The Burden of Egypt
1 The burden of Egypt. “Behold, Yahweh 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 within it. 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. 3 The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards. 4 I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord. A fierce king will rule over them,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies. 5 The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry. 6 The rivers will become foul. The streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up. The reeds and flags will wither away. 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. 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. 9 Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded. 10 The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul. 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”? 12 Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt. 13 The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Memphis are deceived. They have caused Egypt to go astray, those who are the cornerstone of her tribes. 14 Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit. 15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.
The Nile fails, and with it every trade that depended on it, and the advisers cannot think of anything.
The burden of Egypt. “Behold, Yahweh 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 within it.
Riding on a cloud was the standard description of a storm god in the region's poetry, and it is used here of the God whose approach makes the local deities shake. The exodus is in the background of the whole chapter.
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.
The first judgment is civil war, and it descends through four levels — brother, neighbor, city, kingdom. Egypt in this period was in fact divided among rival dynasties.
The spirit of the Egyptians will fail within them. I will destroy their counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.
When the thinking fails, the consultations begin — and the list is the same one the eighth chapter warned Judah about Isaiah 8:19. A nation that has lost its nerve looks for someone to tell it the future.
The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and become dry.
The Nile. Egypt had almost no rain and the entire country was the river's floodplain, so this single sentence is the end of everything, and the chapter follows the consequences trade by trade.
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. 9 Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.
Fishing, then linen — the two industries the river fed, and Egyptian linen was the finest in the world. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul Isaiah 19:10. The wage-earners are named last and they are the ones with nothing put by.
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”?
Egypt's court was famous for its wisdom tradition, and the oracle attacks it at precisely that point. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings"? — the qualification offered is inheritance, which is no qualification at all.
Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Armies has purposed concerning Egypt.
The test is the one the book applies to the idols later: say what is going to happen.
Yahweh has mixed a spirit of perverseness in the middle of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all of its works, like a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
The image is of a government that cannot walk in a straight line, and the chapter's judgment is that the confusion was administered rather than merely suffered.
settled What this mark means