Isaiah 19:4

Bible in Basic English

And I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a hard king will be their ruler, says the Lord, the Lord of armies.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I will hand over Egypt to harsh masters,and a strong king will rule it.

Hebrew Names Version
I will give over the Mitzrim into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, the LORD of Hosts.

King James Version
And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

English Standard Version
and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a fierce king will rule over them, declares the Lord God of hosts.

New American Standard Bible
"Furthermore, I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of armies.

New Century Version
The Lord God All-Powerful says, "I will hand Egypt over to a hard master, and a powerful king will rule over them."

Amplified Bible
"And I will hand over the Egyptians to a hard and cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

World English Bible
I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And I will deliuer the Egyptians into the hand of the cruell Lordes, & a mightie King shall rule ouer them, sayth the Lord God of hostes.

Legacy Standard Bible
Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master,And a strong king will rule over them," declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

Berean Standard Bible
I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of harsh masters, and a fierce king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

Contemporary English Version
I will put the Egyptians under the power of a cruel, heartless king. I, the Lord All-Powerful, have promised this."

Complete Jewish Bible
I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master. A harsh king will rule them," says the Lord, Adonai -Tzva'ot.

Darby Translation
And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord God All-Powerful says, "I will give Egypt to a hard master. A powerful king will rule over the people."

George Lamsa Translation
And I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of the cruel Medes; and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the LORD of hosts.

Good News Translation
I will hand the Egyptians over to a tyrant, to a cruel king who will rule them. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken."

Lexham English Bible
And I will hand over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master, and a powerful king will rule over them," declares the Lord Yahweh of hosts.

Literal Translation
And I will shut up the Egyptians into the hand of cruel lords; and a fierce king shall rule them, declares the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I wil delyuer Egipte also in to the hondes of greuous rulers, and a cruel kinge shal haue the rule of them.

American Standard Version
And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

King James Version (1611)
And the Egyptians will I giue ouer into the hand of a cruell Lord; and a fierce king shall rule ouer them, saith the Lorde, the Lord of hostes.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the Egyptians wyll I geue ouer into the hande of a maruaylous cruell lorde, and a mightie kyng shall haue dominion ouer them, saith the Lorde God of hoastes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will deliver Egypt into the hands of men, of cruel lords; and cruel kings shall rule over them: thus saith the Lord of hosts.

English Revised Version
And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal bitake Egipt in to the hond of cruel lordis, and a strong kyng schal be lord of hem, seith the Lord God of oostis.

Update Bible Version
And I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, says the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

Webster's Bible Translation
And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

New English Translation
I will hand Egypt over to a harsh master; a powerful king will rule over them," says the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies.

New King James Version
And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them," Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

New Living Translation
I will hand Egypt over to a hard, cruel master. A fierce king will rule them," says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven's Armies.

New Life Bible
Then I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a bad ruler. An angry king will rule over them," says the Lord God of All.

New Revised Standard
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.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord, - And a fierce king shall rule over them, Declareth the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel masters, and a strong king shall rule over them, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

Revised Standard Version
and I will give over the Egyptians into the hand of a hard master; and a fierce king will rule over them, says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

Young's Literal Translation
And I have delivered the Egyptians Into the hand of a hard lord, And a strong king doth rule over them, An affirmation of the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Moreover, I will deliver the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel master, And a mighty king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

Contextual Overview

¹ The word about Egypt. See, the Lord is seated on a quick-moving cloud, and is coming to Egypt: and the false gods of Egypt will be troubled at his coming, and the heart of Egypt will be turned to water. ² And I will send the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they will be fighting every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; town against town, and kingdom against kingdom. ³ And the spirit of Egypt will be troubled in her, and I will make her decisions without effect: and they will be turning to the false gods, and to those who make hollow sounds, and to those who have control of spirits, and to those who are wise in secret arts. ⁴ And I will give the Egyptians into the hand of a cruel lord; and a hard king will be their ruler, says the Lord, the Lord of armies. ⁵ And the waters of the sea will be cut off, and the river will become dry and waste: ⁶ And the rivers will have an evil smell; the stream of Egypt will become small and dry: all the water-plants will come to nothing. ⁷ The grass-lands by the Nile, and everything planted by the Nile, will become dry, or taken away by the wind, and will come to an end. ⁸ The fishermen will be sad, and all those who put fishing-lines into the Nile will be full of grief, and those whose nets are stretched out on the waters will have sorrow in their hearts. ⁹ And all the workers in linen thread, and those who make cotton cloth, will be put to shame. ¹⁰ And the makers of twisted thread will be crushed, and those who Three dots are used where it is no longer possible to be certain of the true sense of the Hebrew words, and for this reason no attempt has been made to put them into Basic English. will be sad in heart.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

give over: or, shut up, 1 Samuel 23:7, Psalms 31:8

a cruel lord: Rather, "cruel lords," agreeable to the LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and the original adonim kasheh. Nebuchadnezzar, who first conquered and ravaged Egypt, bc 573, and the following year; and then, not only his successors, but Cambyses (who invaded Egypt, bc 526) the son of Cyrus, and the whole succession of Persian kings till the time of Alexander, who were in general hard masters, and grievously oppressed the country. Isaiah 19:2, Isaiah 20:4, Jeremiah 46:26, Ezekiel 29:19

Reciprocal: Isaiah 19:20 - they shall Isaiah 30:6 - into the land Jeremiah 6:23 - cruel Jeremiah 52:3 - through Ezekiel 30:12 - I will make

Cross-References

Genesis 13:13
Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.

