Isaiah 19:11

"The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish; the counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where then are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now; and let them know what Jehovah of hosts hath purposed concerning Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Memphis are deceived; they have caused Egypt to go astray, that are the corner-stone of her tribes. Jehovah hath mingled a spirit of perverseness in the midst of her; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Neither shall there be for Egypt any work, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do."

These three paragraphs give a terrible picture indeed of the disasters prophesied for the land of Egypt. It is the intelligence and competence of the central government itself that are mentioned here, designating it as a blundering, incompetent power led by fools and listening to the advice of fools! The proof of the foolishness of the government advisers is seen (1) in their ignorance of Jehovah and of his will, and their utter inability to see the disaster that lies at the end of their foolish plans (Isaiah 19:12), and also (2) in their blindness to the fact that their counsels have ended in disaster (Isaiah 19:13). "`Palm branch and rush' and `head or tail' are expressions used figuratively for `all classes of society.'"[11]

Zoan and Memphis, mentioned here, were the northern and southern capitals of Egypt. "Zoan, or Tanis was a north-eastern capital near the border of Sinai. Memphis lay more to the south at the apex of the Delta."[12]

Regarding what is meant by the "pillars of Egypt" which the Lord prophesied should be broken (v. 10), Hailey noted that the pillars are, "Either (1) the working class of people, or (2) the whole economy, which is certainly a foundation of a nation's existence."[13]