An Oracle Concerning Egypt

1The [†]oracle concerning Egypt.

Behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;

The idols of Egypt will shake at His presence,

And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

2“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians;

And they will each fight against his brother and each against his neighbor,

City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

3Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied to destruction within them;

And I will confuse their counsel,

So that they will seek idols and ghosts of the dead

And to [†]mediums and spiritists.

4Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,

And a [†]strong king will rule over them,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

5The waters from the sea will dry up,

And the river will be parched and dry.

6The rivers will emit a stench,

The [†]streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up;

The reeds and rushes will rot away.

7The bulrushes by the Nile, by the [†]edge 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 lament,

And all those who cast a [†]line into the Nile will mourn,

And those who spread nets on the waters will [†]languish.

9Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax

And the weavers of white cloth will be ashamed.

10And [†]the pillars of Egypt will be crushed;

All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

11The princes of [†]Zoan are merely ignorant fools;

The counsel of Pharaoh’s wisest counselors has become [†]senseless.

How can you men say to Pharaoh,

“I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old”?

12Well then, where are your wise men?

Please let them tell you,

And let them [†]understand what Yahweh of hosts

Has counseled against Egypt.

13The princes of [†]Zoan have acted as ignorant fools,

The princes of Memphis are deluded;

Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes

[†]Have led Egypt astray.

14Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of distortion;

They have led Egypt astray in all [†]that it does,

As a drunken man [†]strays into his vomit.

15There will be no work for Egypt

Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

Yahweh Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

16In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. 17And the land of Judah will become a [†]terror to Egypt; everyone [†]to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it because of the counsel of Yahweh of hosts which He is counseling against them.

18In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts; one will be called the City of [†]Destruction.

19In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh near its border. 20And it will become a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a [†]Champion, and He will deliver them. 21Thus Yahweh will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make a vow to Yahweh and pay it. 22And Yahweh will smite Egypt, smiting but healing; so they will return to Yahweh, and He will be moved by their entreaty and will heal them.

23In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

24In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, 25whom Yahweh of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”