Isaiah 18:1-19:17

¹Woe to the land of whirring wings,

along the rivers of Cush,

²which sends couriers by sea,

in papyrus vessels on the waters.

Go, swift messengers,

to a people tall and smooth-skinned,

to a people widely feared,

to a powerful nation of strange speech,

whose land is divided by rivers.

³All you people of the world

and dwellers of the earth,

when a banner is raised on the mountains,

you will see it;

when a ram’s horn sounds,

you will hear it.

⁴For this is what the LORD has told me:

“I will quietly look on from My dwelling place,

like shimmering heat in the sunshine,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife

and remove and discard the branches.

⁶They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey,

and to the beasts of the land.

The birds will feed on them in summer,

and all the wild animals in winter.

⁷At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts —

from a people tall and smooth-skinned,

from a people widely feared,

from a powerful nation of strange speech,

whose land is divided by rivers — to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.

¹This is the burden against Egypt:

Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud;

He is coming to Egypt.

The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him,

and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian;

brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor,

city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them,

and I will frustrate their plans,

so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead,

to mediums and spiritists.

⁴I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of harsh masters,

and a fierce king will rule over them,”

⁵The waters of the Nile will dry up,

and the riverbed will be parched and empty.

⁶The canals will stink;

the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up;

the reeds and rushes will wither.

⁷The bulrushes by the Nile,

by the mouth of the river,

and all the fields sown along the Nile,

will wither, blow away, and be no more.

⁸Then the fishermen will mourn,

all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament,

and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.

⁹The workers in flax will be dismayed,

and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale.

¹⁰The workers in cloth will be dejected,

and all the hired workers will be sick at heart.

¹¹The princes of Zoan are mere fools;

Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the wise,

a son of eastern kings”?

¹²Where are your wise men now?

Let them tell you and reveal

what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools;

the princes of Memphis are deceived.

The cornerstones of her tribes

have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The LORD has poured into her

a spirit of confusion.

Egypt has been led astray in all she does,

as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.

¹⁵There is nothing Egypt can do —

head or tail, palm or reed.

¹⁶In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.

¹⁷The land of Judah will bring terror to Egypt; whenever Judah is mentioned, Egypt will tremble over what the LORD of Hosts has planned against it.

Related Resources from Heartlight

Cross References for Isaiah 18:1-19:17

The Berean Standard Bible