Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 18:1
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
1. The word rendered woe is here neither a ‘cry of pity’ nor (as usually in Isaiah) of indignation. It is simply a particle of salutation ( heus) as in ch. Isa 55:1; Zec 2:6-7 (10, 11 Heb.). Render: Ha, the land, &c.
the land shadowing with wings ] a much disputed phrase. The most probable sense is that followed by R.V., the land of the rustling of wings. The Hebr. noun for “rustling” l l or ilal means a kind of “locust” (Deu 28:42), a “harpoon” (Job 41:7, A.V. “fish-spears”), and a very similar form means “cymbals” (Psa 150:5). The common root-idea is that of “clanging” or “jingling”; and if the above translation be correct the allusion is to the booming swarms of insects which abound in the Nile-lands. There may even be a special allusion to the dreaded Tsetse-fly, whose name among the Gallas ( alalja) closely resembles the Hebr. word here used. The expression is to be understood literally, not metaphorically of armed hosts. Something might be said for the rendering of the LXX. and Targ. (“land of winged ships”) if it did not anticipate Isa 18:2. Others render, “land with the shadow on both sides” ( ) a supposed allusion to the fact that between the tropics the shadow falls sometimes on the north and sometimes on the south. But this seems very fanciful.
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia ] The phrase is repeated in Zep 3:10. Ethiopia ( Kush) is used in the Bible somewhat vaguely of the region south of Syene (Assouan), at the first cataract of the Nile (Eze 29:10), corresponding generally to the modern Soudn (“land of the Blacks”). The empire of Tirhakah, which Isaiah has particularly in view, had its seat at Napata on the great westward bend of the Nile between Dongola and Berber. Hence it is not inappropriately described as lying “beyond” the rivers of Kush, i.e. the Nile itself and its numerous affluents (the Atbara, the Blue Nile, &c.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. The charge to the Ethiopian envoys, along with a poetic description of the land and people. The tendency of the ancient world to idealise the Ethiopians is familiar to students of classical literature. To the Greeks they were the “blameless Ethiopians” (Homer), “the tallest and handsomest of all men” (Herodotus). Isaiah would seem to have been struck by the fine physique of the ambassadors, and perhaps it was their narrative that furnished his vivid imagination with the picturesque details crowded into these three verses.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Woe to the land – ( hoy). This word, as has been already remarked (the note at Isa 17:12), may be a mere interjection or salutation, and would be appropriately rendered by Ho! Or it may be a word denouncing judgment, or wrath, as it is often used in this prophecy (the note at Isa 5:8).
Shadowing with wings – ( tsletsal kenapaym). This is one of the most difficult expressions in the whole chapter; and one to which as yet, probably, no satisfactory meaning has been applied. The Septuagint renders it, Ouai ges ploion pteruges – Ah! wings of the land of ships. The Chaldee, Woe to the land in which they come in ships from a distant country, and whose sails are spread out as an eagle which flies upon its wings. Grotius renders it, The land whose extreme parts are shaded by mountains. The word rendered, shadowed tsletsal, occurs only in this place and in Job 41:7, where it is translated fish-spears – but as we know nothing of the form of those spears, that place throws no light on the meaning of the word here. The word is derived, evidently, from tsalal, which has three significations:
(1) To be shady, dark, obscure; and hence, its derivatives are applied to anything that makes a shade or shadow – particularly shady trees Job 40:21-22; the shades of night Son 2:17; Son 4:6; or anything that produces obscurity, or darkness, as a tree, a rock, a wing, etc.
(2) It means to tingle, spoken of the ears 1Sa 3:11; 2Ki 21:13; to quiver, spoken of the lips Hab 3:16; and hence, its derivatives are applied to anything that makes a sound by tinkling – an instrument of music; a cymbal made of two pieces of metal that are struck together 2Sa 6:5; 1Ch 15:16; 1Ch 16:42; 1Ch 25:6; 2Ch 5:12; Neh 12:27; Psa 150:5)
(3) It means to sink Exo 15:10. From the sense of making a shade, a derivative of the verb tselatsal – the same as used here except the points – is applied to locusts because they appear in such swarms as to obscure the rays of the sun, and produce an extended shade, or shadow, over a land as a cloud does; or because they make a rustling with their wings.
The word used here, therefore, may mean either shaded, or rustling, or rattling, in the manner of a cymbal or other tinkling instrument. It may be added, that the word may mean a double shade, being a doubling of the word tsel, a shade, or shdow, and it has been supposed by some to apply to Ethiopia as lying betwen the tropics, having a double shadow; that is, so that the shadow of objects is cast one half of the year on the north side, and the other half on the south. The word wings is applied in the Scriptures to the following things, namely:
(1) The wing of a fowl. This is the literal, and common signification.
(2) The skirts, borders, or lower parts of a garment, from the resemblance to wings Num 15:38; 1Sa 24:5, 1Sa 24:11; Zec 8:13. Also a bed-covering Deu 33:1.
(3) The extremities or borders of a country, or of the world Job 37:3; Isa 24:16; Eze 17:3, Eze 17:7.
(4) The wing or extremity of an army, as we use the word wing Isa 8:8; Jer 48:40; Dan 9:27.
