Chronological Plan

¹Woe, land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,

²Which sends messengers by the sea, Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, To a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation Whose land the rivers divide.

³All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth, As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, you will see it, And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.

⁴For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look from My dwelling place Like dazzling heat in the sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

⁵For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms And the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, And remove and tear away the spreading branches.

⁶They will be left together for mountain birds of prey, And for the animals of the earth; And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them, And all the animals of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

⁷At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the LORD of armies From a people tall and smooth, From a people feared far and wide, A powerful and oppressive nation, Whose land the rivers divide— To the place of the name of the LORD of armies, to Mount Zion.

¹The pronouncement concerning Egypt: Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt; The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence, And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

²“So I will incite Egyptians against Egyptians; And they will fight, each against his brother and each against his neighbor, City against city and kingdom against kingdom.

³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confuse their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead, And to mediums and spiritists.

⁴Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of armies.

⁵The waters from the sea will dry up, And the river will be parched and dry.

⁶The canals will emit a stench, The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up; The reeds and rushes will rot away.

⁷The bulrushes by the Nile, by the edge of the Nile And all the sown fields by the Nile Will become dry, be driven away, and be no more.

⁸And the fishermen will grieve, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

⁹Moreover, the manufacturers of linen made from combed flax And the weavers of white cloth will be utterly dejected.

¹⁰And the pillars of Egypt will be crushed; All the hired laborers will be grieved in soul.

¹¹The officials of Zoan are mere fools; The advice of Pharaoh’s wisest advisers has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings”?

¹²Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what the LORD of armies Has planned against Egypt.

¹³The officials of Zoan have turned out to be fools, The officials of Memphis are deluded; Those who are the cornerstone of her tribes Have led Egypt astray.

¹⁴The LORD has mixed within her a spirit of distortion; They have led Egypt astray in all that it does, As a drunken person staggers in his vomit.

¹⁵There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in great fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of armies, which He is going to wave over them.

¹⁷The land of Judah will become a cause of shame to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in great fear because of the plan of the LORD of armies which He is making against them.

¹⁸On that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the LORD of armies; one will be called the City of Destruction.

¹⁹On that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a memorial stone to the LORD beside its border.

²⁰And it will become a sign and a witness to the LORD of armies in the land of Egypt; for they will cry out to the LORD because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will save them.

²¹So the LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD on that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.

²²And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the LORD, and He will respond to their pleas and heal them.

²³On that day there will be a road from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴On that day Israel will be the third party to Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth,

²⁵whom the LORD of armies has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

¹In the year that the commander came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it,

²at that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loosen the sackcloth from your hips and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, going naked and barefoot.

³Then the LORD said, “Even as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and symbol against Egypt and Cush,

⁴so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

⁵Then they will be terrified and ashamed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their pride.

⁶So the inhabitants of this coastland will say on that day, ‘Behold, such is our hope, where we fled for help to be saved from the king of Assyria; and how are we ourselves to escape?’ ”

¹The pronouncement concerning the wilderness of the sea: As windstorms in the Negev come in turns, It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land.

²A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media; I have put an end to all the groaning she has caused.

³For this reason my loins are full of anguish; Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor. I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see.

⁴My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned into trembling for me.

⁵They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink; “Rise up, captains, oil the shields!”

⁶For this is what the Lord says to me: “Go, station the lookout, have him report what he sees.

⁷When he sees a column of chariots, horsemen in pairs, A train of donkeys, a train of camels, He is to pay close attention, very close attention.”

⁸Then the lookout called, “Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, And I am stationed every night at my guard post.

⁹Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.” And one said, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.”

¹⁰My downtrodden people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of armies, The God of Israel, I make known to you.

¹¹The pronouncement concerning Edom: One keeps calling to me from Seir, “Watchman, how far gone is the night? Watchman, how far gone is the night?”

¹²The watchman says, “Morning comes but also night. If you would inquire, inquire; Come back again.”

¹³The pronouncement about Arabia: In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night, You caravans of Dedanites.

¹⁴Bring water for the thirsty, You inhabitants of the land of Tema; Meet the fugitive with bread.

¹⁵For they have fled from the swords, From the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, And from the press of battle.

¹⁶For this is what the Lord said to me: “In a year, as a hired worker would count it, all the splendor of Kedar will come to an end;

¹⁷and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the warriors of the sons of Kedar, will be few; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken.”

¹The pronouncement concerning the valley of vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?

²You who were full of noise, You tumultuous town, you jubilant city; Your dead were not killed with the sword, Nor did they die in battle.

³All your rulers have fled together, And have been captured without the bow; All of you who were found were taken captive together, Though they had fled far away.

⁴Therefore I say, “Look away from me, Let me weep bitterly, Do not try to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord GOD of armies has a day of panic, subjugation, and confusion In the valley of vision, A breaking down of walls And a crying to the mountain.

⁶Elam picked up the quiver, With the chariots, infantry, and horsemen; And Kir uncovered the shield.

⁷Then your choicest valleys were full of chariots, And the horsemen took positions at the gate.

⁸And He removed the defense of Judah. On that day you depended on the weapons of the house of the forest,

⁹And you saw that the breaches In the wall of the city of David were many; And you collected the waters of the lower pool.

¹⁰Then you counted the houses of Jerusalem And tore down houses to fortify the wall.

¹¹And you made a reservoir between the two walls For the waters of the old pool. But you did not depend on Him who made it, Nor did you take into consideration Him who planned it long ago.

¹²Therefore on that day the Lord GOD of armies called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head, and to wearing sackcloth.

¹³Instead, there is joy and jubilation, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

¹⁴But the LORD of armies revealed Himself to me: “Certainly this wrongdoing will not be forgiven you Until you die,” says the Lord GOD of armies.

¹⁵This is what the Lord GOD of armies says: “Come, go to this steward, To Shebna who is in charge of the royal household,

¹⁶‘What right do you have here, And whom do you have here, That you have cut out a tomb for yourself here, You who cut out a tomb on the height, You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?

¹⁷Behold, the LORD is about to hurl you violently, you strong man. And He is about to grasp you firmly

¹⁸And wrap you up tightly like a ball, To be driven into a vast country; There you will die, And there your splendid chariots will be, You shame of your master’s house!’

¹⁹I will depose you from your office, And I will pull you down from your position.

²⁰Then it will come about on that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,

²¹And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely around him. I will hand your authority over to him, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

²²Then I will put the key of the house of David on his shoulder; When he opens, no one will shut, When he shuts, no one will open.

²³I will drive him like a peg in a firm place, And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.

²⁴So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, the offspring and the descendants, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars.

²⁵On that day,” declares the LORD of armies, “the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will even break off and fall, and the load that is hanging on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.”