And the spirit of the Egyptians within them will be emptied out refers to deep despair, so Good News Translation says “destroy their morale.” The meaning of this idiom is similar to that of “the heart melting” at the end of verse 1, but it is possibly stronger. Bible en français courant and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch use an alternative idiom, saying “The Egyptians will lose their head.” New International Version suggests “The Egyptians will lose heart.” A better model that reflects the depth of the despair is “The Egyptians will completely lose heart.”

And I will confound their plans: The Hebrew noun rendered plans comes from a root meaning “purpose” as well as “counsel/advice.” Here it refers to the content of the advice, that is, the plans. To confound their plans means to cause them not to succeed. Good News Translation says “I am going to frustrate the plans of the Egyptians.” New International Version has “and I will bring their plans to nothing,” while Contemporary English Version puts it concisely, saying “I confuse their plans.”

Good News Translation reverses the order of the first two lines of this verse for naturalness in English. This may be a helpful model for other languages.

And they will consult the idols and the sorcerers, and the mediums and the wizards: This is the result of the failed plans, so the connector and may be rendered “So,” “Then,” or “As a result.” The Egyptians will turn to their religious and spiritual powers for guidance to deal with the effects of Yahweh’s actions. Four powers are listed: idols, sorcerers, mediums, and wizards. For idols see Isa 19.1. The Hebrew noun rendered sorcerers comes from a root meaning “mutter.” It refers to those who consult the spirits of the dead (so New Revised Standard Version, New International Version). For mediums and wizards, see the comments on 8.19. In 2.6 “diviners” and “soothsayers” were mentioned, and the terms used in translation there may be suitable here as well. Some languages may not have the vocabulary to cover each of these religious specialists, so they may have to combine them under one or two more general terms (so Good News Translation); for example, Contemporary English Version has “They will try to get advice from their idols, from the spirits of the dead, and from fortunetellers.”

We offer the following translation models for this verse:

• The Egyptians will completely lose heart
and I will frustrate their plans.
So they will turn for help to their gods
and to their sorcerers, mediums, and wizards.

• The Egyptians will be completely demoralized,
and I will bring an end to all their plans.
As a result, they will then seek help from their worthless gods
and from their various shamans/diviners/sorcerers/soothsayers.

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 .