The appearance of Yahweh will cause civil conflict within Egypt. A general statement introduces the verse and then is expanded in the remainder of the verse. The five occurrences of the preposition against (Hebrew be) give the verse its distinct pattern. Translators will need to balance the demands of syntax, clarity and naturalness against those of poetic rhythm when translating this feature. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation offer useful models for handling the Hebrew fivefold repetition.

In verses 2-4 Yahweh speaks directly, so Good News Translation and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch begin with “The LORD says” (similarly Bible en français courant), which may be helpful in other languages. If this is done, quote marks should be placed around the speech. However, in languages that do not favor using direct speech here, the first person pronouns may be replaced by third person references; for example, “2 And the LORD will stir up … 3 … and the LORD will confound … 4 and he will give over….”

I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians: The Hebrew verb rendered stir up occurs only here in the Old Testament. Its meaning is not certain, scholars generally agree that it may be from a root meaning “thorn” or “to prick.” Here it means “motivate someone to action.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh and Revised English Bible use “incite.” The Hebrew phrase rendered Egyptians against Egyptians could also be read as “Egyptian against Egyptian” (New International Version, Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or even “Egypt against Egypt” (New Jerusalem Bible), but in this context it is best to refer to the people of Egypt. An alternative model for this line is “I will stir up the Egyptians against one another.” It would be helpful to use an expression here that reflects the refrain later in the verse.

And they will fight results from Yahweh’s provoking them. This verb phrase applies to each of the phrases that follow. Translators may repeat it if the language demands it.

Every man against his brother: The Hebrew word rendered brother refers to immediate and extended family members, both male and female. This phrase may be rendered “people will fight with members of their own family” or “family member against family member.”

And every man against his neighbor is similar to the previous phrase; again both men and women are included. We can say “people will fight with their neighbors” or “neighbor against neighbor.”

City against city means that the towns throughout the land will fight one another.

Kingdom against kingdom may have a reflexive sense here, so a possible rendering is “the kingdom of Egypt against itself.” On the other hand, this could refer to the provinces of Egypt fighting against each other. Hereditary princes ruled these provinces (so NJPSV footnote|prj:NJPS.Isa 19.2). This could explain the use of kingdom, in an extended meaning. However, in translation it may be better to use a word like “province” or “district” since kingdom suggests an independent nation. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “one part of the nation will wage war against another.”

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian and they will fight,
family member against family member, neighbor against neighbor,
town against town, province against province.

• I will turn the Egyptians against one another. They will fight, each family member against another, each neighbor against another, one town against another, one province against another.

• Yahweh says, “I will incite the Egyptians to turn on one another; within each family there will be fighting, as well as between neighbors; one town will fight against the other, one district against the other.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .