Isaiah 19:15

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
No head or tail, palm or reed,will be able to do anything for Egypt.

Hebrew Names Version
Neither shall there be for Mitzrayim any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

King James Version
Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

English Standard Version
And there will be nothing for Egypt that head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

New American Standard Bible
There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

New Century Version
There is nothing Egypt can do; no one there can help.

Amplified Bible
There will be no work for Egypt Which head or tail, [high] palm branch or [low] bulrush, may do.

World English Bible
Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Neither shall there be any worke in Egypt, which the head may doe, nor the tayle, ye branch nor the rush.

Legacy Standard Bible
There will be no work for EgyptWhich its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

Berean Standard Bible
There is nothing Egypt can do-head or tail, palm or reed.

Contemporary English Version
No one in Egypt can do a thing, no matter who they are.

Complete Jewish Bible
Nobody in Egypt will find work to do — neither head nor tail, neither [tall] palm frond nor [lowly] reed.

Darby Translation
Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

Easy-to-Read Version
There is nothing the leaders can do. (They are "the heads and the tails." They are "the tops and the stalks of plants.")

George Lamsa Translation
Neither shall there be any leader for the Egyptians who can make head or tail of it, or tail or head.

Good News Translation
No one in Egypt, rich or poor, important or unknown, can offer help.

Lexham English Bible
And there will be nothing for Egypt to do, head or tail, palm branch or reed.

Literal Translation
And Egypt shall have no work that the head or the tail, the branch or rush, may do.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For Egipte shal lacke good councel, so yt they shal not knowe what to do, nether beginnynge nor ende, nether vpon the lode nor water.

American Standard Version
Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

Bible in Basic English
And in Egypt there will be no work for any man, head or tail, high or low, to do.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

King James Version (1611)
Neither shall there be any worke for Egypt, which the head or taile, branch or rush may doe.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Neither shall the head or tayle, the braunche or reede, be able to do any worke in Egypt.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And there shall be no work to the Egyptians, which shall make head or tail, or beginning or end.

English Revised Version
Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And werk schal not be to Egipt, that it make an heed and tail bowynge and refreynynge.

Update Bible Version
Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm-branch or rush, may do.

Webster's Bible Translation
Neither shall there be [any] work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may perform.

New English Translation
Egypt will not be able to do a thing, head or tail, shoots and stalk.

New King James Version
Neither will there be any work for Egypt,Which the head or tail,Palm branch or bulrush, may do. Isaiah 9:14-16 ">[fn]

New Living Translation
There is nothing Egypt can do. All are helpless— the head and the tail, the noble palm branch and the lowly reed.

New Life Bible
And there will be no work in Egypt and nothing can be done by anyone, its head or tail, its palm branch or river-grass.

New Revised Standard
Neither head nor tail, palm branch or reed, will be able to do anything for Egypt.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Egypt shall have nothing which can be don Which head or tail palm-top or rush, can do!

Douay-Rheims Bible
And there shall be no work for Egypt, to make head or tail, him that bendeth down, or that holdeth back.

Revised Standard Version
And there will be nothing for Egypt which head or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.

Young's Literal Translation
And there is no work to Egypt, That head or tail, branch or reed, may do.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
There will be no work for Egypt Which its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

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

Isaiah 9:14, Isaiah 9:15, Psalms 128:2, Proverbs 14:23, Habakkuk 3:17, Haggai 1:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:11, 1 Thessalonians 4:12

Cross-References

Genesis 19:4
Before they went to bed men from all over the city of Sodom, young and old, descended on the house from all sides and boxed them in. They yelled to Lot, "Where are the men who are staying with you for the night? Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!"

Genesis 19:24
Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.

Genesis 19:27
Abraham got up early the next morning and went to the place he had so recently stood with God . He looked out over Sodom and Gomorrah, surveying the whole plain. All he could see was smoke belching from the Earth, like smoke from a furnace.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Neither shall there be [any] work for Egypt,.... No trade or business to carry on; their rivers being dried up, there was no flax to work with, and fine linen was a principal commodity of Egypt; nor any fish to catch, or rushes to make paper of, as before observed: or it would not be in the power of their hands to deliver themselves from the Assyrians that should come against them; and that they should be deprived of wisdom and counsel, and be at their wits' end, not knowing what to do, or what step to take:

which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do: high or low, strong or weak, all ranks and orders of men shall have nothing to do; all shall be weak and dispirited, and void of counsel. By the "head" and "branch" may be meant the king and his nobles; and by the "tail" and "rush" the common people; see Isaiah 9:14. The Targum interprets the whole of their chief men thus,

"and the Egyptians shall have no king to reign, nor prince, noble, governor, or ruler.''

Jarchi explains it of the magicians, astrologers, and stargazers of Egypt, who, with all their boasted knowledge and wisdom, should not be able either to foresee or prevent the evil coming upon them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Neither shall there be any work - The sense is, that there shall be such discord that no man, whether a prince, a politician, or a priest, shall be able to give any advice, or form any plan for the national safety and security, which shall be successful.

Which the head or tail - High or low; strong or weak: those in office and those out of office; all shall be dispirited and confounded. Rosenmuller understands by the head here, the “political” orders of the nation, and by the tail the “sacerdotal” ranks. But the meaning more probably is, the highest and the lowest ranks - all the politicians, and priests, and princes, on the one hand, as the prophet had just stated Isaiah 19:11-15; and all the artificers, fishermen, etc., on the other, as he had stated Isaiah 19:8-10. This verse, therefore, is a “summing up” of all he had said about the calamities that were coming upon them.

Branch or rush - See these words explained in the note at Isaiah 9:14.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 19:15. The head or tail, branch or rush — R. D. Kimchi says, there are some who suppose that these words mean the dragon's head and tail; and refer to all those who are conversant in astronomy, astrology, &c.