1 An oracle concerning Egypt: See, the LORD rides on a swift cloud and is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt tremble before him, and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them.
2 "I will stir up Egyptian against Egyptian-- brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.
4 I will hand the Egyptians over to the power of a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.
5 The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.
6 The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will dwindle and dry up. The reeds and rushes will wither,
7 also the plants along the Nile, at the mouth of the river. Every sown fieldalong the Nile will become parched, will blow away and be no more.
8 The fishermen will groan and lament, all who cast hooks into the Nile; those who throw nets on the water will pine away.
9 Those who work with combed flax will despair, the weavers of fine linenwill lose hope.
10 The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.
11 The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings"?
12 Where are your wise men now? Let them show you and make known what the LORD Almighty has planned against Egypt.
13 The officials of Zoan have become fools, the leaders of Memphis are deceived; the cornerstones of her peoples have led Egypt astray.
14 The LORD has poured into them a spirit of dizziness; they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.
15 There is nothing Egypt can do-- head or tail, palm branch or reed.
16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will shudder with fear at the uplifted hand that the LORD Almighty raises against them.
17 And the land of Judah will bring terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be terrified, because of what the LORD Almighty is planning against them.
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary -- wwwchristnotes.org)
"Commentary on Isaiah 19:1-17
God shall come into Egypt with his judgments. He will raise up the causes of their destruction from among themselves. When ungodly men escape danger, they are apt to think themselves secure; but evil pursues sinners, and will speedily overtake them, except they repent. The Egyptians will be given over into the hand of one who shall rule them with rigour, as was shortly after fulfilled. The Egyptians were renowned for wisdom and science; yet the Lord would give them up to their own perverse schemes, and to quarrel, till their land would be brought by their contests to become an object of contempt and pity. He renders sinners afraid of those whom they have despised and oppressed; and the Lord of hosts will make the workers of iniquity a terror to themselves, and to each other; and every object around a terror to them."
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