Isaiah 19:12

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Where then are your wise men?Let them tell you and revealwhat the Lord of Armies has planned against Egypt.

Hebrew Names Version
Where then are your wise men? and let them tell you now; and let them know what the LORD of Hosts has purposed concerning Mitzrayim.

King James Version
Where are they? where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

English Standard Version
Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

New American Standard Bible
Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what the LORD of armies Has planned against Egypt.

New Century Version
Egypt, where are your wise men? Let them show you what the Lord All-Powerful has planned for Egypt.

Amplified Bible
Where then are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what the LORD of hosts Has purposed against Egypt [if they can].

World English Bible
Where then are your wise men? and let them tell you now; and let them know what Yahweh of Hosts has purposed concerning Egypt.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Where are nowe thy wise men, that they may tell thee, or may knowe what the Lorde of hostes hath determined against Egypt?

Legacy Standard Bible
Well then, where are your wise men?Please let them tell you,And let them understand what Yahweh of hostsHas counseled against Egypt.

Berean Standard Bible
Where are your wise men now? Let them tell you and reveal what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt.

Contemporary English Version
Where are those wise men now? If they can, let them say what the Lord All-Powerful intends for Egypt.

Complete Jewish Bible
Where are they, then, those sages of yours? Let them tell you, so all can know what Adonai -Tzva'ot has planned against Egypt!

Darby Translation
Where are they then, thy wise [men]? Let them now tell thee, and let them make known what Jehovah of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

Easy-to-Read Version
Egypt, where are your wise men? They should learn what the Lord All-Powerful has planned for Egypt. They should be the ones to tell you what will happen.

George Lamsa Translation
Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

Good News Translation
King of Egypt, where are those clever advisers of yours? Perhaps they can tell you what plans the Lord Almighty has for Egypt.

Lexham English Bible
Where are your sages then? Now, let them tell you, and let them know what Yahweh of hosts has planned against Egypt.

Literal Translation
Where are your wise ones now? Yea, let them tell you now, that they may know what Jehovah of Hosts has planned against Egypt.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I am come of ye olde regall Progeny. But where are now thy wyse me? Let them tel the & shewe the, what the LORDE of hoostes hath taken in honde agaynst Egypte.

American Standard Version
Where then are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now; and let them know what Jehovah of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt.

Bible in Basic English
Where, then, are your wise men? let them make clear to you, let them give you knowledge of the purpose of the Lord of armies for Egypt.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Where are they, then, thy wise men? And let them tell thee now; and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt.

King James Version (1611)
Where are they? Where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know, what the Lord of hosts hath purposed vpon Egypt.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Where are thy wise men? Let them tell thee yf they can, what the Lorde of hoastes hath deuised vpon Egypt.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Where are now thy wise men? and let them declare to thee, and say, What has the Lord of hosts purposed upon Egypt?

English Revised Version
Where then are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now; and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Where ben now thi wise men? Telle thei to thee, and schewe thei, what the Lord of oostis thouyte on Egipt.

Update Bible Version
Where then are your wise men? and let them tell you now if they know what Yahweh of hosts has purposed concerning Egypt.

Webster's Bible Translation
Where [are] they? where [are] thy wise [men]? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

New English Translation
But where, oh where, are your wise men? Let them tell you, let them find out what the Lord who commands armies has planned for Egypt.

New King James Version
Where are they? Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now, And let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

New Living Translation
Where are your wise counselors, Pharaoh? Let them tell you what God plans, what the Lord of Heaven's Armies is going to do to Egypt.

New Life Bible
Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you. And let them understand what the Lord of All has planned against Egypt.

New Revised Standard
Where now are your sages? Let them tell you and make known what the Lord of hosts has planned against Egypt.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Where then are thy wise men? Pray let them tell thee! And let them know what Yahweh of hosts hath purposed on Egypt!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Where are now thy wise men? let them tell thee, and shew what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

Revised Standard Version
Where then are your wise men? Let them tell you and make known what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

Young's Literal Translation
Where [are] they now, thy wise ones? Yea, let them tell to thee, I pray thee, And they know what Jehovah of Hosts hath counselled against Egypt!

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Well then, where are your wise men? Please let them tell you, And let them understand what the LORD of hosts Has purposed against Egypt.