(5) The expanding rays of the morning, because the light expands or spreads out like wings Psa 139:9; Mal 4:2.
(6) The wind – resembling wings in rapid motion Psa 18:10, Psa 18:21; Psa 104:3; Hos 4:19.
(7) The battlement or pinnacle of the temple – or perhaps the porches extended on each side of the temple like wings (Dan 9:27; compare Mat 4:5).
(8) Protection – as wings are a protection to young birds in their nest (see Psa 18:8; Psa 36:7; Psa 61:4; Psa 91:4; Mat 23:37). It has been proposed by some to apply this description to ships, or the sails of vessels, as if a land was designated which was covered with sails, or the wings of vessels. So the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. But there is no instance in which the word wings is so applied in the Scriptures.
The expression used here may, therefore, be applied to many things; and it is not easy to determine its signification. The general idea is, that of something that abounds in the land that is stretched out or expanded; that, as it were, covers it, and so abounds as to make a shade or shadow everywhere. And it may be applied:
(1) to a nation that abounds with birds or fowls, so that they might be said to shade the land;
(2) to a nation abounding with locusts, shading the land or making a rustling noise; or
(3) to a nation furnishing protection, or stretching out its wings, as it were, for the defense of a feeble people. So Vitringa interprets this place, and supposes that it refers to Egypt, as being the nation where the Hebrews sought protection. Or
(4) to a country that is shaded with trees, mountains, or hills. So Grotius supposes it means here, and thinks that it refers to Ethiopia, as being bounded by high hills or mountains.
(5) It may mean a people distinguished for navigation – abounding in sails of vessels – as if they were everywhere spread out like wings. So the Septuagint and the Chaldee understand this; and the interpretation has some plausibility, from the fact that light vessels are immediately mentioned.
(6) The editor of Calmets Dictionary supposes that it refers to the winged Cnephim which are sculptured over the temple gates in Upper-Egypt. They are emblematic representatives of the god Cneph, to which the temples are dedicated, and abound in Upper Egypt. The symbol of the wings is supposed to denote the protection which the god extended over the land.
(7) Gesenius (Com. on Isaiah) renders it, land rustling with wings, and supposes that the word rendered shadowing, denotes the rustling sound that is made by the clangor of weapons of war. Amidst this variety of interpretation, it is, perhaps, not possible to determine the meaning of the phrase. It has no parallel expression to illustrate it; and its meaning must be left to conjecture.
Almost anyone of the above significations will suit the connection; and it is not very material which is chosen. The one that, perhaps, best suits the connection, is that of the Septuagint and the Chaldee, which refers it to the multitude of ships that expand their sails, and appear to fill all the waters of the land with wings.
Which is beyond – ( meeber). This does not, of necessity, mean beyond, though that is its usual signification. It properly means from the passing, the passages, the crossing over, of a river; and may be rendered what is on the other side; or over against. It sometimes means on this side, as if used by one living on the other side Deu 4:49; Jos 13:27; 1Ki 4:24; in which places it has not the sense of beyond, but means either on this side, or lying alongside. The sense here is, probably, that this country was situated not far from the rivers of Cush, probably beyond them, but still it is implied that they were not far beyond them, but were rather at their passings over, or crossing-places; that is, near them.
The rivers of Ethiopia – Hebrew, Rivers of Cush. (On the meaning of the word Cush, see the note at Isa 11:11) It is sometimes applicable to Ethiopia or Nubia – that is, the portion of Egypt above the cataracts of the Nile. Compare Jer 13:23 : Can the Ethiopian (the Cushite) change his skin? (see also Eze 29:10). This word does not determine with certainty the country to which reference is made – for the country of Cush may mean that east of the Euphrates, or southern Arabia, or southern Egypt. Egypt and Cush are, however, sometimes connected (2Ki 19:9; Psa 68:31; Isa 20:3; Isa 43:3; Nah 3:9; compare Dan 11:43). The probability from the use of this word is, that some part of Upper Egypt is intended. Ethiopia in part lies beyond the most considerable of the streams that make up the river Nile.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 18:1-3
Woe to the land shadowing with wings
The Ethiopians
The people here peculiarly described are the Ethiopians, and the prophet prophesies the effect on Ethiopia of the judgment concerning Assyria which Jehovah executes, as Drechsler has convincingly proved, and as is now universally recognised.
(F. Delitzsch.)
Ethiopia
What land is it of which the prophet speaks? It is no doubt Ethiopia itself, a great kingdom in the olden time. For although he says beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that is the Blue Nile, and the White Nile, and the Astaboras, the meaning is perhaps more accurately beside those rivers. In any event the ancient land of Ethiopia reached out to the south far beyond the confluence of those rivers in the mighty Nile, including probably all upper Egypt beyond Philae, Nubia, and the northern portion of modern Abyssinia. It was a fertile country, very rich in gold, ivory, ebony, frankincense, and precious stones. A country thickly inhabited by a stalwart well-formed race, men of stature the prophet calls them, who if they were black were yet comely. It was a mighty kingdom for many centuries, a rival of Egypt, sometimes its enemy, and apparently even its conqueror; a kingdom able to make war against the Assyrians, and a kingdom, too, carrying on a great trade by means of abundant merchandise with many people. (A. Ritchie.)
