1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. 2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, and they shall fight each one against his brother, and each one against his neighbour; city against city and kingdom against kingdom. 3 And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof, and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they shall seek to the idols and to the charmers and to the spiritists and to the wizards. 4 And I will give the Egyptians over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a violent king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of the hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up. 6 And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither. 7 The vegetables by the river, by the mouth of the river, and every thing sown beside the river shall dry up, wither away, and be no more. 8 The fishermen also shall mourn, and all those that cast fishhooks into the river shall lament, and those that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. 9 Moreover those that work in fine flax and those that weave networks shall be confounded. 10 Because all their nets shall be broken; all that make ponds to raise fish shall be discontented.
11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; the counsel of the prudent counsellors of Pharaoh is become carnal; how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of the ancient kings? 12 Where are they? Where are thy wise men? Let them tell thee now, or let them cause thee to know what the LORD of the hosts has purposed upon Egypt. 13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even those that are the stay of the tribes thereof. 14 The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in its midst, and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit. 15 Neither shall it be of any value unto Egypt, any work which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.