the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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English Standard Version
Isaiah 19:11
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The leaders of the city of Zoan are fools. Pharaoh's "wise advisors" give bad advice. They say they are wise. They say they are from the old family of the kings, but they are not as smart as they think.
What fools are the officials of Zoan! Their best counsel to the king of Egypt is stupid and wrong. Will they still boast to Pharaoh of their wisdom? Will they dare brag about all their wise ancestors?
The princes of Zoan are completely foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become brutish: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The officers of the city of Zoan are fools; the wise men who advise the king of Egypt give wrong advice. How can you say to him, ‘I am wise'? How can you say, ‘I am from the old family of the kings'?
The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; Pharaoh's wise advisers give stupid advice. How dare you say to Pharaoh, "I am one of the sages, one well-versed in the writings of the ancient kings?"
Surely the princes of Zoan [are] fools, the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye to Pharaoh, I [am] the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The princes of Zoan are complete fools; The counsel of the Pharaoh's wisest advisors has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings?"
The fonned princes of Tafnys, the wise counselouris of Farao, yauen vnwise counsel; hou schulen ye seie to Farao, Y am the sone of wise men, the sone of elde kyngis?
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The princes of Zoan are mere fools; Pharaoh's wise counselors give senseless advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am one of the wise, a son of eastern kings"?
The king's officials in Zoan are foolish themselves and give stupid advice. How can they say to him, "We are very wise, and our families go back to kings of long ago?"
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The chiefs of Zoan are completely foolish; the wisest guides of Pharaoh have become like beasts: how do you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the offspring of early kings?
The princes of Tzo‘an are utter fools, Pharaoh's wisest counselors give stupid advice. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I'm a sage, descended from kings of old."
They are but fools, the princes of Zoan, the wise counsellors of Pharaoh: [their] counsel is become senseless. How say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The princes of Zoan are utter fools; the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh are a senseless counsel; how can ye say unto Pharaoh: 'I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings'?
Surely the princes of Zoan are fooles, the counsell of the wise counsellers of Pharaoh is become brutish: How say ye vnto Pharaoh, I am the sonne of the wise, the sonne of ancient kings?
The king's sons of Zoan are very foolish. The words of Pharaoh's wisest men are foolish words. How can you men say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of early kings"?
The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am one of the sages, a descendant of ancient kings"?
Surely the princes of Zoan are fooles: the counsell of the wise counselers of Pharaoh is become foolish: how say ye vnto Pharaoh, I am the sonne of the wise? I am the sonne of the ancient Kings?
Surely the princes of Zoan have become fools, the wise counsellors of King Pharaoh give foolish counsel; how can you say to Pharaoh, We are wise men, the sons of the ancient kings?
Surely, foolish, are the princes of Zoan, the wisest counsellors of Pharaoh, in counsel are brutish, - How can ye say unto Pharaoh, Son of the wise, am I Son of the kings of olden time?
The princes of Tanis are become fools, the wise counsellors of Pharao have given foolish counsel: how will you say to Pharao: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
The princes of Zo'an are utterly foolish; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give stupid counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
But you foolishe princes of Zoan, ye wise counsaylers of Pharao, whose wit is turned to foolishnesse, howe say ye vnto Pharao, I am come of wise men and of auncient kinges?
And the princes of Tanis shall be fools: as for the king’s wise counsellors, their counsel shall be turned into folly: how will ye say to the king, we are sons of wise men, sons of ancient kings?
The leaders of the city of Zoan are fools! Egypt's wisest people give stupid advice! How do they dare to tell the king that they are successors to the ancient scholars and kings?
The princes of Zoan are complete fools;Pharaoh’s wisest advisers give stupid advice!How can you say to Pharaoh,“I am one of the wise,a student of eastern kings”?
The princes of Tzo`an are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Par`oh is become brutish: how do you say to Par`oh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Surely the princes of Zoan are foolish; the wise of the counselors of Pharaoh give senseless counsel. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I myself am a son of sages, a descendant of ancient kings"?
Surely the rulers of Zoan are fools; the advice of Pharaoh's wise counselor has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, I am the son of wise ones, the son of kings of old?
Only, fools [are] the princes of Zoan, The counsel of the wise ones of the counsellors of Pharaoh hath become brutish. How say ye unto Pharaoh, `A son of the wise am I, a son of kings of antiquity?'
