Isaiah 17-19

Isaiah 17

¹The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

²The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks; and they shall lie down and there shall be none to make them afraid.

³The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁴And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall become lean.

⁵And it shall be as when the reaper gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; yea, it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim.

⁶And a gleaning shall be left in it, as at the shaking of an olive-tree: two, three berries above, in the tree-top; four, five in its fruitful boughs, saith Jehovah, the God of Israel.

⁷In that day shall man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have regard to the Holy One of Israel.

⁸And he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, nor have regard to what his fingers have made, neither the Asherahs nor the sun-images.

⁹In that day shall his strong cities be as the forsaken tract in the woodland, and the mountain-top which they forsook before the children of Israel; and there shall be desolation.

¹⁰For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plantations, and shalt set them with foreign slips:

¹¹in the day of thy planting wilt thou make them to grow, and on the morrow wilt thou make thy seed to flourish; but the harvest will flee in the day of taking possession, and the sorrow will be incurable.

¹²Ha! a tumult of many peoples! they make a noise as the noise of the seas; -- and the rushing of nations! they rush as the rushing of mighty waters.

¹³The nations rush as the rushing of many waters; but he will rebuke them, and they shall flee far away, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a whirling of dust before the whirlwind:

¹⁴behold, at eventide, trouble; before the morning they are not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

Isaiah 18

¹Ha! land shadowing with wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush,

²that sendest ambassadors over the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, swift messengers, to a nation scattered and ravaged, to a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth; to a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

³All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, see ye, and when a trumpet is blown, hear ye!

⁴For thus hath Jehovah said unto me: I will take my rest, and I will observe from my dwelling-place like clear heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

⁵For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-knives, and take away and cut down the branches.

⁶They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth; and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

⁷In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts of a people scattered and ravaged, -- and from a people terrible from their existence and thenceforth, a nation of continued waiting and of treading down, whose land the rivers have spoiled, ... to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.

Isaiah 19

¹The burden of Egypt. Behold, Jehovah rideth upon a swift cloud, and cometh to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt are moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt melteth in the midst of it.

²And I will incite the Egyptians against the Egyptians; and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, kingdom against kingdom.

³And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it, and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they shall seek unto the idols and unto the conjurers, and unto the necromancers, and unto the soothsayers.

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, Jehovah of hosts.

⁵And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up;

⁶and the rivers shall stink, and the streams of Egypt shall be diminished and drain away: the reeds and sedges shall wither.

⁷The meadows by the Nile, on the banks of the Nile, and everything sown by the Nile, shall be dried up, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸And the fishers shall mourn, and all they that cast fish-hook into the Nile shall lament, and they that spread net upon the waters shall languish.

⁹And they that work in fine flax, and they that weave white stuffs shall be ashamed.

¹⁰And her pillars shall be broken in pieces, and all workers for hire shall be sad of soul.

¹¹They are but fools, the princes of Zoan, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh: their counsel is become senseless. How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

¹²Where are they then, thy wise men? Let them now tell thee, and let them make known what Jehovah of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

¹³The princes of Zoan are become foolish, the princes of Noph are deceived; and the corner-stones of its tribes have caused Egypt to err.

¹⁴Jehovah hath mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst thereof; and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunkard staggereth in his vomit.

¹⁵Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

¹⁶In that day shall Egypt be like unto women; and it shall tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of Jehovah of hosts, which he shaketh over it.

¹⁷And the land of Judah shall be a dismay unto Egypt: every one that thinketh of it shall be afraid for himself, because of the counsel of Jehovah of hosts, which he hath purposed against it.

¹⁸In that day shall there be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing by Jehovah of hosts: one shall be called, The city of Heres.

¹⁹In that day shall there be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to Jehovah:

²⁰and it shall be for a sign and for a witness to Jehovah of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto Jehovah because of the oppressors, and he will send them a saviour and defender, who shall deliver them.

²¹And Jehovah shall be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day, and shall serve with sacrifice and oblation; and they shall vow a vow unto Jehovah, and perform it.

²²And Jehovah will smite Egypt; he will smite and heal: and they shall return to Jehovah, and he will be entreated of them, and will 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 Egypt shall serve with Assyria.

²⁴In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth;

²⁵whom Jehovah of hosts will bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance!