181 Ho! land of the sounding of wings, on the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia: 2 Which sends its representatives by the sea, even in ships of papyrus on the waters. Go back quickly, O representatives, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people causing fear through all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters, whose land is cut through by rivers. 3 All you peoples of the world, and you who are living on the earth, when a flag is lifted up on the mountains, give attention; and when the horn is sounded, give ear. 4 For this is what the Lord has said to me: I will be quiet, watching from my place; like the clear heat when the sun is shining, like a mist of dew in the heat of summer. 5 For before the time of getting in the grapes, after the opening of the bud, when the flower has become a grape ready for crushing, he will take away the small branches with knives, cutting down and taking away the wide-stretching branches. 6 They will be for the birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth: the birds will come down on them in the summer, and the beasts of the earth in the winter. 7 In that time an offering will be made to the Lord of armies from a people tall and smooth, causing fear through all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters, whose land is cut through by rivers, an offering taken to the place of the name of the Lord of armies, even Mount Zion.
191 The word about Egypt. See, the Lord is seated on a quick-moving cloud, and is coming to Egypt: and the false gods of Egypt will be troubled at his coming, and the heart of Egypt will be turned to water. 2 And I will send the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they will be fighting every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; town against town, and kingdom against kingdom. 3 And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I will make her decisions without effect: and they will be turning to the false gods, and to those who make hollow sounds, and to those who have control of spirits, and to those who are wise in secret arts. 4 And I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a hard king will be their ruler, says the Lord, the Lord of armies. 5 And the waters of the sea will be cut off, and the river will become dry and waste: 6 And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of Egypt will become small and dry: all the water-plants will come to nothing. 7 The grass-lands by the Nile, and everything planted by the Nile, will become dry, or taken away by the wind, and will come to an end. 8 The fishermen will be sad, and all those who put fishing-lines into the Nile will be full of grief, and those whose nets are stretched out on the waters will have sorrow in their hearts. 9 And all the workers in linen thread, and those who make cotton cloth, will be put to shame. 10 And the makers of twisted thread will be crushed, and those who ... will be sad in heart. 11 The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest guides of Pharaoh have become like beasts: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the offspring of early kings? 12 Where, then, are your wise men? let them make clear to you, let them give you knowledge of the purpose of the Lord of armies for Egypt. 13 The chiefs of Zoan have become foolish, the chiefs of Noph are tricked, the heads of her tribes are the cause of Egypt's wandering out of the way. 14 The Lord has sent among them a spirit of error: and by them Egypt is turned out of the right way in all her doings, as a man overcome by wine is uncertain in his steps. 15 And in Egypt there will be no work for any man, head or tail, high or low, to do. 16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women: and the land will be shaking with fear because of the waving of the Lord's hand stretched out over it. 17 And the land of Judah will become a cause of great fear to Egypt; whenever its name comes to mind, Egypt will be in fear before the Lord of armies because of his purpose against it.
18 In that day there will be five towns in the land of Egypt using the language of Canaan, and making oaths to the Lord of armies; and one of them will be named, The Town of the Sun. 19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at the edge of the land. 20 And it will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of armies in the land of Egypt: when they are crying out to the Lord because of their cruel masters, then he will send them a saviour and a strong one to make them free. 21 And the Lord will give the knowledge of himself to Egypt, and the Egyptians will give honour to the Lord in that day; they will give him worship with offerings and meal offerings, and will take an oath to the Lord and give effect to it. 22 And the Lord will send punishment on Egypt, and will make them well again; and when they come back to the Lord he will give ear to their prayer and take away their disease. 23 In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt will come into Assyria; and the Egyptians will give worship to the Lord together with the Assyrians. 24 In that day Israel will be the third together with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the earth: 25 Because of the blessing of the Lord of armies which he has given them, saying, A blessing on Egypt my people, and on Assyria the work of my hands, and on Israel my heritage.
201 In the year when the Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon, king of Assyria, and made war against it and took it; 2 At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and without shoes on his feet. 3 And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia, 4 So will the king of Assyria take away the prisoners of Egypt and those forced out of Ethiopia, young and old, unclothed and without shoes, and with backs uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5 And they will be full of fear, and will no longer have faith in Ethiopia which was their hope, or in Egypt which was their glory. 6 And those living by the sea will say in that day, See the fate of our hope to whom we went for help and salvation from the king of Assyria: what hope have we then of salvation?
211 The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the South go rushing through, it comes from the waste land, from the land greatly to be feared. 2 A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow. 3 For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see. 4 My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening of my desire has been turned into shaking for me. 5 They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your breastplates. 6 For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be placed; let him give word of what he sees: 7 And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos, war-carriages with asses, war-carriages with camels, let him give special attention. 8 And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every night: 9 See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by twos: and in answer he said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and all her images are broken on the earth. 10 O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the God of Israel.
11 The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir, Watchman, how far gone is the night? how far gone is the night? 12 The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again.
13 The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia will be your night's resting-place, O travelling bands of Dedanites! 14 Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread, O men of the land of Tema, to those in flight. 15 For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the bent bow, and from the trouble of war. 16 For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the years of a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end: 17 And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the children of Kedar, will be small in number: for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said it.
221 The word about the valley of vision. Why have all your people gone up to the house-tops? 2 You, who are full of loud voices, a town of outcries, given up to joy; your dead men have not been put to the sword, or come to their death in war. 3 All your rulers ... have gone in flight; all your strong ones have gone far away. 4 For this cause I have said, Let your eyes be turned away from me in my bitter weeping; I will not be comforted for the wasting of the daughter of my people. 5 For it is a day of trouble and of crushing down and of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the valley of vision; ... 6 And Elam was armed with arrows, and Aram came on horseback; and the breastplate of Kir was uncovered. 7 And your most fertile valleys were full of war-carriages, and the horsemen took up their positions in front of the town.
8 He took away the cover of Judah; and in that day you were looking with care at the store of arms in the house of the woods. 9 And you saw all the broken places in the wall of the town of David: and you got together the waters of the lower pool. 10 And you had the houses of Jerusalem numbered, pulling down the houses to make the wall stronger. 11 And you made a place between the two walls for storing the waters of the old pool: but you gave no thought to him who had done this, and were not looking to him by whom it had been purposed long before. 12 And in that day the Lord, the Lord of armies, was looking for weeping, and cries of sorrow, cutting off of the hair, and putting on the clothing of grief: 13 But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes. 14 And the Lord of armies said to me secretly, Truly, this sin will not be taken from you till your death, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.
15 The Lord, the Lord of armies, says, Go to this person in authority, this Shebna, who is over the house; who has made himself a resting-place on high, cutting out a place for himself in the rock, and say, 16 Who are you, and by what right have you made for yourself a resting-place here? 17 See, O strong man, the Lord will send you violently away, gripping you with force, 18 Twisting you round and round like a ball he will send you out into a wide country: there you will come to your end, and there will be the carriages of your pride, O shame of your lord's house! 19 And I will have you forced out of your place of authority, and pulled down from your position. 20 And in that day I will send for my servant, Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah: 21 And I will put your robe on him, and put your band about him, and I will give your authority into his hand: and he will be a father to the men of Jerusalem, and to the family of Judah. 22 And I will give the key of the family of David into his care; and what he keeps open will be shut by no one, and what he keeps shut no one will make open. 23 And I will put him like a nail in a safe place; and he will be for a seat of glory to his father's family. 24 And all the glory of his father's family will be hanging on him, all their offspring, every small vessel, even the cups and the basins. 25 In that day, says the Lord of armies, will the nail fixed in a safe place give way; and it will be cut down, and in its fall the weight hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has said it.