Yee the vndiscrete prynces of Zoan, the councel of the wyse Senatours of Pharao, shal turne to foolishnesse: Those that darre boast & saye of Pharaos behalfe: I am come of wyse people.
The princes of Zoan are fools, the advisors of Pharaoh stupid. How could any of you dare tell Pharaoh, "Trust me: I'm wise. I know what's going on. Why, I'm descended from the old wisdom of Egypt"? There's not a wise man or woman left in the country. If there were, one of them would tell you what God -of-the-Angel-Armies has in mind for Egypt. As it is, the princes of Zoan are all fools and the princes of Memphis, dunces. The honored pillars of your society have led Egypt into detours and dead ends. God has scrambled their brains, Egypt's become a falling-down-in-his-own-vomit drunk. Egypt's hopeless, past helping, a senile, doddering old fool.
The officials of Zoan are mere fools; The advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisers has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; Pharaoh's wise counselors give foolish counsel. How do you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, The son of ancient kings?"
The princes of Zoan are mere fools; The advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisers has become stupid. How can you men say to Pharaoh, "I am a son of the wise, a son of ancient kings"?
The princes of Zoan are merely ignorant fools;The counsel of Pharaoh's wisest counselors has become senseless.How can you men say to Pharaoh,"I am a son of the wise, a son of the kings of old"?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the princes: Isaiah 19:3, Isaiah 19:13, Isaiah 29:14, Isaiah 44:25, Job 5:12, Job 5:13, Job 12:17, Psalms 33:10, Jeremiah 49:7, Ezekiel 7:26, 1 Corinthians 1:19, 1 Corinthians 1:20
Zoan: Isaiah 30:4, Numbers 13:22, Psalms 78:12, Psalms 78:43, Ezekiel 30:14
brutish: Psalms 73:22, Psalms 92:6, Proverbs 30:2, Jeremiah 10:14, Jeremiah 10:21
I am: Genesis 41:38, Genesis 41:39, 1 Kings 4:30, Acts 7:22
Reciprocal: Genesis 41:8 - but there Exodus 7:11 - wise men Exodus 8:4 - General Deuteronomy 28:28 - General Joshua 8:14 - he wist not Joshua 8:17 - a man 2 Samuel 15:31 - turn the counsel 1 Kings 12:14 - the counsel 2 Kings 24:20 - through 2 Chronicles 10:10 - Thus shalt Job 39:17 - General Psalms 87:4 - this man Psalms 105:22 - teach Proverbs 11:14 - General Jeremiah 4:9 - that the heart Jeremiah 8:9 - The wise men are Jeremiah 46:17 - Pharaoh Jeremiah 50:35 - her wise men Ezekiel 28:17 - thou hast Obadiah 1:7 - there is 1 Corinthians 2:6 - of the 1 Corinthians 3:19 - the wisdom
Cross-References
And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, "Please strike this people with blindness." So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha.
The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.
You were wearied with the length of your way, but you did not say, "It is hopeless"; you found new life for your strength, and so you were not faint.
How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.
