Isaiah 19 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The sad message about Egypt: Look! The Lord is coming on a fast cloud. The Lord will enter Egypt, and all the false gods of Egypt will shake \{with fear. Egypt was brave\}, but that courage will melt away like hot wax.

² \{God says,\} “I will cause the people of Egypt to fight against themselves. Men will fight their brothers. Neighbors will be against neighbors. Cities will be against cities. States will be against states. {\cf2\super [187]}

³ The people of Egypt will be confused. The people will ask their false gods and wise men what they should do. The people will ask their wizards and magicians. But their advice will be worthless.”

⁴ The Master, the Lord All-Powerful, says, “I (God) will give Egypt to a hard master. A powerful king will rule over the people.

⁵ The Nile River will become dry. The water will be gone from the sea.

⁶ All the rivers will smell very bad. {\cf2\super [188]} The canals in Egypt will become dry and the water will be gone. All the water plants will rot.

⁷ All the plants along the river banks will die and blow away. Even the plants at the widest part of the river will be dead.

⁸ “The fishermen, all the people that catch fish from the Nile River, will become sad and they will cry. They depend on the Nile River for their food, but it will be dry.

⁹ All the people that make cloth will be very, very sad. These people need flax {\cf2\super [189]} to make linen. {\cf2\super [190]} \{But the river will be dry, and these plants will not grow.\}

¹⁰ The people that make dams to save water will have no work, so they will be sad.

¹¹ “The leaders of the city Zoan are fools. Pharaoh’s ‘wise advisers’ give wrong advice. Those leaders say they are wise. They say they are from the old family of the kings. But they are not wise like they think.”

¹² Egypt, where are your wise men? Those wise men should learn what the Lord All-Powerful has planned for Egypt. They should be the people to tell you what will happen.

¹³ The leaders of Zoan have been fooled. The leaders of Noph have believed false things. So the leaders lead Egypt the wrong way.

¹⁴ The Lord made the leaders confused. They wander and lead Egypt in the wrong ways. Everything the leaders do is wrong. They are like drunk people rolling with sickness on the ground.

¹⁵ There is nothing the leaders can do. (These leaders are “the heads and the tails.” They are “the tops and the stalks of plants.”) {\cf2\super [191]}

¹⁶ At that time, the Egyptians will be like scared women. They will be afraid of the Lord All-Powerful. The Lord will raise his arm to punish the people, and they will be afraid.

¹⁷ The land of Judah will be a place for all the people in Egypt to fear. Any person in Egypt that hears the name Judah will be scared. This will happen because the Lord All-Powerful has planned terrible things to happen to Egypt.

¹⁸ At that time, there will be five cities in Egypt where people speak the language of Canaan (the Jewish language). One of these cities will be named “Destruction City.” {\cf2\super [192]}

¹⁹ At that time, there will be an altar {\cf2\super [193]} for the Lord in the middle of Egypt. At the border of Egypt there will be a monument to show honor to the Lord.

²⁰ This will be a sign to show that the Lord All-Powerful does powerful things. Any time the people cry for help from the Lord, the Lord will send help. The Lord will send a person to save and defend the people. That person will rescue the people from other people that do wrong things to them.

²¹ At that time, the people in Egypt will truly know the Lord. The people of Egypt will love God. The people will serve God and give many sacrifices. {\cf2\super [194]} They will make promises {\cf2\super [195]} to the Lord. And they will keep those promises.

²² The Lord will punish the people of Egypt. And then the Lord will heal (forgive) them, and they will come back to the Lord. The Lord will listen to their prayers and heal (forgive) them.

²³ At that time, there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. {\cf2\super [196]} Then people from Assyria will go to Egypt, and people from Egypt will go to Assyria. Egypt will work with Assyria. {\cf2\super [197]}

²⁴ At that time, Israel, Assyria, and Egypt will join together and control the land. This will be a blessing for the land.

²⁵ The Lord All-Powerful will bless these countries. He will say, “Egypt, you are my people. Assyria, I made you. Israel, I own you. You are all blessed!”