The land shadowing with wings
1. Full of poetic suggestion is the expression shadowing with wings. The thought is of tender protection, as the mother bird hovers over and shields her young. The Psalmist is never tired of crying out to God, Hide me under the covering of Thy wings. It was right that Israel and Judah should cry thus to Jehovah for protection, but not that they should look to the shadowing wings of Ethiopia. Just as it was pathetically true that in later times our Lord should say of the Holy City, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not–so seven hundred years earlier it was true that Judah would not seek refuge under the wings of the Lord, but under the shadowing of Egypt and the covering of Ethiopia.
2. In the Revised Version we have the passage rendered, Ah, the land of the rustling of wings. Some of the old commentators find in this an allusion to the multitude of bees and the swarms of flies in Ethiopia, so that there the hum of wings was never absent. More picturesque is another suggestion, that the reference is to the ever plashing waters of the rivers, hurrying along with swift current, in rapids and through cataracts until the broad bosom of father Nile was reached. The swish and lapping of the rushing waters seemed to the poet like the noise made by the swift flight of many birds, beating the air with strong pinions, as they sweep on towards the horizon.
3. If we turn to the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, we read the text thus: Woe to you, ye wings of the land of ships. What are the wings of the land of ships but the many sails whereby those ships flit hither and thither? One sees before him a new picture. The graceful dahabiehs with their long yards and triangular sails, dotting the water everywhere, and naturally suggesting great sea birds, with outspread wings, shining in the starlight white and ghostly on the calm surface of the mysterious river which is Egypts life.
4. Some of the more acute Hebrew scholars point out that it is possible to understand the prophets language in yet another way: Woe to the land where the shadow falleth both ways, that is, of course, near the Equator, where sometimes the shadows stretch out to the south and sometimes to the north, according to the time of the year. If we understand our text so, it is natural to see in it an allusion to the fickleness of the Ethiopians, a nation which Judah vainly trusted in, since today it would be found an ally and tomorrow an enemy. (A. Ritchie.)
The prophets charge to the Ethiopian ambassadors
Ethiopia (Hebrews, Cush) corresponds generally to the modern Soudan (i.e., the blacks)
. Egypt and Ethiopia were at this time ruled by Tirkakah (704-685). His ambassadors are in Jerusalem offering an alliance against the Assyrian; and the prophet sends them back to their people with the words, Go, ye swift messengers, etc. Jehovah needs no help against His enemies. (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)
Note
Full stop at waters (Isa 18:2), and omit saying. The prophet speaks: Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth . . . a nation all-powerful and subduing, whose land rivers divide (intersect). Smooth may refer to the glancing, bronzed skin of the people. (A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)
Vessels of bulrushes
It is well known that timber proper for building ships was very scarce in Egypt: to supply this deficiency, the Egyptians used bulrushes, or a reed called papyrus, of which they made vessels fit for sailing. Ships and boats built of this sort of materials, being extremely light, and drawing very little water, were admirably suited to traverse the Nile, along the banks of which there were doubtless many morasses and shoals. They were also very convenient and easy to be managed at the waterfalls, where they might be carried with no great difficulty to smooth water. From such circumstances as these, we may conclude, that they would sail exceeding fast, and afford a very speedy conveyance of all kinds of intelligence from one part of the country to another, and from Egypt to neighbouring nations. In them, therefore, ambassadors or messengers were often sent to different places with various kinds of information, after having received their orders in terms such as these, Go, ye swift messengers. (R. Macculloch.)
They were made for folding together, so that they could be carried past the cataracts. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XVIII
This chapter contains a very obscure prophecy; possibly
designed to give the Jews, and perhaps the Egyptians, whose
country is supposed to be meant, 1, 2,
and with whom many Jews resided, an indignation of God’s
interposition in favour of Sion, 3, 4;
and of his counsels in regard to the destruction of their
common enemy, Sennacherib, whose vast army, just as he thought
his projects ripe, and ready to be crowned with success, 5,
should become a prey to the beasts of the field, and to the
fowls of heaven, 6;
and that Egypt should be grateful to God for the deliverance
vouchsafed her, 7.
This is one of the most obscure prophecies in tho whole Book of Isaiah. The subject of it, the end and design of it, the people to whom it is addressed, the history to which it belongs, the person who sends the messengers, and the nation to whom the messengers are sent, are all obscure and doubtful. – L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII
Verse 1. Wo to the land] hoi arets! This interjection should be translated ho! for it is properly a particle of calling: Ho, land! Attend! Give ear!
