1An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, Yahweh is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the heart of Egypt melts within it.
2I will stir up Egypt against Egypt, and they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3The spirit of Egypt will be emptied out within it, and I will confound its plans. They will inquire of the idols and the spirits of the dead, of the mediums and the spiritists.
4I will hand Egypt over into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
5The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be parched and dry.
6The rivers will stink; the canals of Egypt will dwindle and dry up; reed and rush will wither.
7The bare places by the Nile, by the mouth of the Nile, and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more.
8The fishermen will mourn, and all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the surface of the waters will languish.
9The workers of combed flax will be ashamed, and the weavers of white cloth.
10Its weavers will be crushed, all the wage earners grieved in their souls.
11The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give senseless counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, ‘I am a son of the wise, a son of kings of old’?
12Where, then, are your wise men? Let them tell you and make known what Yahweh 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.
14Yahweh has mixed within her a spirit of dizziness, and they have made Egypt stagger in all it does, as a drunkard staggers in his vomit.
15And there will be no work for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.
16In that day Egypt will be like women, and it will tremble and be afraid before the waving of the hand of Yahweh of hosts, which he waves over it.
17The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be afraid, because of the plan of Yahweh of hosts that he is planning against it.
18In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to Yahweh of hosts. One will be called the City of Destruction.
19In that day there will be an altar to Yahweh in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to Yahweh at its border.
20It will be a sign and a witness to Yahweh of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to Yahweh because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them.
21Yahweh will make himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know Yahweh in that day. They will worship with sacrifice and offering; they will make a vow to Yahweh and fulfill it.
22Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing; they will return to Yahweh, and he will respond to their entreaty and heal them.
23In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
24In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.
25For Yahweh of hosts has blessed it, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
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