Isaiah 19:6-9

19:6 The canals ¹  will stink; ² 

the streams of Egypt will trickle and then dry up;

the bulrushes and reeds will decay,

19:7 along with the plants by the mouth of the river. ³ 

All the cultivated land near the river

will turn to dust and be blown away. ⁴ 

19:8 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. ⁵ 

19:9 Those who make clothes from combed flax will be embarrassed;

those who weave will turn pale. ⁶ 

[19:6]  ¹ tn Heb “rivers” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, CEV “streams”; TEV “channels.”

[19:6]  ² tn The verb form appears as a Hiphil in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a; the form in MT may be a so-called “mixed form,” reflecting the Hebrew Hiphil stem and the functionally corresponding Aramaic Aphel stem. See HALOT 276 s.v. I זנח.

[19:7]  ³ tn Heb “the plants by the river, by the mouth of the river.”

[19:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “will dry up, [being] scattered, and it will vanish.”

[19:8]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps, “will disappear”; cf. TEV “will be useless.”

[19:9]  ⁷ tn BDB 301 s.v. חוֹרִי suggests the meaning “white stuff” for חוֹרִי (khori); the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has חָוֵרוּ (khaveru), probably a Qal perfect, third plural form of חוּר, (khur, “be white, pale”). See HALOT 299 s.v. I חור. The latter reading is assumed in the translation above.