Shadowing with wings – “The winged cymbal] tsiltsal kenaphayim. I adopt this as the most probable of the many interpretations that have been given of these words. It is Bochart’s: see Phaleg, iv. 2. The Egyptian sistrum is expressed by a periphrasis; the Hebrews had no name for it in their language, not having in use the instrument itself. The cymbal they had was an instrument in its use and sound not much unlike the sistrum; and to distinguish it from the sistrum, they called it the cymbal with wings. The cymbal was a round hollow piece of metal, which, being struck against another, gave a ringing sound: the sistrum was a round instrument, consisting of a broad rim of metal, through which from side to side ran several loose laminae or small rods of metal, which being shaken, gave a like sound. These, projecting on each side, had somewhat the appearance of wings; or might be very properly expressed by the same word which the Hebrews used for wings, or for the extremity, or a part of any thing projecting. The sistrum is given in a medal of Adrian, as the proper attribute of Egypt. See Addison on Medals, Series iii. No. 4; where the figure of it may be seen. The frame of the sistrum was in shape rather like the ancient lyre; it was not round.
If we translate shadowing with wings, it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings. The second verse seems to support this interpretation. Vessels of bulrushes, gome, or rather the flag papyrus, so much celebrated as the substance on which people wrote in ancient times, and from which our paper is denominated. The sails might have been made of this flag: but whole canoes were constructed from it. Mat sails are used to the present day in China. The Vulgate fully understood the meaning of the word, and has accordingly translated, in vasis papyri, “in vessels of papyrus.” Reshi vesselis. – Old MS. Bib. This interpretation does not please Bp. Lowth, and for his dissent he gives the following reasons: –
In opposition to other interpretations of these words which have prevailed, it may be briefly observed that tsiltsel is never used to signify shadow, nor is canaph applied to the sails of ships. If, therefore, the words are rightly interpreted the winged cymbal, meaning the sistrum, Egypt must be the country to which the prophecy is addressed. And upon this hypothesis the version and explanation must proceed. I farther suppose, that the prophecy was delivered before Sennacherib’s return from his Egyptian expedition, which took up three years; and that it was designed to give to the Jews, and perhaps likewise to the Egyptians, an intimation of God’s counsels in regard to the destruction of their great and powerful enemy.
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia – “Which borders on the rivers of Cush”] What are the rivers of Cush? whether the eastern branches of the lower Nile, the boundary of Egypt towards Arabia, or the parts of the upper Nile towards Ethiopia, it is not easy to determine. The word meeber signifies either on this side or on the farther side: I have made use of the same kind of ambiguous expression in the translation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The land; either,
1. Of Arabia; or,
2. Of Ethiopia beyond Egypt; or,
3. Of Egypt, as some both ancient and later interpreters judge; of whom he speaks more darkly in this chapter, and then explains himself more clearly in the next chapter. But this controversy will be best determined by examining the following description.
Shadowing with wings: the title of wings is oft given, both in Scripture and in other authors, unto divers things which have, some general kind of resemblance to wings, as to the battlements of a house or temple, as Mat 4:5; to the skirts of a garment, as Rth 3:9, and oft elsewhere; to an army, as Isa 8:8; Jer 48:40; 49:22; and to the sails of a ship, as this word is here commonly understood, and as it is unquestionably used in other authors. And shadowing with wings is nothing else but overspread or filled with them; which title may be given either to Ethiopia or Egypt, in regard of the great numbers, either,
1. Of their armies; or rather,
2. Of their ships or vessels sailing upon the sea or rivers: for,
1. In these they exceeded most of those nations who had dealings with the Jews, whereas other nations equalled or exceeded them in numerous armies. But they had an innumerable company of ships or boats, not only because of the commodiousness of the river Nilus, and its many branches, and the Red Sea, and the Midland Sea, for navigation; but also because of the frequent overflowings of the river Nilus over their land, which made them absolutely necessary.
2. This best suits with the next verse.
3. Those ancient and venerable interpreters, the LXX. and the Chaldee, who best understood the Hebrew words and phrases, expound it so.
Beyond; or, on this side, as this particle is rendered, Num 21:13; 22:1, and in many other places. Or, as others translate it, besides, which may comprehend both sides; and so the land of which he speaks is supposed to be situated on both sides of this river or rivers; which is most true both of Egypt and of Ethiopia. The rivers: a late learned writer understands this of three or four rivers of Arabia Chusaeea, whereof one flows into the Red Sea, another into the Midland Sea, and a third into a great lake; which being obscure and very inconsiderable rivers, and running in so distant channels, it is not probable that this land should receive its denomination from them. And therefore it seems more reasonable to understand this of the great river Nilus. which comes from Ethiopia, and runs through the length of that land, and through Egypt, into the Midland Sea; and which is here called rivers, in the plural number, as it is also Exo 7:19; Isa 7:18; Eze 29:3,4, and unquestionably Nab. iii. 8. And so it might well be called, either for its greatness, or for the many rivulets that run into it, or for the various streams or channels into which it is divided; as Tigris, upon the same reasons, hath the same title of rivers ascribed to it, Nah 2:6. Of Ethiopia, Heb. of Cush; by which he seems to understand either,
