1A portent concerning Egypt.
The LORD is about to ride on a swift cloud
and come down to Egypt.
And the ungods of Egypt shall shake before Him,
and Egypt’s heart inwardly quail.
2And I will incite Egypt against Egypt,
and each man shall battle his brother, each man his fellow,
town against town, kingdom against kingdom.
3And Egypt’s spirit shall be sapped within it,
and its counsel I will confound.
And they shall seek out the ungods and the shades
and the ghosts and the familiar spirits.
4And I will hand Egypt over to a harsh master,
and a fierce king shall rule over them,
says the Master LORD of Armies.
5And water shall be drained from the sea,
the river turn dry and parched.
6And canals shall fall into neglect,
Egypt’s watercourses drained and dried up.
Rush and reed shall wither,
7laid bare at the Nile,
alongside the Nile,
And all that is planted by the Nile
shall wither, blow away, be no more.
8And the fishermen shall lament and keen,
all who cast hooks into the Nile,
and those spreading nets on the water shall be forlorn.
9And the flax workers shall be distraught,
carters and weavers turn pale.
10And her foundations shall be crushed,
all who build dams be downcast.
11The princes of Zoan are but fools,
the wisest councillors of Pharaoh give witless counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh:
I am the son of sages,
the son of ancient kings?
12Where then are your sages?
Let them tell you, pray, and let them know
what the LORD of Armies devised against Egypt.
13The princes of Zoan have been fools,
the princes of Noph are deceived.
The chiefs of her tribes have led Egypt astray.
14The LORD has poured into her a twisted spirit,
and they have led Egypt astray in all it does,
as a drunkard strays into his vomit.
15And there shall be nothing to do for Egypt,
neither head nor tail, palm branch nor reed.
16On that day, Egypt shall be like women, and tremble and fear from the raised hand that the LORD of Armies raises against it. 17And the land of Judah shall become a terror to Egypt. Whoever mentions it to them shall be afraid because of the counsel of the LORD of Armies that He devises against them. 18On that day, five cities in the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and shall swear to the LORD of Armies. The City of the Sun it shall be said of one of them. 19On that day the altar of the LORD shall be in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar at its border to the LORD. 20And it shall become a sign and a witness for the LORD of Armies in the land of Egypt that when they cry out to the LORD because of oppressors, He sends them a deliverer and one who contests for them, and He shall save them. 21And the LORD shall become known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD on that day, and they shall worship with sacrifice and grain offering and make a vow to the LORD and fulfill it. 22And the LORD shall strike Egypt with plagues, plaguing and healing, and they shall turn back to the LORD, and He shall hear their entreaty and heal them. 23On that day there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria shall come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria, and Egypt shall worship with Assyria. 24On that day Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and with Assyria, as a blessing in the midst of the earth. 25Which the LORD of Armies conferred, saying, “Blessed are My people Egypt and My handiwork Assyria and Israel my estate.”
CHAPTER 19 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. ride on a swift cloud. The mythological image of the deity mounted on a cloud derives from Canaanite poetry and appears in several of the biblical psalms.
2. kingdom against kingdom. This is sometimes interpreted as a clash between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Egypt. Others see here a reference to the different districts of Egypt ruled by different princes.
3. the shades / and the ghosts. Egypt was famous for its cult of the dead.
4. the Master LORD of Armies. The first epithet for God here aggressively picks up the “harsh master” at the beginning of the verse.
5. And water shall be drained. Biblical writers often look with envy on Egypt’s abundant sources of irrigation from the Nile and elsewhere, which are a striking contrast to the land of Israel, dependent as it is on rainfall. This gives a special edge to the prophecy in the next verse of an Egypt “drained and dried up.”
7. laid bare at the Nile. The translation reproduces the elliptic syntax of the Hebrew.
11. the wisest councillors . . . give witless counsel. A verb appears to have dropped out in the Hebrew, or perhaps “give” is meant to be implied. Egypt was renowned for exercising wisdom, but here the wisdom fails.
15. neither head nor tail, palm branch nor reed. These are two different idioms with the sense of through and through, from top to bottom, one expression referring to the human body and the other to a plant.
16. On that day. These words begin a series of five “on that day” prose prophecies, regarded by most scholars as later additions. One should keep in mind that the Prophetic books grew by a process of sedimentation, later writers responding to earlier texts and composing prophecies in their spirit.
17. And the land of Judah shall become a terror to Egypt. This bold statement of Judahite triumphalism reflects no known or ever likely historical reality.
18. the land of Egypt shall speak the language of Canaan and shall swear to the LORD of Armies. The language of Canaan is probably Hebrew. The notion that the Egyptians will become worshippers of the God of Israel might have been encouraged by a time when there was a large and vigorous diaspora community in Egypt, which would have been the case at least as early as the fifth century B.C.E. Proposals to locate any of these prophecies as late as the second century B.C.E. are unconvincing.
The City of the Sun. The Masoretic Text reads “the City of Destruction,” ʿir heres, but some Hebrew manuscripts as well as several ancient translations read instead, more plausibly, ʿir ḥeres, “the City of the Sun,” which is probably the Egyptian Heliopolis. The scribal error would have been caused by the fact that ḥeres is a rather rare synonym for “sun” and by the context of destruction created in the previous prophecy.
21. And the LORD shall become known to Egypt. Here the utopian fantasy of the Egyptians embracing the faith of Israel is made explicit.
22. strike Egypt with plagues. The writer of course has in mind the precedent of the Ten Plagues, though in this case the afflictions impel the Egyptians to turn to YHWH.
23. there shall be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. This idea of a royal road joining the two great warring empires that long threatened Israel and the creation of a God-fearing triple partnership of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel to be a blessing to all the earth is the most extravagant utopian fantasy of all the prophecies in this chapter. It is by no means clear whether it is relatively early or late, although Assyria might not have been much of an issue for a later writer.