Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary

Select a resource above

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.”

24. In that day shall Israel. Isaiah concludes the promise which he had briefly glanced at, that the Egyptians and Assyrians, as well as Israel, shall be blessed. Formerly the grace of God was in some measure confined to Israel, because with that nation only had the Lord entered into covenant. The Lord had stretched out “his cord” over Jacob, (Deuteronomy 32:9,) as Moses speaks; ⁵⁶⁵⁶ {Bogus footnote} and David says,

“He hath not done so to any nation, and hath not made known to them his judgments.” (Psalm 147:20.)

In a word, the blessing of God dwelt solely in Judea, but he says that it will be shared with the Egyptians and Assyrians, under whose name he includes also the rest of the nations. He does not mention them for the purpose of shewing respect, but because they were the constant enemies of God, and appeared to be more estranged from him and farther removed from the hope of favor than all others. Accordingly, though he had formerly adopted none but the children of Abraham, he now wished to be called, without distinction, “The father of all nations.” (Genesis 17:7; Exodus 19:5,6; Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2.)

Israel shall be the third blessing. Some render it, Israel shall be the third ⁵⁷⁵⁷ {Bogus footnote} I do not approve of that rendering; for the adjective being in the feminine gender, ought to be construed with the noun ברכה, (berachah,) blessing, and blessing means here a form or pattern of blessing.