1. Arabia, which in many places of Scripture comes under that name, though not in all places, as some learned men contend. Nor doth this place seem to be understood here, because these rivers were not interposed between Judea, in which Isaiah wrote this prophecy, and Arabia; nor were the rivers of Arabia, mentioned before, interposed between Judea and Egypt or Ethiopia: and besides, those rivers were but small and inconsiderable; and therefore, as was noted before, this land, whatsoever it is, would not have been denominated from them, especially when it is not properly situated either beyond them, or on this side of them. But if this Cush be Arabia, peradventure it were better to understand the rivers, or the river, as it was explained before, of the Red Sea, beyond which indeed both Egypt and Ethiopia were, in reference to Arabia. And whereas it may be objected that the title of river or rivers is very improperly given to the sea, it may be fairly answered, that as rivers are sometimes called by the name of the sea, as Euphrates is, Isa 21:1; Jer 51:36; so this very word here rendered river is used concerning the sea in the Hebrew text, Jon 2 3, and indeed may not unfitly be given to the Red Sea, which both for its length and breadth hath a manifest resemblance unto some large rivers which are in the world. And so the words may be very truly understood either of Egypt or of Ethiopia, both which countries in this sense are beyond the rivers or river of Arabia. But this I only propose, and submit to the readers judgment. Or,
2. Ethiopia, properly so called; for the Cushites or Ethiopians are distinguished by Herodotus, and divers other both ancient and later writers, into the eastern, which seem to be the Arabians, and the western, which seem to be the Ethiopians under Egypt. And it is probably thought that these Cushites were first planted in Arabia, and, upon their increase, part of them passed over into Africa by crossing the Red Sea, which was; very short and an easy passage, and settled there. And according to this interpretation of the word, the description of the land given in the last clause of this verse agrees either to Ethiopia or to Egypt, as is evident from what hath been already said for the clearing of this dark and difficult verse.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. WoeThe heading in EnglishVersion, “God will destroy the Ethiopians,” is amistake arising from the wrong rendering “Woe,” whereas theHebrew does not express a threat, but is an appealcalling attention (Isa 55:1;Zec 2:6): “Ho.” He isnot speaking against but to the Ethiopians, calling onthem to hear his prophetical announcement as to the destruction oftheir enemies.
shadowing with wingsrather,”land of the winged bark“; that is, “barks withwing-like sails, answering to vessels of bulrushes” in Isa18:2; the word “rivers,” in the parallelism, alsofavors it; so the Septuagint and Chaldee [EWALD].”Land of the clanging sound of wings,” that is,armies, as in Isa 8:8; therendering “bark,” or “ship,” is rather dubious[MAURER]. The armiesreferred to are those of Tirhakah, advancing to meet the Assyrians(Isa 37:9). In EnglishVersion, “shadowing” means protectingstretchingout its wings to defend a feeble people, namely, the Hebrews[VITRINGA]. The Hebrewfor “wings” is the same as for the idol Cneph, whichwas represented in temple sculptures with wings (Ps91:4).
beyondMeroe, theisland between the “rivers” Nile and Astaboras is meant,famed for its commerce, and perhaps the seat of the Ethiopiangovernment, hence addressed here as representing the whole empire:remains of temples are still found, and the name of “Tirhakah”in the inscriptions. This island region was probably the chief partof Queen Candace’s kingdom (Ac8:27). For “beyond” others translate less literally”which borderest on.”
Ethiopialiterally,”Cush.” HORSLEYis probably right that the ultimate and fullestreference of the prophecy is to the restoration of the Jews in theHoly Land through the instrumentality of some distant peopleskilled in navigation (Isa 18:2;Isa 60:9; Isa 60:10;Psa 45:15; Psa 68:31;Zep 3:10). Phoelignician voyagerscoasting along would speak of all Western remote lands as”beyond” the Nile’s mouths. “Cush,” too, has awide sense, being applied not only to Ethiopia, but Arabia-Desertaand Felix, and along the Persian Gulf, as far as the Tigris (Ge2:13).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Woe to the land shadowing with wings,…. Or, “O land”, as calling to it; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi. It is very difficult to determine what land is here meant: some think the land of Assyria is here designed, as Aben Ezra and others, and so it is a continuation of the prophecy concerning the destruction of the Assyrians, in the three last verses of the preceding chapter Isa 17:12; the stretching out of whose wings is mentioned, Isa 8:8 and thought to be referred to here; others are of opinion that the land of Judea is intended, which trusted under the shadow of the wings of Egypt and Ethiopia, to whom the characters in the next verse Isa 18:2 are supposed to belong: but the more generally received sense is, that either Egypt or Ethiopia themselves are pointed at, described as “shadowing with wings”; not with the wings of birds, as Jarchi interprets it, which flocked thither in great numbers, the country being hot, and so shaded it with their wings; but rather with mountains, with which Ethiopia, at least some part of it, was encompassed and shaded; or else with ships, whose sails are like wings, and which resorting hither, in numerous fleets of them, and hovering about their coasts and ports, seemed to shadow them; to which agrees the Septuagint version, “Woe to the land, the wings of ships!” and so the Targum,
“Woe to the land to which they come in ships from a far country, whose sails are stretched out, as an eagle that flies with its wings;”
so Manasseh Ben Israel c renders them,
“Woe to the land, which, under the shadow of veils, falls beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.”
