Burning advice

Yahweh’s coming to Egypt leaves that well-watered land desolated. The sea, the rivers, the Nile itself are dried up, and all the vegetation that grows by the waters withers and is blown away like chaff. No fish can live in the waters, and the fishermen hang up their nets and lament (Isaiah 19:5-9).

Yahweh does this, and yet the following verses point to the responsible human parties. Verse 11 begins a new section of Isaiah’s prophecy against Egypt, but there is continuity. The land is devastated partly because the “princes of Zoan are fools” and because the advice of Pharaoh’s counselors “burns” ( ba’ar , already used in Isaiah 1:31; 2:14; 4:4; 5:5; 6:13; 9:8; 10:17).

Why has green Egypt turned brown? Because the wisdom of Egypt’s rulers is a fire that consumed the land.