1The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth
upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and
the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence,
and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of
it.
2And I will set the Egyptians against the
Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against
his brother, and every one against his neighbour;
city against city, and kingdom
against kingdom.
3And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the
midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel
thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to
the charmers, and to them that have familiar
spirits, and to the wizards.
4And the Egyptians will I give over into the
hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule
over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
5And the waters shall fail from the sea, and
the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the
brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the
reeds and flags shall wither.
7The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth
of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks,
shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.
8The fishers also shall mourn, and all they
that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and
they that spread nets upon the waters shall
languish.
9Moreover they that work in fine flax, and
they that weave networks, shall be confounded.
10And they shall be broken in the purposes
thereof, all that make sluices and ponds
for fish.
11Surely the princes of Zoan are fools,
the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is
become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the
son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12Where are they?
where are thy
wise men?
and let them tell thee now, and let them know what
the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
13The princes of Zoan are become fools, the
princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced
Egypt, even
they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in
the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err
in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth
in his vomit.
15Neither shall there be any work
for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush,
may do.
16In that day shall Egypt be like unto women:
and it shall be afraid and fear because of the
shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he
shaketh over it.
17And the land of Judah shall be a terror
unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof
shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel
of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined
against it.
18In that day shall five cities in the land
of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to
the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of
destruction.
19In that day shall there be an altar to the
LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar
at the border thereof to the LORD.
20And it shall be for a sign and for 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
great one, and he shall deliver them.
21And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and
the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and
shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow
a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
22And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall
smite and heal it:
and they shall return even to
the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and
shall heal them.
23In that day shall there be a highway out of
Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into
Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the
Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24In that day shall Israel be the third with
Egypt and with Assyria, even a
blessing in the midst of the land:
25Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be Egypt
my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and
Israel mine inheritance.