Isaiah, starting at chapter 19 {19:1} The burden of Egypt: "Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and comes to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence; and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. {19:2} I will stir up the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they will fight everyone against his brother, and everyone against his neighbor; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. {19:3} The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. {19:4} I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them," says the Lord, the LORD of Hosts. {19:5} The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. {19:6} The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. {19:7} The meadows by the Nile, by the brink of the Nile, and all the sown fields of the Nile, will become dry, be driven away, and be no more. {19:8} The fishermen will lament, and all those who fish in the Nile will mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters will languish. {19:9} Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. {19:10} The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul. {19:11} The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?" {19:12} Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of Hosts has purposed concerning Egypt. {19:13} The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, who are the cornerstone of her tribes. {19:14} The LORD has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. {19:15} Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do. {19:16} In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of Hosts, which he shakes over them. {19:17} The land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt. Everyone to whom mention is made of it will be afraid, because of the plans of the LORD of Hosts, which he determines against it. {19:18} In that day, there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of Hosts. One will be called "The city of destruction." {19:19} In that day, there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. {19:20} It will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of oppressors, and he will send them a savior and a defender, and he will deliver them. {19:21} The LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. Yes, they will worship with sacrifice and offering, and will vow a vow to the LORD, and will perform it. {19:22} The LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to the LORD, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them. {19:23} In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. {19:24} In that day, Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; {19:25} because the LORD of Hosts has blessed them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."
{20:1} In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it; {20:2} at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your shoes from off your feet." He did so, walking naked and barefoot. {20:3} The LORD said, "As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder concerning Egypt and concerning Ethiopia, {20:4} so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. {20:5} They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. {20:6} The inhabitants of this coast land will say in that day, 'Behold, this is our expectation, where we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria. And we, how will we escape?'" {21:1} The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land. {21:2} A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media's sighing. {21:3} Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have taken hold on me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can't hear. I so am dismayed that I can't see. {21:4} My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. {21:5} They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! {21:6} For the Lord said to me, "Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. {21:7} When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness." {21:8} He cried like a lion: "Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. {21:9} Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs." He answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground. {21:10} You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!" That which I have heard from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. {21:11} The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" {21:12} The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again." {21:13} The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, you caravans of Dedanites. {21:14} They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread. {21:15} For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. {21:16} For the Lord said to me, "Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail, {21:17} and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it." ___ This Bible reading mailing list and web site are paid for by donations marked "HNV project" and payable to: Rainbow Missions PO BOX 275 MESA CO 81643-0275 To cancel your free email subscription, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe hnv in the body of the message OR go to http://ebible.org/subscribe.htm