
12 Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.
13 The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, even those who are the cornerstone of her tribes.
14 Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness within her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.
16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Yahweh of Armies, which he shakes over them.
17 The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of Yahweh of Armies, which he determines against it.
18 In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to Yahweh of Armies. One will be called “The city of destruction.”
19 In that day, there will be an altar to Yahweh in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh at its border.
20 It will be for a sign and for a witness to Yahweh of Armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of the oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them.
21 Yahweh will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make vows to Yahweh, and will perform them.
22 Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.
23 In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24 In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the earth;
25 because Yahweh of Armies has blessed them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
Isaiah 20
1 In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it;
2 at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
3 Yahweh said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia,
4 so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
6 The inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?’”
Isaiah 21
1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing.
3 Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold of me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am so pained that I cannot hear; I am so dismayed that I cannot see.
4 My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.
5 They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!
6 For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.”
7 When he sees a troop of horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.
8 He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.
9 Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Babylon has fallen! All the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.”
10 You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
11 The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”
12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire! Come back again.”
13 The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, you caravans of Dedanites.
14 They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.
15 For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the distress of war.
16 For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail,
17 and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
