Isaiah 18-22

Contemporary English Version

Ethiopia Will Be Punished

18 ^(A) Downstream from Ethiopia^[a]
lies the country of Egypt,
    swarming with insects.^[b]
²Egypt sends messengers
up the Nile River
    on ships made of reeds.^[c]
Send them fast to Ethiopia,
whose people are tall
    and have smooth skin.
Their land is divided by rivers;
they are strong and brutal,
    feared all over the world.^[d]

³Everyone on this earth,
    listen with care!
A signal will be given
on the mountains,
    and you will hear a trumpet.
⁴The Lord said to me,
“I will calmly look down
    from my home above—
as calmly as the sun at noon
or clouds in the heat
    of harvest season.”

⁵Before the blossoms
    can turn into grapes,
God will cut off the sprouts
    and hack off the branches.
⁶Ethiopians will be food
for mountain vultures
    during the summer
and for wild animals
    during the winter.

⁷Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount Zion.

Egypt Will Be Punished

19 ^(B) This is a message about Egypt:

The Lord comes to Egypt,
    riding swiftly on a cloud.
The people are weak from fear.
Their idols tremble
    as he approaches and says,
²“I will punish Egypt
    with civil war—
neighbors, cities, and kingdoms
    will fight each other.

³“Egypt will be discouraged
    when I confuse their plans.
They will try to get advice
    from their idols,
from the spirits of the dead,
    and from fortunetellers.
⁴I will put the Egyptians
under the power of a cruel,
    heartless king.
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
    have promised this.”

Trouble along the Nile

⁵The Nile River will dry up
    and become parched land.
⁶Its streams will stink,
    Egypt will have no water,
and the reeds and tall grass
    will dry up.
⁷Fields along the Nile
will be completely barren;
    every plant will disappear.

⁸Those who fish in the Nile
will be discouraged
and mourn.
⁹None of the cloth makers^[e]
will know what to do,
and they will turn pale.^[f]
¹⁰Weavers will be confused;
paid workers will cry and mourn.

Egypt's Helpless Leaders

¹¹The king's officials in Zoan^[g]
are foolish themselves
    and give stupid advice.
How can they say to him,
    “We are very wise,
and our families go back
    to kings of long ago?”
¹²Where are those wise men now?
    If they can, let them say
what the Lord All-Powerful
    intends for Egypt.

¹³The royal officials in Zoan
and in Memphis
    are foolish and deceived.
The leaders in every state
have given bad advice
    to the nation.
¹⁴The Lord has confused Egypt;
its leaders have made it stagger
    and vomit like a drunkard.
¹⁵No one in Egypt can do a thing,
    no matter who they are.

¹⁶When the Lord All-Powerful punishes Egypt with his mighty arm, the Egyptians will become terribly weak and will tremble with fear. ¹⁷They will be so terrified of Judah that they will be frightened by the very mention of its name. This will happen because of what the Lord All-Powerful is planning against Egypt.

The Lord Will Bless Egypt, Assyria, and Israel

¹⁸The time is coming when Hebrew will be spoken in five Egyptian cities, and their people will become followers of the Lord. One of these cities will be called City of the Sun.^[h]

¹⁹In the heart of Egypt an altar will be set up for the Lord; at its border a shrine will be built to honor him. ²⁰These will remind the Egyptians that the Lord All-Powerful is with them. And when they are in trouble and ask for help, he will send someone to rescue them from their enemies. ²¹The Lord will show the Egyptians who he is, and they will know and worship the Lord. They will bring him sacrifices and offerings, and they will keep their promises to him. ²²After the Lord has punished Egypt, the people will turn to him. Then he will answer their prayers, and the Egyptians will be healed.

²³At that time a good road will run from Egypt to Assyria. The Egyptians and the Assyrians will travel back and forth from Egypt to Assyria, and they will worship together. ²⁴Israel will join with these two countries. They will be a blessing to everyone on earth, ²⁵then the Lord All-Powerful will bless them by saying,

“The Egyptians are my people.
I created the Assyrians
and chose the Israelites.”

Isaiah Acts Out the Defeat of Egypt and Ethiopia

20 King Sargon of Assyria gave orders for his army commander to capture the city of Ashdod.^[i] ²About this same time the Lord had told me, “Isaiah, take off everything, including your sandals!” I did this and went around naked and barefoot ³for three years.