Contextual Overview

¹ A Message concerning Egypt: Watch this! God riding on a fast-moving cloud, moving in on Egypt! The god-idols of Egypt shudder and shake, Egyptians paralyzed by panic. ²God says, "I'll make Egyptian fight Egyptian, brother fight brother, neighbor fight neighbor, City fight city, kingdom fight kingdom— anarchy and chaos and killing! I'll knock the wind out of the Egyptians. They won't know coming from going. They'll go to their god-idols for answers; they'll conjure ghosts and hold séances, desperate for answers. But I'll turn the Egyptians over to a tyrant most cruel. I'll put them under the rule of a mean, merciless king." Decree of the Master, God -of-the-Angel-Armies. ⁵The River Nile will dry up, the riverbed baked dry in the sun. The canals will become stagnant and stink, every stream touching the Nile dry up. River vegetation will rot away the banks of the Nile-baked clay, The riverbed hard and smooth, river grasses dried up and gone with the wind. Fishermen will complain that the fishing's been ruined. Textile workers will be out of work, all weavers and workers in linen and cotton and wool Dispirited, depressed in their forced idleness— everyone who works for a living, jobless. ¹¹The princes of Zoan are fools, the advisors of Pharaoh stupid. How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh, "Trust me: I'm wise. I know what's going on. Why, I'm descended from the old wisdom of Egypt"? There's not a wise man or woman left in the country. If there were, one of them would tell you what God -of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt. As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools and the princes of Memphis, dunces. The honored pillars of your society have led Egypt into detours and dead ends. God has scrambled their brains, Egypt's become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk. Egypt's hopeless, past helping, a senile, doddering old fool. ¹⁶On that Day, Egyptians will be like hysterical schoolgirls, screaming at the first hint of action from God -of-the-Angel-Armies. Little Judah will strike terror in Egyptians! Say "Judah" to an Egyptian and see panic. The word triggers fear of the God -of-the-Angel-Armies' plan against Egypt.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

where are thy: Isaiah 5:21, Isaiah 47:10-13, Judges 9:38, Jeremiah 2:28, 1 Corinthians 1:20

let them: Isaiah 40:13, Isaiah 40:14, Isaiah 41:22, Isaiah 41:23, Isaiah 44:7, Job 11:6, Job 11:7, Romans 11:33, Romans 11:34

Reciprocal: Genesis 3:22 - as one Exodus 7:11 - wise men Exodus 8:18 - they could 1 Kings 4:30 - the wisdom of Egypt Job 12:17 - General Isaiah 30:28 - to sift Jeremiah 4:9 - that the heart

Cross-References

Genesis 7:1
Next God said to Noah, "Now board the ship, you and all your family—out of everyone in this generation, you're the righteous one.

Genesis 19:14
Lot went out and warned the fiancés of his daughters, "Evacuate this place; God is about to destroy this city!" But his daughters' would-be husbands treated it as a joke.

Genesis 19:23
The sun was high in the sky when Lot arrived at Zoar.

2 Peter 2:9
So God knows how to rescue the godly from evil trials. And he knows how to hold the feet of the wicked to the fire until Judgment Day.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Where [are] they? where [are] thy wise [men]?.... The magicians and soothsayers, the diviners and astrologers, who pretended, by their magic art and skill in judicial astrology, to foretell things to come: this is an address to the king of Egypt, who had such persons about him, and encouraged them, by consulting them on occasion, and rewarding them:

and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt; or, "against it"; let them tell, if they can, and make known unto thee the purposes of God's heart, the things he has resolved upon, even the calamities and punishments he will shortly inflict upon the Egyptians, of which he has given notice by his prophets.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Where are they? - This whole verse is an appeal by the prophet to the king of Egypt respecting the counselors and soothsayers of his kingdom. The sense is, ‘a time of distress and danger is evidently coming upon Egypt. They pretend to be wise; and there is now occasion for all their wisdom, and opportunity to evince it. Let them show it. Let them declare what is coming upon the nation, and take proper measures to meet and remove it; and they will then demonstrate that it would be proper for Pharaoh to repose confidence in them.’ But if they could not do this, then he should not suffer himself to be deluded, and his kingdom ruined, by their counsels.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 19:12. "Let them come"] Here too a word seems to have been left out of the text. After חכמיך chochameycha, thy wise men, two MSS., one ancient, add יבאו yibu, let them come; which, if we consider the form and construction of the sentence, has very much the appearance of being genuine: otherwise the connective conjunction at the beginning of the next member is not only superfluous but embarrassing. See also the Version of the Septuagint, in which the same deficiency is manifest.

Let them tell thee now - "And let them declare"] For ידעו yidu, let them know, perhaps we ought to read יודיעו yodiu, let them make known. - Secker. The Septuagint and Vulgate favour this reading, ειπατωισαν, let them declare.