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19An oracle concerning Egypt. See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them. ²I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, one against the other, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom; ³the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their plans; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead and the ghosts and the familiar spirits; ⁴I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master; a fierce king will rule over them, says the Sovereign, the Lord of hosts. ⁵The waters of the Nile will be dried up, and the river will be parched and dry; ⁶its canals will become foul, and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up, reeds and rushes will rot away. ⁷There will be bare places by the Nile, on the brink of the Nile; and all that is sown by the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and be no more. ⁸Those who fish will mourn; all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will languish. ⁹The workers in flax will be in despair, and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale. ¹⁰Its weavers will be dismayed, and all who work for wages will be grieved. ¹¹The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, “I am one of the sages, a descendant of ancient kings”? ¹²Where now are your sages? Let them tell you and make known what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt. ¹³The princes of Zoan have become fools, and the princes of Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of its tribes have led Egypt astray. ¹⁴The Lord has poured into them a spirit of confusion; and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings as a drunkard staggers around in vomit. ¹⁵Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed, will be able to do anything for Egypt. ¹⁶On that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts raises against them. ¹⁷And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the plan that the Lord of hosts is planning against them.