The word translated “shadowing” is used for a cymbal, 2Sa 6:5
Ps 150:5 and so it is rendered here in the Vulgate Latin version, “Woe to the land, with the cymbal of wings”: and some think the “sistrum”, is meant, which was a musical instrument used by the Egyptians in their worship of Isis; and which had wings to it, or had transverse rods in the middle of it, which looked like wings, one of which may be seen in Pignorius d; and so it describes the land of Egypt, famous for its winged cymbals. Minucius Felix e makes mention of the swallow along with the sistrum, which was a bird of Isis; and which some say was placed over the statue of Isis, with its wings stretched out.
Which [is] beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; the principal of which were Astaboras and Astapus f, and also Nile itself, which came out of Ethiopia into Egypt: or, “which is on this side of the rivers of Ethiopia” g; and so may intend Egypt, which bordered on this side of it towards Judea; or, “which is beside the rivers of Ethiopia” h; and so may denote Ethiopia itself, situated by these rivers. The Targum renders it,
“the rivers of Judea.”
Some would have it, that the rivers of Arabia Chusaea are meant, which, lay between Judea and Egypt, as Besor, Rhinocorura, Trajan, and Corys; and Arabia seems rather to be meant by “Cush”, than Ethiopia in Africa, since that lay beyond the rivers of Egypt, rather than Egypt beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
c Spes Israelis, sect. 17. p. 57. d Mensa Isiaca, p. 67. e Octav. p. 21. f Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 9. Ptolem. Geograph. 1. 4. c. 8. g “quae est citra flumina Cuscheae”, Vitringa. So some in Gataker. h “Quae est secundum flumina Aethiopiae”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophecy commences with hoi , which never signifies heus, but always vae (woe). Here, however, it differs from Isa 17:12, and is an expression of compassion (cf., Isa 55:1; Zec 2:10) rather than of anger; for the fact that the mighty Ethiopia is oppressed by the still mightier Asshur, is a humiliation which Jehovah has prepared for the former. Isa 18:1, Isa 18:2: “Woe to the land of the whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush, that sends ambassadors into the sea and in boats of papyrus over the face of the waters.” The land of Cush commences, according to Eze 29:10 (cf., Isa 30:6), where Upper Egypt ends. The Seveneh ( Aswan ), mentioned by Ezekiel, is the boundary-point at which the Nile enters Mizraim proper, and which is still a depot for goods coming from the south down the Nile. The nahare – Cush (rivers of Cush) are chiefly those that surround the Cushite Seba (Gen 10:7). This is the name given to the present Sennr , the Meroitic island which is enclosed between the White and Blue Nile (the Astapos of Ptolemy, or the present Bahr el – Abyad, and the Astaboras of Ptolemy, or the present Bahr el – Azrak). According to the latest researches, more especially those of Speke, the White Nile, which takes its rise in the Lake of Nyanza, is the chief source of the Nile. The latter, and the Blue Nile, whose confluence ( m akran ) with it takes place in lat. 15 25, are fed by many larger or smaller tributary streams (as well as mountain torrents); the Blue Nile even more than the Nile proper. And this abundance of water in the land to the south of Seveneh , and still farther south beyond Seba (or Mero), might very well have been known to the prophet as a general fact. The land “beyond the rivers of Cush” is the land bounded by the sources of the Nile, i.e., (including Ethiopia itself in the stricter sense of the word) the south land under Ethiopian rule that lay still deeper in the heart of the country, the land of its African auxiliary tribes, whose names (which probably include the later Nubians and Abyssinians), as given in 2Ch 12:3; Nah 3:9; Eze 30:5; Jer 46:9, suppose a minuteness of information which has not yet been attained by modern research. To this Ethiopia, which is designated by its farthest limits (compare Zep 3:10, where Wolff, in his book of Judith, erroneously supposes Media to be intended as the Asiatic Cush), the prophets give the strange name of eretz tziltzal c enap . This has been interpreted as meaning “the land of the wings of an army with clashing arms” by Gesenius and others; but c enaphaim does not occur in this sense, like ‘agappim in Ezekiel. Others render it “the land of the noise of waves” (Umbreit); but c enaphaim cannot be used of waters except in such a connection as Isa 8:8. Moreover, tziltzal is not a fitting onomatopoetic word either for the clashing of arms or the noise of waves. Others, again, render it “the land of the double shadow” (Grotius, Vitringa, Knobel, and others); but, however appropriate this epithet might be to Ethiopia as a tropical land, it is very hazardous to take the word in a sense which is not sustained by the usage of the language; and the same objection may be brought against Luzzatto’s “land of the far-shadowing defence.” Shelling has also suggested another objection – namely, that the shadow thrown even in tropical lands is not a double one, falling northwards and southwards at the same time, and therefore that it cannot be figuratively described as double-winged. Tziltzal c enaphaim is the buzzing of the wings of insects, with which Egypt and Ethiopia swarmed on account of the climate and the abundance of water: , constr. , tinnitus , stridor , a primary meaning from which the other three meanings of the word-cymbal, harpoon (a whirring dart), and grasshopper
(Note: Schrring supposes tziltzal to be the scarabaeus sacer (Linn.); but it would be much more natural, if any particular animal is intended, to think of the tzaltzalya , as it is called in the language of the Gallas, the tzetze in the Betschuana language, the most dreaded diptera of the interior of Africa, a species of glossina which attacks all the larger mammalia (though not men). Vid., Hartmann, Naturgeschichtlich-medic. Skizze der Nillnder, Abth. i. p. 205.)
