Isaiah 19:12

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹This is an oracle concerning Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud; He is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them. ²"So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. ³Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists. ⁴I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of harsh masters, and a fierce king will rule over them," declares the Lord GOD of Hosts. ⁵The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty. ⁶The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither. ⁷The bulrushes by the Nile, by the mouth of the river, and all the fields sown along the Nile, will wither, blow away, and be no more. ⁸Then the fishermen will mourn, all who cast hooks into the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will grieve. ⁹Those who work with flax will be dismayed, and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale. ¹⁰The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the wage earners will be sick at heart.

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
Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.

Genesis 19:14
So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. "Get up," he said. "Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

Genesis 19:17
As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, "Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!"

Genesis 19:22
Hurry! Run there quickly, for I cannot do anything until you reach it." That is why the town was called Zoar.

Genesis 19:23
When the sun had risen over the land, Lot had reached Zoar.

Numbers 16:26
And he warned the congregation, "Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins."

Jeremiah 32:39
I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

2 Peter 2:7
and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless

2 Peter 2:9
if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

Revelation 18:4
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, My people, so that you will not share in her sins or contract any of her plagues.

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.