4 For so the Lord said unto me: I will be quiet, and I will behold in my dwelling place, while there is clear heat upon the light, a mist-cloud in the heat of harvest.

5 For afore the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the ﬂower becometh a ripening grape-bunch, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and remove and cut down the branches.

6 They shall be left together unto the bird of prey of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the bird-of prey shall summer upon it, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon it.

7 In that time shall a present be brought unto the Lord of Hosts, a people tall and polished, and from a people terrible since it was and onward: a nation of line, line, and treading down, whose land the rivers divide: unto the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts, mount Zion.

1. Or, ‘land with shadow on both sides ’ (very uncertain).2. Or, ‘terrible near and ’ and so ver. 7.4. Or, ‘like clear ’: ‘ upon the light,’ or, light,’5 ﬁn. Or, ‘ cut away the branches.7 i.e. ‘ from (?) a people tall...´ θc.

XIX. The burden of Egypt.

1 Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt; and the false gods of Egypt shall shake at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

2 And I will stir up Egypt against Egypt, and they shall ﬁght everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbour; city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

3 And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty in the midst of it; and I will swallow up the counsel thereof; and they shall inquire of the false gods, and the mutterers, and them that have familiar spirits, and the wizards.

4 And I will confine Egypt into the hand of a hard lord; and a harsh king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of Hosts.

5 And the waters shall waste fromthe sea, and the river shall be parched and dried up.

6 And the rivers shall stink, the canals of Mazor are emptied and parched up ; reed and ﬂag wither.

7 The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and every sown ﬁeld by the Nile, shall dry up, be driven away, and be no more.

8 And the ﬁshers shall sigh, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the face of the waters shall languish.

9 And they that work combed ﬂax, and they that weave white cloth, shall be ashamed.

6. ‘canals’: lit. Niles (Nile-arms): Mazor, a rare singular form of Mizraim, Egypt: the word prob. meaning ‘fortiﬁcation.’

10 And her pillars shall be broken in pieces ; all that work for hire (shall be) grieved in soul.

11 Merely fools are the princes of Zoanf as for the wise counsellors of Pharaoh, counsel is become brutish; how can ye say unto Pharaoh, I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?

12 Where, then, are thy wise men? (and) let them declare now unto thee, and let them know, what the Lord of Hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan are befooled, the princes of Noph are deceived: they have led Egypt astray, the cornerstone of her tribes.