Genesis 18:20
And the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is very great, and their sin is very evil,

Genesis 19:1
And at nightfall the two angels came to Sodom; and Lot was seated at the way into the town: and when he saw them he got up and came before them, falling down on his face to the earth.

Genesis 19:6
And Lot went out to them in the doorway, shutting the door after him.

Genesis 19:20
This town, now, is near, and it is a little one: O, let me go there (is it not a little one?) so that my life may be safe.

Genesis 19:25
And he sent destruction on those towns, with all the lowland and all the people of those towns and every green thing in the land.

Exodus 16:2
And all the children of Israel were crying out against Moses and Aaron in the waste land:

Exodus 23:2
Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:

Proverbs 4:16
For they take no rest till they have done evil; their sleep is taken away if they have not been the cause of someone's fall.

Proverbs 6:18
A heart full of evil designs, feet which are quick in running after sin;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the Egyptians will I give over into the hands of a cruel lord,.... Not of Sennacherib king of Assyria, which way go many interpreters, both Christian and Jewish, as Aben Ezra, Jarchi, and Kimchi; nor of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, as in Jeremiah 46:25 but either of the twelve tyrants that rose up after the death of Sethon above mentioned; for the word is in the plural number, "lords", though the adjective rendered "cruel" is singular; or else Psammiticus, the father of Pharaohnecho, that slew Josiah; and who conquered the other eleven tyrants, and ruled alone, for the space of fifty four years, with great rigour; and the same is designed in the next clause:

and a fierce king shall rule over them; it is reported of Psammiticus, that he gave such offence to his subjects, that two hundred thousand of his soldiers left him, and went into Ethiopia a. Vitringa interprets this of the Persian emperors, into whose hands Egypt fell, as Cambyses and Ochus; and who, according to historians, were very cruel princes. That there might be no doubt of the sure and certain accomplishment of this prophecy, it is added,

saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts; of the armies above and below; and who does what he pleases among the kings and kingdoms of the earth.

a See Raleigh's History of the World, B. 2. c. 27. sect. 3. p. 357.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And the Egyptians - The Egyptian nation; the entire people, though divided into factions and contending with each other.

Will I give over - Margin, ‘Shut up.’ The Hebrew word (סכר sākar) usually has the sense of shutting up, or closing. Here it means that these contentions would be “closed” or concluded by their being delivered to of a single master. The Septuagint renders it, Παραδώσω Paradōsō - ‘I will surrender.’

Into the hands of a cruel lord - Hebrew, ‘Lords of cruelty, or severity.’ The word rendered ‘lord,’ meaning master, is in the Hebrew in the plural number (אדנים 'ădônı̂y). It is, however, generally supposed that it is pluralis excellentiae - denoting majesty and dignity, and applicable to a “single” monarch. The connection requires this, for the state here described would be different from that where “many” rule, and it seems to suppose that “one” should succeed to the many who had been contending. In the parallel member, also, a name in the singular number is used - ‘a fierce king;’ and as this evidently denotes the same, it follows that the word here is used to denote a single monarch. The plural form is often thus used in the Hebrew (see Psalms 7:10; Ezekiel 29:3; Hosea 12:1). God here claims jurisdiction over the nation, and says that “he” will do it - a most striking illustration of the power which he asserts over contending people to deliver them to whomsoever he will.

Dr. Newton supposes that this was Nebuchadnezzar, or more properly Cambyses, by whom Egypt was made subject to the authority of Persia, and who was eminently a cruel man, a madman. But the more probable interpretation is that which refers it to Psammetichus. twelve kings were in contention, of whom he was one. He called in the aid of the Arabians, the pirates of Caria and Iona (Herodot. ii. 152; see the Analysis of the chapter; Diod. i. 66). This was in the twentieth year of the reign of Manasseh. Psammetichus reigned fifty-four years and was succeeded by Nechus his son, called in Scripture Pharaoh-Necho, and often mentioned under that name. Psammetichus, during a considerable part of his reign, was engaged in wars with Assyria and Palestine. He is here called a ‘cruel lord;’ that is, an oppressive monarch, probably because he secured the kingdom by bringing in to his aid foreign mercenaries - robbers and pirates, and because his wars made his government oppressive and burdensome.

A fierce king - Hebrew, ‘A king of strength’ - a description particularly applicable to one who, like Psammetichus, had subdued eleven rivals, and who had obtained the kingdom by conquest.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 19:4. A cruel lord - "Cruel lords"] Nebuchadnezzar in the first place, and afterwards the whole succession of Persian kings, who in general were hard masters, and grievously oppressed the country. Note, that for קשה kasheh, lord, a MS. reads קשים kashim, lords, agreeable to which is the rendering of the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.