Chapter 18

¹ Woe to you, ye wings of the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. ^{2 1}He sends messengers by the sea, and paper letters on the water: for swift messengers shall go to a lofty nation, and to a strange and harsh people. Who is beyond it? a nation not looked for, and trodden down. ³ Now all the rivers of the land shall be inhabited as an inhabited country; their land shall be as when a signal is raised from a mountain; it shall be audible as the sound of a trumpet. ⁴ For thus said the Lord to me, There shall be security in my city, as the light of noonday heat, and it shall be as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest. ⁵ Before the reaping time, when the flower has been completely formed, and the unripe grape has put forth its flower and blossomed, then shall he take away the little clusters with pruning-hooks, and shall take away the small branches, and cut them off; ⁶ And he shall leave them

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together to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth: and the fowls of the sky shall be gathered upon them, and all the beasts of the land shall come upon him. ⁷ In that time shall presents be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people afflicted and peeled, and from a people great from henceforth and for ever; a nation hoping and yet trodden down, which is in a part of a river of his land, to the place where is the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Sion.

Chapter 19

¹ The Vision of Egypt.

Behold, the Lord sits on a swift cloud, and shall come to Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and their heart shall faint within them. ² And the Egyptians shall be stirred up against the Egyptians: and a man shall fight against his brother, and a man against his neighbor, city against city, and ²law against ³law. ³ And the spirit of the Egyptians shall be troubled within them; and I will frustrate their counsel: and they shall enquire of their gods and their images, and them that speak out of the earth, and ⁴them that have in them a divining spirit. ⁴ And I will deliver Egypt into the hands of men, of cruel lords; and cruel kings shall rule over them: thus saith the Lord of hosts. ⁵ And the Egyptians shall drink the water that is by the sea, but the river shall fail, and be dried up. ⁶ And the streams shall fail, and the canals of the river; and every ⁵reservoir of water shall be dried up, in every marsh also of reed and papyrus. ⁷ And all the green herbage round about the river, and everything sown by the side of the river, shall be blasted with the wind and dried up. ⁸ And the fishermen shall groan, and all that cast a hook into the river shall groan; they also that cast nets, and the anglers shall mourn. ⁹ And shame shall come upon them that work fine flax, and them that ⁶make fine linen. ¹⁰ And they that work at them shall be in pain, and all that make beer shall be grieved, and be pained in their souls. ¹¹ And the princes of Tanis shall be fools: as for the king's wise counsellors, their counsel shall be turned into folly: how will ye say to the king, we are sons of wise men, sons of ancient kings? ¹² Where are now thy wise men? and let them declare to thee, and say, What has the Lord of hosts purposed upon Egypt? ¹³ The princes of Tanis have failed, and the princes of Memphis are lifted up with pride, and they shall cause Egypt to wander by tribes. ¹⁴ For the Lord has prepared for them a spirit of error, and they have caused Egypt to err in all their works, as one staggers who is drunken and vomits also. ¹⁵ And there shall be no work to the Egyptians, which shall make head or tail, or beginning or end.

¹⁶ But in that day the Egyptians shall be as women, in fear and in trembling because of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall bring upon them. ¹⁷ And the land of the Jews shall be for a terror to the Egyptians:

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whosoever shall name it to them, they shall fear, because of the counsel which the Lord of hosts has purposed concerning it. ¹⁸ In that day there shall be five cities in Egypt speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by the name of the Lord of hosts; one city shall be called the ⁷city of Asedec. ¹⁹ In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians, and a pillar to the Lord by its border. ²⁰ And it shall be for a sign to the Lord for ever in the land of Egypt: for they shall presently cry to the Lord by reason of them that afflict them, and he shall send them a man who shall save them; he shall judge and save them. ²¹ And the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day; and they shall offer sacrifices, and shall vow vows to the Lord, and pay them. ²² And the Lord shall smite the Egyptians with a stroke, and shall completely heal them: and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall hear them, and thoroughly heal them. ²³ In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptians shall go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians. ²⁴ In that day shall Israel be third with the Egyptians and the Assyrians, blessed in the land which the Lord of hosts has blessed, ²⁵ saying, Blessed be my people that is in Egypt, and that is among the Assyrians, and Israel mine inheritance.