– are derived. In Isa 7:18 the forces of Egypt are called “the fly from the end of the rivers of Egypt.” Here Egypt and Ethiopia are called the land of the whirring of wings, inasmuch as the prophet had in his mind, under the designation of swarms of insects, the motley swarms of different people included in this great kingdom that were so fabulously strange to an Asiatic. Within this great kingdom messengers were now passing to and fro upon its great waters in boats of papyrus ( on gome , Copt. gome , Talm. gami , see at Job 8:11), Greek ( , from the Egyptian bari , bali , a barque). In such vessels as these, and with Egyptian tackle, they went as far as the remote island of Taprobane. The boats were made to clap together ( pilcatiles ), so as to be carried past the cataracts (Parthey on Plutarch. de Iside, pp. 198-9). And it is to these messengers in their paper boats that the appeal of the prophet is addressed.
He sends them home; and what they are to say to their own people is generalized into an announcement to the whole earth. “Go, swift messengers, to the people stretched out and polished, to the terrible people far away on the other side, to the nation of command upon command and treading down, whose land rivers cut through. All ye possessors of the globe and inhabitants of the earth, when a banner rises on the mountains, look ye; and when they blow the trumpets, hearken!” We learn from what follows to what it is that the attention of Ethiopia and all the nations of the earth is directed: it is the destruction of Asshur by Jehovah. They are to attend, when they observe the two signals, the banner and the trumpet-blast; these are decisive moments. Because Jehovah was about to deliver the world from the conquering might of Assyria, against which the Ethiopian kingdom was now summoning all the means of self-defence, the prophet sends the messengers home. Their own people, to which he sends them home, are elaborately described. They are m emusshak , stretched out, i.e., very tall (lxx ), just as the Sabaeans are said to have been in Isa 45:14. They are also m orat = m e morat (Ges. 52, Anm. 6), smoothed, politus , i.e., either not disfigured by an ugly growth of hair, or else, without any reference to depilation, but rather with reference to the bronze colour of their skin, smooth and shining with healthy freshness. The description which Herodotus gives of the Ethiopians, (iii. 20), quite answers to these first two predicates. They are still further described, with reference to the wide extent of their kingdom, which reached to the remotest south, as “the terrible nation ,” i.e., from this point, where the prophet meets with the messengers, farther and farther off (compare 1Sa 20:21-22, but not 1Sa 18:9, where the expression has a chronological meaning, which would be less suitable here, where everything is so pictorial, and which is also to be rejected, because cannot be equivalent to ; cf., Nah 2:9). We may see from Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13, what kav ( kav , with connecting accusatives and before makkeph ), a measuring or levelling line, signifies, when used by the prophet with the reduplication which he employs here: it is a people of “command upon command,” – that is to say, a commanding nation; (according to Ewald, Knobel, and others, kav is equivalent to the Arabic kuwe , strength, a nation of double or gigantic strength.) “ A people of treading down ” (sc., of others; m e busah is a second genitive to goi ), i.e., one which subdues and tramples down wherever it appears. These are all distinctive predicates – a nation of imposing grandeur, a ruling and conquering nation. The last predicate extols its fertile land. we take not in the sense of diripere, or as equivalent to bazaz , like , to melt, equivalent to m asas , but in the sense of findere , i.e., as equivalent to , like , to sip = . For it is no praise to say that a land is scoured out, or washed away, by rivers. Bttcher, who is wrong in describing this chapter as “perhaps the most difficult in the whole of the Old Testament,” very aptly compares with it the expression used by Herodotus (ii. 108), . But why this strange elaboration instead of the simple name? There is a divine irony in the fact that a nation so great and glorious, and (though not without reason, considering its natural gifts) so full of self-consciousness, should be thrown into such violent agitation in the prospect of the danger that threatened it, and should be making such strenuous exertions to avert that danger, when Jehovah the God of Israel was about to destroy the threatening power itself in a night, and consequently all the care and trouble of Ethiopia were utterly needless.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Judgments Denounced. | B. C. 712. |
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: 2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled! 3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. 4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. 6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. 7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.
