30:16 I will ignite a fire in Egypt;
Syene 1 will writhe in agony,
Thebes will be broken down,
and Memphis will face enemies every day.
30:17 The young men of On and of Pi-beseth 2 will die by the sword;
and the cities will go 3 into captivity.
30:18 In Tahpanhes the day will be dark 4
when I break the yoke of Egypt there.
Her confident pride will cease within her;
a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.
1 tc The LXX reads “Syene,” which is Aswan in the south. The MT reads Sin, which has already been mentioned in v. 15.
2 sn On and Pi-beseth are generally identified with the Egyptian cities of Heliopolis and Bubastis.
3 tn Heb “they will go.” The pronoun and verb are feminine plural, indicating that the cities just mentioned are the antecedent of the pronoun and the subject of the verb. The translation makes this clear by stating the subject as “the cities.”
4 sn In Zeph 1:15 darkness is associated with the day of the