And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Surely the princes of Zoan [are] fools,.... Zoan was a very ancient city of Egypt, it was built within seven years of Hebron in the land of Judah, Numbers 13:22 here it was that the Lord did those miracles, by the hands of Moses and Aaron, before Pharaoh and his people, in order to oblige him to let Israel go, Psalms 78:12 by which it appears that it was then the royal city, as it seems to have been now; since mention is made of the princes of it, who usually have their residence where the court is. The Targum, Septuagint, and Vulgate Latin versions, call it Tanis, which was the metropolis of one of the nomes or provinces of Egypt, called from it the Tanitic nome q; near it was one of the gates of the Nile, which had from it the name of the Tanitic gate r; the princes of this place, the lords of this nome, though they had princely education, acted a foolish part, in flattering their sovereign, as afterwards mentioned, and in putting him upon doing things destructive to his kingdom and subjects:
the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish; the men of whose privy council were esteemed very wise, and greatly boasted of, and much confided in; and yet the counsel they gave him were such as made them look more like brutes than men:
how say ye unto Pharaoh; the then reigning prince, for Pharaoh was a name common to all the kings of Egypt. Some think their king Cethon is meant, said to be a very foolish king: others Psammiticus; which seems more likely; though there is no need to apply it to any particular king, they being used to say what follows to all their kings:
I [am] the son of the wise; suggesting that wisdom was natural and hereditary to him; though this may not merely respect his immediate ancestors, but remote ones, as Menes or Mizraim, the first king of Egypt, to whom is attributed the invention of arts and sciences; and his son Thoth, the same with Hermes, the Mercury of the Egyptians. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, make these words to be spoken by the wise counsellors of themselves, "we are the sons of wise men", and so the next clause; likewise Aben Ezra and Jarchi, also the Targum:
the son of ancient kings? according to these, it is spoken to Pharaoh thus, "and thou the son of kings of old"; of Ham, Mizraim, Thoth, c. the Egyptians boasted much of the antiquity of their kingdom and kings; and they say, from their first king Menes, to Sethon the priest of Vulcan, who lived about the time of this prophecy, were three hundred and forty one generations or ages of men, in which were as many kings and priests; and three hundred generations are equal to ten thousand years s; and so many years, and more, their kings had reigned down to the prophet's time; which was all vain boasting, there being no manner of foundation for it. Vitringa renders it the son of ancient counsellors; this, as the former, being spoken by the counsellors, not of Pharaoh, but themselves.
q Herodot. l. 2. c. 166. Plin. l. 5. c. 9. Ptolem. Geogr. l. 4. c. 5. r Ptolem. ib. Plin. l. 5. c. 10. s Herodot. l. 2. c. 142.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Surely the princes - The following verses, to Isaiah 19:16, are designed to describe further the calamities that were coming upon Egypt by a want of wisdom in their rulers. They would be unable to devise means to meet the impending calamities, and would actually increase the national misery by their unwise counsels. The word âprincesâ here is taken evidently for the rulers or counselors of state.
Of Zoan - The Vulgate, Septuagint, and Chaldee, render this âTanis.â Zoan was doubtless the Tans of the Greeks (Herod. ii. 166), and was a city of Lower Egypt, built, according to Moses Numbers 13:22, seven years after Hebron. It is mentioned in Psalms 78:12; Isaiah 19:11, Isaiah 19:13; Isaiah 30:4; Ezekiel 30:14. It was at the entrance of the Tanitic mouth of the Nile, and gave name to it. Its ruins still exist, and there are seen there at present numerous blocks of granite, seven obelisks of granite, and a statue of Isis. It was the capital of the dynasty of the Tanitish kings until the time of Psammetichus; it was at this place principally that the miracles done by Moses were performed. âMarvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt; in the field of Zoanâ Psalms 78:12. Its ruins are still called âSan,â a slight change of the word Zoan. The Ostium Taniticum is now the âOmm Faredje.â
Are fools - They are unable to meet by their counsels the impending calamities. Perhaps their folly was evinced by their flattering their sovereign, and by exciting him to plans that tended to the ruin, rather than the welfare of the kingdom.
The wise counselors of Pharaoh - Pharaoh was the common name of the kings of Egypt in the same way as âCaesarâ became afterward the common name of the Roman emperors - and the king who is here intended by Pharaoh is probably Psammetichus (see the note at Isaiah 19:4).
How say ye ... - Why do you âflatterâ the monarch? Why remind him of his ancestry? Why attempt to inflate him with the conception of his own wisdom? This was, and is, the common practice of courtiers; and in this way kings are often led to measures most ruinous to their subjects.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Isaiah 19:11. The counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish - "Have counselled a brutish counsel"] The sentence as it now stands in the Hebrew, is imperfect: it wants the verb. Archbishop Secker conjectures that the words ×××¢×¦× ×¤×¨×¢× yoatsey pharoh should be transposed; which would in some degree remove the difficulty. But it is to be observed, that the translator of the Vulgate seems to have found in his copy the verb ××¢×¦× yaatsu added after ×¤×¨×¢× pharoh: Sapientes consiliarii Pharaonis dederunt consilium insipiens, "The wise counsellors of Pharaoh gave unwise counsel." This is probably the true reading: it is perfectly agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, makes the construction of the sentence clear, and renders the transposition of the words above mentioned unnecessary. - L.
