The Burden against Egypt

[This is] the burden against Egypt:

Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud;

He is coming to Egypt.

The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him,

and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.

2 

“ So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian;

[brother] will fight against brother, [neighbor] against neighbor,

city against city, [and] kingdom against kingdom.

3 

Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them,

and I will frustrate their plans,

so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead,

to mediums and spiritists.

4 

I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of a harsh master,

and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

5 

The waters of the [Nile] will dry up,

and the riverbed will be parched and empty.

6 

The canals will stink;

the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up;

the reeds and rushes will wither.

7 

The bulrushes by the Nile,

by the mouth of the river,

and all the fields sown along the Nile,

will wither, blow away, and be no [more].

8 

Then the fishermen will mourn,

all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament,

and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.

9 

The workers in flax will be dismayed,

and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale.

10 

The workers in cloth[fn] will be dejected,

and all the hired workers will be sick at heart.

11 

The princes of Zoan are mere fools;

Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice.

How can you say to Pharaoh,

“I am one of the wise,

a son of eastern kings”?

12 

Where are your wise men now?

Let them tell you and reveal

what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt.

13 

The princes of Zoan have become fools;

the princes of Memphis[fn] are deceived.

The cornerstones of her tribes

have led Egypt astray.

14 

The LORD has poured into her

a spirit of confusion.

Egypt has been led astray in all she does,

as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.

15 

There is nothing Egypt can do —

head or tail, palm or reed.

16