Message to Egypt
1The pronouncement concerning Egypt:
Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;
The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,
And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
2“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;
And they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbor,
City against city and kingdom against kingdom.
3Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;
And I will confuse their strategy,
So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead,
And to Or ghosts and spiritsmediums and spiritists.
4Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master,
And a Or fiercemighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord Heb YHWH, usually rendered LordGod of armies.
5The waters from the sea will dry up,
And the river will be parched and dry.
6The Lit riverscanals will emit a stench,
The Or Nile branches; i.e., the deltastreams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;
The reeds and rushes will rot away.
7The bulrushes by the Nile, by the Or mouthedge of the Nile
And all the sown fields by the Nile
Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.
8And the fishermen will grieve,
And all those who cast a Lit hookline into the Nile will mourn,
And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.
9Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax
And the weavers of white cloth will be Lit ashamedutterly dejected.
All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.
11The officials of Or TanisZoan are mere fools;
The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become Or brutishstupid.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?
12Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them Or knowunderstand what the Lord of armies
Has planned against Egypt.
13The officials of Or TanisZoan have turned out to be fools,
The officials of Memphis are deluded;
Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes
Have Or have caused Egypt to staggerled Egypt astray.
14The Lord has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;
They have led Egypt astray in all Lit its workthat it does,
As a drunken person Or goes astraystaggers in his vomit.
15There will be no work for Egypt
Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.
16On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of armies, which He is going to wave over them.
17The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the Lord of armies which He is making against them.
18On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of armies; one will be called the City of Some mss and ancient versions the SunDestruction.
19On that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a memorial stone to the Lord beside its border.
20And it will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will save them.
21So the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord on that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it.
22And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.
23On that day there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
New American Standard Bible
Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020
by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved.
For Permission to Quote Information visit www.lockman.org
