191 This message came to me concerning Egypt: Look! The Lord is advancing against Egypt, riding on a swift cloud. The idols of Egypt tremble. The hearts of the Egyptians melt with fear. 2 "I will make Egyptian fight against Egyptian- brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, province against province. 3 The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will confuse their plans. They will plead with their idols for wisdom and call on spirits, mediums, and those who consult the spirits of the dead. 4 I will hand Egypt over to a hard, cruel master. A fierce king will rule them," says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 5 The waters of the Nile will fail to rise and flood the fields. The riverbed will be parched and dry. 6 The canals of the Nile will dry up, and the streams of Egypt will stink with rotting reeds and rushes. 7 All the greenery along the riverbank and all the crops along the river will dry up and blow away. 8 The fishermen will lament for lack of work. Those who cast hooks into the Nile will groan, and those who use nets will lose heart. 9 There will be no flax for the harvesters, no thread for the weavers. 10 They will be in despair, and all the workers will be sick at heart. 11 What fools are the officials of Zoan! Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is stupid and wrong. Will they still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom? Will they dare brag about all their wise ancestors? 12 Where are your wise counselors, Pharaoh? Let them tell you what God plans, what the Lord of Heaven's Armies is going to do to Egypt. 13 The officials of Zoan are fools, and the officials of Memphis are deluded. The leaders of the people have led Egypt astray. 14 The Lord has sent a spirit of foolishness on them, so all their suggestions are wrong. They cause Egypt to stagger like a drunk in his vomit. 15 There is nothing Egypt can do. All are helpless- the head and the tail, the noble palm branch and the lowly reed. 16 In that day the Egyptians will be as weak as women. They will cower in fear beneath the upraised fist of the Lord of Heaven's Armies. 17 Just to speak the name of Israel will terrorize them, for the Lord of Heaven's Armies has laid out his plans against them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 19:1-17
Commentary on Isaiah 19:1-17
(Read Isaiah 19:1-17)
God shall come into Egypt with his judgments. He will raise up the causes of their destruction from among themselves. When ungodly men escape danger, they are apt to think themselves secure; but evil pursues sinners, and will speedily overtake them, except they repent. The Egyptians will be given over into the hand of one who shall rule them with rigour, as was shortly after fulfilled. The Egyptians were renowned for wisdom and science; yet the Lord would give them up to their own perverse schemes, and to quarrel, till their land would be brought by their contests to become an object of contempt and pity. He renders sinners afraid of those whom they have despised and oppressed; and the Lord of hosts will make the workers of iniquity a terror to themselves, and to each other; and every object around a terror to them.