Isaiah 19:8

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Then the fishermen will mourn.All those who cast hooks into the Nile will lament,and those who spread nets on the water will give up.

Hebrew Names Version
The fishermen shall lament, and all those who cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters shall languish.

King James Version
The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

English Standard Version
The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast a hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets on the water.

New American Standard Bible
And the fishermen will grieve, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will dwindle away.

New Century Version
The fishermen, all those who catch fish from the Nile, will groan and cry; those who fish in the Nile will be sad.

Amplified Bible
The fishermen will lament (cry out in grief), And all those who cast a hook into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets upon the waters will languish.

World English Bible
The fishermen shall lament, and all those who cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and those who spread nets on the waters shall languish.

Geneva Bible (1587)
The fishers also shall mourne, and all they that cast angle into the riuer, shall lament, and they that spread their nette vpon the waters, shall be weakened.

Legacy Standard Bible
And the fishermen will lament,And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn,And those who spread nets on the waters will languish.

Berean Standard Bible
Then the fishermen will mourn, all who cast hooks into the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will grieve.

Contemporary English Version
Those who fish in the Nile will be discouraged and mourn.

Complete Jewish Bible
Fishermen too will lament, all who cast hooks in the Nile will mourn, those who spread nets on the water lose heart.

Darby Translation
And the fishers shall mourn, and all they that cast fish-hook into the Nile shall lament, and they that spread net upon the waters shall languish.

Easy-to-Read Version
The fishermen, all those who catch fish from the Nile River, will become sad and they will cry. They depend on the Nile River for their food, but it will be dry.

George Lamsa Translation
The fishermen also shall lament, and all who cast hooks into the river shall mourn, and those who spread nets upon the water shall languish.

Good News Translation
Everyone who earns a living by fishing in the Nile will groan and cry; their hooks and their nets will be useless.

Lexham English Bible
And the fishers will mourn, and all of those who cast fishhooks in the Nile will lament, and those who spread out fishing nets on the surface of the water will languish.

Literal Translation
The fishermen shall mourn; and all who cast a hook into the Nile shall wail; and those who spread nets on the surface of the waters shall droop.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The fyshers shall mourne, all soch as cast angles in the water, shal complayne, & they that sprede their nettes in the water, shalbe faynt harted.

American Standard Version
And the fishers shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

Bible in Basic English
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.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
The fishers also shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

King James Version (1611)
The fishers also shall mourne, and all they that cast angle into the brookes shall lament, and they that spread nets vpon the waters shall languish.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The fisshers also shall mourne, and all they that cast angle into the water shall make lamentation: and they that lay foorth their net beside the waters shalbe rooted out.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the fishermen shall groan, and all that cast a hook into the river shall groan; they also that cast nets, and the anglers shall mourn.

English Revised Version
The fishers also shall lament, and all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And fischeris schulen morne, and alle that casten hook in to the flood, schulen weile; and thei that spreden abrood a net on the face of watris, schulen fade.

Update Bible Version
And the fishers shall lament, and all those that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, and those that spread nets on the waters shall languish.

Webster's Bible Translation
The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

New English Translation
The fishermen will mourn and lament, all those who cast a fishhook into the river, and those who spread out a net on the water's surface will grieve.

New King James Version
The fishermen also will mourn; All those will lament who cast hooks into the River, And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.

New Living Translation
The fishermen will lament for lack of work. Those who cast hooks into the Nile will groan, and those who use nets will lose heart.

New Life Bible
The fishermen will cry in sorrow. All those who fish for a living in the Nile River will be filled with sorrow. And those who put out nets on its waters will become weak.

New Revised Standard
Those who fish will mourn; all who cast hooks in the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will languish.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then shall the fishers, lament, And all shall mourn who cast in the Nile a hook, - And they who spread nets on the face of the waters shall languish;

Douay-Rheims Bible
The fishers also shall mourn, and all that cast a hook into the river shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish away.

Revised Standard Version
The fishermen will mourn and lament, all who cast hook in the Nile; and they will languish who spread nets upon the water.

Young's Literal Translation
And lamented have the fishers, And mourned have all casting angle into a brook, And those spreading nets on the face of the waters have languished.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And the fishermen will lament, And all those who cast a line into the Nile will mourn, And those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.

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

Exodus 7:21, Numbers 11:5, Ezekiel 47:10, Habakkuk 1:15

Cross-References

Genesis 19:31
One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is getting old and there's not a man left in the country by whom we can get pregnant. Let's get our father drunk with wine and lie with him. We'll get children through our father—it's our only chance to keep our family alive."

