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Isaiah 19:3
ESV and the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out, and I will confound their counsel; and they will inquire of the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the necromancers;
NIV The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will bring their plans to nothing; they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists.
NASB Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confuse their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead, And to mediums and spiritists.
CSB Egypt’s spirit will be disturbed within it, and I will frustrate its plans. Then they will inquire of idols, ghosts, and spiritists.
NLT The Egyptians will lose heart, and I will confuse their plans. They will plead with their idols for wisdom and call on spirits, mediums, and those who consult the spirits of the dead.
KJV And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
NKJV The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.

What does Isaiah 19:3 mean?

Egypt will be subject to the Lord's judgment (Isaiah 19:1–2). When the foundations of a society become unstable, people lose hope and fall into despair. Isaiah describes this nation-wide depression in Egypt as the spirit of the Egyptians being emptied out. This is something like how a tree collapses when the trunk rots away. Or, how a sack deflates as it empties. Egyptian confidence and hope would wither, and their core foundations would crumble.

Another part of the Lord's judgment against Egypt will be to demolish both their wisdom and their reputation. In other words, every suggestion about how to resolve the divisions among the people and the resulting chaos will be shown as worthless. Everyone will sense that no solutions are possible. They will be utterly stripped of their hope.

In response to this despair, the Egyptians will double down on their worship of idols. Surrounded by worthless human counselors, they will look for answers from sorcerers, mediums, and necromancers. They will once more place their hope in hearing from the spirits of the dead and the gods they serve. Just as He did during the exodus (Exodus 3:20), the God of Israel will once more show Himself to be far more powerful than the empty gods of the Egyptians.
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