BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 19

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Isaiah 19 Overview

Egypt is shaken by civil strife, failed counsel, economic collapse, and Assyrian domination, yet the chapter ends astonishingly with Egypt turning to the LORD and sharing blessing with Assyria and Israel.

IsaiahBook

19Chapter

25Verses

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Before you read Isaiah 19

Coming from

Isaiah addresses a distant land of whirring wings whose envoys travel the rivers; nations are told to watch as the LORD quietly waits, then cuts down an arrogant power before tribute is brought to Zion.

In this chapter

Leads into

Isaiah walks stripped and barefoot for three years as a public sign that Assyria will lead Egyptians and Cushites away captive, exposing the folly of Judah’s hope in those nations for deliverance.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The oracle moves from severe judgment to one of Isaiah’s most expansive international restoration visions. Traditional enemies are not merely defeated; they are pictured together under God’s blessing.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 19 is the chapter’s own movement: god rules egypt’s gods, politics, and economy. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God rules Egypt’s gods, politics, and economy

Idols tremble, leaders become confused, and major industries fail under judgment.

Judgment can lead nations toward the LORD

Egypt eventually cries to God, worships Him, and knows Him.

God’s blessing is not ethnically narrow

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel are named together in a remarkable triad of blessing.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Exodus 7–12

The LORD’s superiority over Egypt and its gods recalls the exodus, though Isaiah looks toward future worship rather than only defeat.

Isaiah 2:2-4

The nations coming to learn the LORD’s ways anticipates Egypt and Assyria joining His worship here.

Ephesians 2:11-18

Paul’s teaching on former outsiders brought near offers a theological parallel to enemies reconciled under God, though Isaiah 19 has its own national setting.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not stop reading at Egypt’s judgment.

The chapter’s surprising climax is international worship and blessing.

Do not erase the named nations into mere symbols.

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel matter precisely as historic peoples once divided by hostility.

Read Isaiah 19 watching for…

Egypt’s idols and internal strife

failed wisdom

economic collapse around the Nile

an altar to the LORD in Egypt

Egypt, Assyria, and Israel blessed together

Chapter outline2 sections

1-17The LORD comes against Egypt, bringing civil strife, failing counsel, and economic collapse 18-25Egypt will fear the LORD, and Egypt, Assyria, and Israel will share in blessing

The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

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

And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

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

And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.

The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.

The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall be confounded.

And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish.

Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellers of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.

The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

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

In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.

And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.

In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction.

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

And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.

And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.

In 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 the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.

In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:

Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

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Isaiah 19:13

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