Isaias

Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible, Isaias, Ottley, Cambridge, 1904

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.’)

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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.

14 The Lord hath mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have led Egypt astray in all his work, as a drunkard strays in his vomit.

15 Neither shall there be a work for Egypt, whichihead or tail, palm branch or rush, can do.

16 In that day shall Egypt be as women, and shall tremble and fear before the face of the waving of the hand of the Lord of Hosts, which he waveth over it.

17 And the land of Judah shall be for a terror to Egypt; whosoever maketh mention of it, unto him they turn in fear, before the purpose of the LORD of Hosts, which he purposeth concerning it.

18 In that day shall there be ﬁve cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing to the Lord of Hosts; one shall be called, City of destruction.

[*](10. ‘pillars,’ or, ‘foundations’: ‘work for ’: Barnes (W. E.) reads ABBREVfor ABBREV‘ make strong ’ cf. LXX. (and vii. no, xxviii. 1))[*](17. Or, ‘whosoever...of it, c.: at him feareth’: or, ‘everyone whom one shall mention it shall fear.’)[*](18. ‘language,’ lit. ‘lip’: ‘swearing’ (allegiance), binding themselves by oath to: cf. ch. xlv. 23. ‘of destruction, ABBREVSome MSS. and editors, ABBREV‘of the ’ F. C. Burkitt, ABBREV‘of ’ cf. the Greek.)

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19 In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar near the border of it to the Lord.

20 And it shall be for a sign and a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of (the) oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a mighty one, and shall deliver them.