Then the Lord said:

What Isaiah has done is a warning to Egypt and Ethiopia.^[j] ⁴Everyone in these two countries will be led away naked and barefoot by the king of Assyria. Young or old, they will be taken prisoner, and Egypt will be disgraced. ⁵They will be confused and frustrated, because they depended on Ethiopia and bragged about Egypt. ⁶When this happens, the people who live along the coast^[k] will say, “Look what happened to them! We ran to them for safety, hoping they would protect us from the king of Assyria. But now, there is no escape for us.”

The Fall of Babylonia^[l]

21 This is a message about a desert beside the sea:^[m]

Enemies from a hostile nation
attack like a whirlwind
    from the Southern Desert.
²What a horrible vision
    was shown to me—
a vision of betrayal
    and destruction.
Tell Elam and Media^[n]
to surround and attack
    the Babylonians.
The Lord has sworn to end
    the suffering they caused.

³I'm in terrible pain
    like a woman giving birth.
I'm shocked and hurt so much
    that I can't hear or see.
⁴My head spins; I'm horrified!
Early evening, my favorite time,
    has become a nightmare.

⁵In Babylon the high officials
    were having a feast.
They were eating and drinking,
    when someone shouted,
“Officers, take your places!
    Grab your shields.”

⁶The Lord said to me,
“Send guards
    to find out
    what's going on.
⁷When they see cavalry troops
    and columns of soldiers
on donkeys and camels,
    tell them to be ready!”

⁸Then a guard^[o] said,
“I have stood day and night
on this watchtower, Lord.
⁹^(C) Now I see column after column
of cavalry troops.”

At once someone shouted,
“Babylon has fallen!
Every idol in the city
lies broken on the ground.”

¹⁰Then I said, “My people,
you have suffered terribly,
but I have a message for you
from the Lord All-Powerful,
the God of Israel.”

How Much Longer?

¹¹This is a message about Dumah:

From the country of Seir,^[p]
someone shouts to me,
“Guard, how much longer
before daylight?”

¹²From my guard post, I answered,
“Morning will soon be here,
but night will return.
If you want to know more,
come back later.”

¹³This is a message for Arabs who live in the barren desert in the region of Dedan:^[q]

You must order your caravans
¹⁴to bring water for those
    who are thirsty.
You people of Tema^[r]
must bring food
    for the hungry refugees.
¹⁵They are worn out and weary
from being chased by enemies
    with swords and arrows.

¹⁶The Lord said to me:

A year from now the glory of the people of Kedar^[s] will all come to an end, just as a worker's contract ends after a year. ¹⁷Only a few of their warriors will be left with bows and arrows. This is a promise that I, the Lord God of Israel, have made.

Trouble in Vision Valley

22 This is a message about Vision Valley:^[t]

Why are you celebrating
on the flat roofs^[u]
    of your houses?
²Your city is filled
    with noisy shouts.
Those who lie drunk
in your streets
    were not killed in battle.
³Your leaders ran away,
but they were captured
    without a fight.
No matter how far they ran,
    they were found and caught.^[v]

⁴Then I said, “Leave me alone!
Let me cry bitter tears.
My people have been destroyed,
so don't try to comfort me.”

⁵The Lord All-Powerful
    had chosen a time
for noisy shouts and confusion
    to fill Vision Valley,
and for everyone to beg
    the mountains for help.^[w]
⁶The people of Elam and Kir^[x]
attacked with chariots^[y]
    and carried shields.
⁷Your most beautiful valleys
    were covered with chariots;
your cities were surrounded
by cavalry troops.
⁸    Judah was left defenseless.

At that time you trusted in the weapons you had stored in Forest Palace.^[z] ⁹You saw the holes in the outer wall of Jerusalem, and you brought water from the lower pool.^[aa] ¹⁰You counted the houses in Jerusalem and tore down some of them, so you could get stones to repair the city wall. ¹¹Then you built a large tank between the walls^[ab] to store the water. But you refused to trust the God who planned this long ago and made it happen.

