Isaiah 19:12

12 Pharaoh, where are your wise men now? Let them tell you what the LORD who rules over all has planned against Egypt.

Isaiah 19:12 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 19:12

Where [are] they? where [are] thy wise [men]?
&c.] The magicians and soothsayers, the diviners and astrologers, who pretended, by their magic art and skill in judicial astrology, to foretell things to come: this is an address to the king of Egypt, who had such persons about him, and encouraged them, by consulting them on occasion, and rewarding them:

and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of
hosts hath purposed upon Egypt;
or, "against it"; let them tell, if they can, and make known unto thee the purposes of God's heart, the things he has resolved upon, even the calamities and punishments he will shortly inflict upon the Egyptians, of which he has given notice by his prophets.

Isaiah 19:12 In-Context

10 Those who work with cloth will be unhappy. And all those who work for money will be sick at heart.

11 The officials of the city of Zoan are very foolish. Pharaoh's wise men give advice that doesn't make any sense. How can they dare to say to Pharaoh, "We're among the wise men"? How can they say to him, "We're like the advisers to the kings of long ago"?

12 Pharaoh, where are your wise men now? Let them tell you what the LORD who rules over all has planned against Egypt.

13 The officials of Zoan have become foolish. The leaders of Memphis have been lied to. The most important leaders in Egypt have led its people down the wrong path.

14 The LORD has given them a spirit that makes them feel dizzy. They make Egypt unsteady in everything it does. Egypt is like a person who drinks too much. He throws up and then walks around in the mess he's made.