Genesis 42:37
Reuben spoke up: "I'll put my two sons in your hands as hostages. If I don't bring Benjamin back, you can kill them. Trust me with Benjamin; I'll bring him back."

Exodus 32:22
Aaron said, "Master, don't be angry. You know this people and how set on evil they are. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will lead us. This Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him.'

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The fishers also shall mourn,.... Because there will be no fish to catch, the waters of the river being dried up, and so will have none to sell, and nothing to support themselves and families with; and this must also affect the people in general, fish being the common food they lived upon, see Numbers 11:5, not only because of the great plenty there usually was, but because they killed and ate but very few living creatures, through a superstitious regard unto them; though Herodotus says h the Egyptian priests might not taste of fishes, yet the common people might; for, according to that historian i, when the river Nile flowed out of the lake of Moeris, a talent of silver every day was brought into the king's treasury, arising from the profit of fish; and when it flowed in, twenty pounds; nay, he expressly says k, that some of them live upon fish only, gutted, and dried with the sun:

and all they that cast angle, or hook,

into the brooks shall lament; which describes one sort of fishermen, and way of catching fishes, with the angle and hook, as the following clause describes another sort:

and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish; be dispirited and enfeebled for want of trade and subsistence, and with grief and horror.

h Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 37. i Ibid. c. 149. k Ibid. c. 92.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The fishers also - In this verse, and the two following, the prophet describes the calamities that would come upon various classes of the inhabitants, as the consequence of the failing of the waters of the Nile. The first class which he mentions are the fishermen. Egypt is mentioned Numbers 11:5, as producing great quantities of fish. ‘We remember the fish which we did eat in Eypt freely.’ ‘The Nile,’ says Diodorus (i.), ‘abounds with incredible numbers of all sorts of fish.’ The same was true of the artificial canals, and lakes, and reservoirs of water Isaiah 19:10. Herodotus (ii. 93) says that large quantities of fish were produced in the Nile: ‘At the season of spawning,’ says he, ‘they move in vast multitudes toward the sea. As soon as that season is over they leave the sea, return up the river, and endeavor to regain their accustomed haunts.’ As a specimen of his “credulity,” however, and also of the attention which he bestowed on natural history, the reader may consult the passage here referred to in regard to the mode of their propagation.

He also says that it is observed of the fish that are taken in their passage to the sea, that they have ‘the left part of their heads depressed.’ Of those that are taken on their return, the “right” side of the head is found to be depressed. This he accounts for by observing, that ‘the cause of this is obvious: as they pass to the sea they rub themselves on the banks on the left side; as they return they keep closely to the same bank, and, in both instances, press against it, that they may not be obliged to deviate from their course by the current of the stream.’ Speaking of the Lake Moeris, Herodotus says, that ‘for six months the lake empties itself into the Nile, and the remaining six, the Nile supplies the lake. During the six months in which the waters ebb, the fishing which is here carried on furnishes the royal treasury with a talent of silver (about 180) every day’ (ii. 149). ‘The silver which the fishery of this lake produced, was appropriated to find the queen with clothes and perfumes.’ (Diod. i. 52.) The Lake Moeris is now farmed for 30 purses (about 193) annually.

Michaud says that the Lake Menzaleh now yields an annual revenue of 800 purses,’ about 5364. ‘The great abundance of fish produced in the Nile was an invaluable provision of nature, in a country which had neither extended pasture grounds, nor large herds of cattle, and where grain was the principal production. When the Nile inundated the country, and filled the lakes and canals with its overflowing waters, these precious gifts were extended to the most remote villages in the interior of the valley, and the plentiful supply of fish which they obtained was an additional benefit conferred upon them at this season of the year.’ (Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii. pp. 62, 63.) Hence, the greatness of the calamity here referred to by the prophet when the lakes and canals should be dried up. The whole country would feel it.

And all they that cast angle - Two kinds of fishermen are mentioned - those who used a hook, and those who used the net. The former would fish mainly in the “brooks” or canals that were cut from the Nile to water their lands. For the various methods of fishing, illustrated by drawings, the reader may consult Wilklnson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. ii. p. 21; vol. iii. p. 53ff.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 19:8. The fishers also - "And the fishers"] There was great plenty of fish in Egypt; see Numbers 11:5. "The Nile," says Diodorus, lib. i., "abounds with incredible numbers of all sorts of fish." And much more the lakes. So Egmont, Pococke, &c.