5. The water will be low in the Nile, and the river will gradually dry up.
6. The channels of the river will stink as they slowly go dry. Reeds and rushes will wither,
7. and all the crops sown along the banks of the Nile will dry up and be blown away.
8. Everyone who earns his living by fishing in the Nile will groan and cry; their hooks and their nets will be useless.
9. Those who make linen cloth will be in despair;
10. weavers and skilled workers will be broken and depressed.
11. The leaders of the city of Zoan are fools! Egypt's wisest people give stupid advice! How dare they tell the king that they are successors to the ancient scholars and kings?
12. King of Egypt, where are those clever advisers of yours? Perhaps they can tell you what plans the Lord Almighty has for Egypt.
13. The leaders of Zoan and Memphis are fools. They were supposed to lead the nation, but they have misled it.
14. The Lord has made them give confusing advice. As a result, Egypt does everything wrong and staggers like a drunken man slipping on his own vomit.
15. No one in Egypt, rich or poor, important or unknown, can offer help.
16. A time is coming when the people of Egypt will be as timid as women. They will tremble in terror when they see that the Lord Almighty has stretched out his hand to punish them.
17. The people of Egypt will be terrified of Judah every time they are reminded of the fate that the Lord Almighty has prepared for them.
18. When that time comes, the Hebrew language will be spoken in five Egyptian cities. The people there will take their oaths in the name of the Lord Almighty. One of the cities will be called, “City of the Sun”.
19. When that time comes, there will be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt and a stone pillar dedicated to him at the Egyptian border.
20. They will be symbols of the Lord Almighty's presence in Egypt. When the people there are oppressed and call out to the Lord for help, he will send someone to rescue them.