A Time To Weep

¹²When all of this happened,
the Lord All-Powerful told you
    to weep and mourn,
    to shave your heads,
    and wear sackcloth.
¹³^(D) But instead, you celebrated
by feasting on beef and lamb
    and by drinking wine,
because you said,
“Let's eat and drink today!
    Tomorrow we may die.”

¹⁴The Lord All-Powerful
has spoken to me
this solemn promise:
“I won't forgive them for this,
not as long as they live.”

Selfish Officials Are Doomed

¹⁵The Lord All-Powerful is sending me with this message for Shebna, the prime minister:

¹⁶Shebna, what gives you the right to have a tomb carved out of rock in this burial place of royalty? None of your relatives are buried here. ¹⁷You may be powerful, but the Lord is about to snatch you up and throw you away. ¹⁸He will roll you into a ball and throw you into a wide open country, where you will die and your chariots will be destroyed. You're a disgrace to those you serve.

¹⁹The Lord is going to take away your job! ^20-21He will give your official robes and your authority to his servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.

Eliakim will be like a father to the people of Jerusalem and to the royal family of Judah. ²²^(E) The Lord will put him in charge of the key that belongs to King David's family. No one will be able to unlock what he locks, and no one will be able to lock what he unlocks. ²³The Lord will make him as firm in his position as a tent peg hammered in the ground, and Eliakim will bring honor to his family.

²⁴His children and relatives will be supported by him, like pans hanging from a peg on the wall. ²⁵That peg is fastened firmly now, but someday it will be shaken loose and fall down. Then everything that was hanging on it will be destroyed. This is what the Lord All-Powerful has promised.

Footnotes

18.1 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11.
18.1 insects: Or “sailing ships.”
18.2 reeds: Ancient Egypt was famous for the papyrus reeds that grew in the Nile Delta.
18.2 world: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 2.
19.9 cloth makers: Cloth was made from several kinds of plants that grew in the fields along the Nile.
19.9 turn pale: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
19.11 Zoan: The city of Tanis in the Nile delta.
19.18 City of the Sun: Some manuscripts of the Standard Hebrew Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and one ancient translation; most manuscripts of the Standard Hebrew Text have “City of Destruction.” This probably refers to Heliopolis which means “City of the Sun” (see Jeremiah 43.13).
20.1 Ashdod: King Sargon II of Assyria captured this Philistine city in 711 b.c.
20.3 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11.
20.6 people … coast: Probably the Philistines.
21 Title Babylonia: King Cyrus and his army of Medes and Persians captured the city of Babylon in 539 b.c.
21.1 This … sea: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The prophet may be speaking of Babylonia as a desert, because of the terrible punishment God will bring on it. The southern part of Babylonia on the Persian Gulf was sometimes called “the land beside the sea.”
21.2 Elam and Media: People from the Iranian highlands; the capital of Elam was Susa, in the hill country east of Babylon.
21.8 guard: The Dead Sea Scrolls and one ancient translation; the Standard Hebrew Text has “lion.”
21.11 Dumah … Seir: Dumah was an oasis in the Arabian desert. One ancient translation has “Edom,” which may be what is meant. Seir is a mountainous region of Edom southwest of the Dead Sea.
21.13 Dedan: A region in northwest Arabia.
21.14 Tema: A region in north Arabia.
21.16 Kedar: A region in the Arabian desert.
22.1 Vision Valley: The exact location is not known. In Hebrew the name sounds something like “Hinnom Valley,” where the people of Jerusalem sometimes offered human sacrifices to the gods of Canaan.
22.1 flat roofs: In Palestine the houses usually had a flat roof. Stairs on the outside led up to the roof, which was made of beams and boards covered with packed earth.
22.3 No matter … caught: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
22.5 and for … help: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
22.6 Elam and Kir: Regions in the Iranian highlands.
22.6 chariots: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
22.8 Forest Palace: Built by Solomon (1 Kings 7.2) and used as a place for storing weapons.
22.9 the lower pool: Mentioned only here; probably in the southern part of the Central Valley (Tyropoean Valley) of Jerusalem.
22.11 between the walls: Some cities had two walls with a space between them. If the enemy broke through the outer wall, the city was still protected by the inner wall. The houses that were torn down to repair the outer wall were probably squatters' huts that had been built between the two walls.