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.^(A)
2 I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
    and they will fight, one against the other,
    neighbor against neighbor,
    city against city, kingdom against kingdom;^(B)
3 the 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;^(C)
4 I 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.^(D)

⁵ The waters of the Nile will be dried up,
    and the river will be parched and dry;^(E)
6 its canals will become foul,
    and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up.
Reeds and rushes will rot away,^(F)
7     the reeds beside the Nile;^[a]
all that is sown by the Nile will dry up,
    be driven away, and be no more.
⁸ Those who fish will mourn;
    all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament,
    and those who spread nets on the water will languish.
⁹ The workers in flax will be in despair,
    and the carders and those at the loom will grow pale.
¹⁰ Its weavers will be dismayed,
    and all who work for wages will be grieved.^(G)

¹¹ Clearly the princes of Zoan are 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”?^(H)
12 Where now are your sages?
    Let them tell you and make known
    what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.^(I)
13 The 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.^(J)
14 The Lord has poured into them^[b]
    a spirit of confusion;
and they have made Egypt stagger in all its doings
    as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.^(K)
15 Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed,
    will be able to do anything for Egypt.

You consider yourself a lion among the nations,
    but you are like a dragon in the seas;
you thrash about in your streams,
    trouble the water with your feet,
    and foul your^[a] streams.^(A)
3 Thus says the Lord God:
    In an assembly of many peoples
    I will throw my net over you,
    and I^[b] will haul you up in my dragnet.^(B)
4 I will throw you on the ground;
    on the open field I will fling you
and will cause all the birds of the air to settle on you,
    and I will let the wild animals of the whole earth gorge themselves on you.^(C)
5 I will strew your flesh on the mountains
    and fill the valleys with your carcass.^[c]
6 I will drench the land with your flowing blood
    up to the mountains,
    and the watercourses will be filled with you.^(D)
7 When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens
    and make their stars dark;
I will cover the sun with a cloud,
    and the moon shall not give its light.^(E)
8 All the shining lights of the heavens
    I will darken above you
    and put darkness on your land,
            says the Lord God.
⁹ I will trouble the hearts of many peoples
    as I carry you captive^[d] among the nations,
    into countries you have not known.^(F)
10 I will make many peoples appalled at you;
    their kings shall shudder because of you.
When I brandish my sword before them,
    they shall tremble every moment
for their lives, each one of them,
    on the day of your downfall.^(G)
11 For thus says the Lord God:
The sword of the king of Babylon shall come against you.^(H)
12 I will cause your hordes to fall
    by the swords of mighty ones,
    all of them most terrible among the nations.
They shall bring to ruin the pride of Egypt,
    and all its hordes shall perish.^(I)
13 I will destroy all its livestock
    from beside abundant waters,
and no human foot shall trouble them any more,
    nor shall the hoofs of cattle trouble them.^(J)
14 Then I will make their waters clear
    and cause their streams to run like oil, says the Lord God.
¹⁵ When I make the land of Egypt desolate
    and when the land is stripped of all that fills it,
when I strike down all who live in it,
    then they shall know that I am the Lord.^(K)
16 This is a lamentation; it shall be chanted.
    The women of the nations shall chant it.
Over Egypt and all its hordes they shall chant it,
    says the Lord God.^(L)