An Oracle Concerning Egypt
1 An aoracle concerning bEgypt.
Behold, the Lord cis riding on a swift cloud
and comes to Egypt;
and dthe idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence,
and the heart of the Egyptians will emelt within them.
2 And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians,
fand they will fight, each against another
and each against his neighbor,
city against city, kingdom against kingdom;
3 and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out,
and I will confound1 their gcounsel;
and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers,
and hthe mediums and the necromancers;
4 and I will give over the Egyptians
into the hand of ia hard master,
and a fierce king will rule over them,
declares the Lord God of hosts.
5 And the waters of the sea will be dried up,
and the river will be dry and parched,
6 and its canals will become foul,
and the branches of Egypt’s Nile will diminish and dry up,
reeds and rushes will rot away.
7 There will be bare places by the Nile,
on the brink of the Nile,
and all that is sown by the Nile will be parched,
will be driven away, and will be no more.
8 The jfishermen will mourn and lament,
all who cast a hook in the Nile;
and they will languish
who spread nets on the water.
9 The workers in kcombed flax will be in despair,
and the weavers of white cotton.
10 Those who are the lpillars of the land will be crushed,
and all who mwork for pay will be grieved.
11 The princes of nZoan are utterly foolish;
the wisest counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am a son of the wise,
a son of ancient kings”?
12 Where then are your owise men?
Let them tell you
that they might know what the Lord of hosts has purposed against Egypt.
13 The princes of nZoan have become fools,
and the princes of pMemphis are deluded;
those who are the qcornerstones of her tribes
have made Egypt stagger.
14 The Lord has mingled within her ra spirit of confusion,
and they will make Egypt stagger in all its deeds,
sas a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 And there will be nothing for Egypt
that thead or tail, palm branch or reed, may do.
Egypt, Assyria, Israel Blessed
16 In that day the Egyptians will be ulike women, and vtremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them. 17 And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.
The Two Witnesses
1 Then I was given ma measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure nthe court outside the temple; leave that out, for oit is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for pforty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for p1,260 days, qclothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are rthe two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, sfire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, tthis is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power uto shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and vto strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, wthe beast that rises from xthe bottomless pit1 ywill make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically2 is called zSodom and aEgypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and brefuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and cthose who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and dexchange presents, because these two prophets ehad been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days fa breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, g“Come up here!” And hthey went up to heaven iin a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was ja great earthquake, and ka tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and lgave glory to mthe God of heaven.
14 nThe second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
The Seventh Trumpet
15 Then othe seventh angel blew his trumpet, and pthere were loud voices in heaven, saying, q“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of rhis Christ, and she shall reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders twho sit on their thrones before God ufell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
vwho is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and wbegun to reign.
18 The nations raged,
but xyour wrath came,
and ythe time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and zthose who fear your name,
both small and great,
and afor destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
19 Then bGod’s temple in heaven was opened, and cthe ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings,3 peals of thunder, an earthquake, and dheavy hail.