Interpreters are very much at a loss where to find this land that lies beyond the rivers of Cush. Some take it to be Egypt, a maritime country, and full of rivers, and which courted Israel to depend upon them, but proved broken reeds; but against this it is strongly objected that the next chapter is distinguished from this by the title of the burden of Egypt. Others take it to be Ethiopia, and read it, which lies near, or about, the rivers of Ethiopia, not that in Africa, which lay south of Egypt, but that which we call Arabia, which lay east of Canaan, which Tirhakah was now king of. He thought to protect the Jews, as it were, under the shadow of his wings, by giving a powerful diversion to the king of Assyria, when he made a descent upon his country, at the time that he was attacking Jerusalem, 2 Kings xix. 9. But though by his ambassadors he bade defiance to the king of Assyria, and encouraged the Jews to depend upon him, God by the prophet slights him, and will not go forth with him; he may take his own course, but God will take another course to protect Jerusalem, while he suffers the attempt of Tirhakah to miscarry and his Arabian army to be ruined; for the Assyrian army shall become a present or sacrifice to the Lord of hosts, and to the place of his name, by the hand of an angel, not by the hand of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, v. 7. This is a very probable exposition of this chapter. But from a hint of Dr. Lightfoot’s, in his Harmony of the Old Testament, I incline to understand this chapter as a prophecy against Assyria, and so a continuation of the prophecy in the last three verses of the foregoing chapter, with which therefore this should be joined. That was against the army of the Assyrians which rushed in upon Judah; this is against the land of Assyria itself, which lay beyond the rivers of Arabia, that is, the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, which bordered on Arabia Deserta. And in calling it the land shadowing with wings he seems to refer to what he himself had said of it (ch. viii. 8), that the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel! The prophet might perhaps describe the Assyrians by such dark expressions, not naming them, for the same reason that St. Paul, in his prophecy, speaks of the Roman empire by a periphrasis: He who now letteth, 2 Thess. ii. 7. Here is,
I. The attempt made by this land (whatever it is) upon a nation scattered and peeled, v. 2. Swift messengers are sent by water to proclaim war against them, as a nation marked by Providence, and meted out, to be trodden under foot. Whether this refer to the Ethiopians waging war with the Assyrians, or the Assyrians with Judah, it teaches us, 1. That a people which have been terrible from their beginning, have made a figure and borne a mighty sway, may yet become scattered and peeled, and may be spoiled even by their own rivers, that should enrich both the husbandman and the merchant. Nations which have been formidable, and have kept all in awe about them, may by a concurrence of accidents become despicable and an easy prey to their insulting neighbours. 2. Princes and states that are ambitious of enlarging their territories will always have some pretence or other to quarrel with those whose countries they have a mind to. “It is a nation that has been terrible, and therefore we must be revenged on it; it is now a nation scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden down, and therefore it will be an easy prey for us.” Perhaps it was not brought so low as they represented it. God’s people are trampled on as a nation scattered and peeled; but whoever think to swallow them up may find them still as terrible as they have been from their beginning; they are cast down, but not deserted, not destroyed.
II. The alarm sounded to the nations about, by which they are summoned to take notice of what God is about to do, v. 3. The Ethiopians and Assyrians have their counsels and designs, which they have laid deep, and promise themselves much from, and, in prosecution of them, send their ambassadors and messengers from place to place; but let us now enquire what the great God says to all this. 1. He lifts up an ensign upon the mountains, and blows a trumpet, by which he proclaims war against the enemies of his church, and calls in all her friends and well-wishers into her service, v. 3. He gives notice that he is about to do some great work, as Lord of hosts. 2. All the world is bidden to take notice of it; all the dwellers on earth must see the ensign and hear the trumpet, must observe the motions of the divine providence and attend the directions of the divine will. Let all enlist under God’s banner, and be on his side, and hearken to the trumpet of his word, which gives not an uncertain sound.
III. The assurance God gives to his prophet, by him to be given to his people, that, though he might seem for a time to sit by as an unconcerned spectator, yet he would certainly and seasonably appear for the comfort of his people and the confusion of his and their enemies (v. 4): So the Lord said unto me. Men will have their saying, but God also will have his; and, as we may be sure his word shall stand, so he often whispers it in the ears of his servants the prophets. When he says, I will take my rest, it is not as if he were weary of governing the world, of as if he either needed or desired to retire from it and repose himself; but it intimates that the great God has a perfect, undisturbed, enjoyment of himself, in the midst of all the agitations and changes of this world (the Lord sits even upon the floods unshaken; the Eternal Mind is always easy), and, though he may sometimes seem to his people as if he took not wonted notice of what is done in this lower world (they are tempted to think he is as one asleep, or as one astonished,Psa 44:23; Jer 14:9), yet even then he knows very well what men are doing and what he himself will do.
1. He will take care of his people, and be a shelter to them. He will regard his dwelling-place; his eye and his heart are, and shall be, upon it for good continually. Zion is his rest for ever, where he will dwell; and he will look after it (so some read it); he will lift up the light of his countenance upon it, will consider over it what is to be done, and will be sure to do all for the best. He will adapt the comforts and refreshments he provides for his people to the exigencies of their case; and they will therefore be acceptable, because seasonable. (1.) Like a clear heat after rain (so the margin), which is very reviving and pleasant, and makes the herbs to flourish. (2.) Like a dew and a cloud in the heat of harvest, which are very welcome, the dew to the ground and the cloud to the labourers. Note, There is that in God which is a shelter and refreshment to his people in all weathers and arms them against the inconveniences of every change. Is the weather cool? There is that in his favour which will warm them. Is it hot? There is that in his favour which will cool them. Great men have their winter-house and their summer-house (Amos iii. 15); but those that are at home with God have both in him.
2. He will reckon with his and their enemies, Isa 18:5; Isa 18:6. When the Assyrian army promises itself a plentiful harvest in the taking of Jerusalem and the plundering of that rich city, when the bud of that project is perfect, before the harvest is gathered in, while the sour grape of their enmity to Hezekiah and his people is ripening in the flower and the design is just ready to be put in execution, God shall destroy that army as easily as the husbandman cuts off the sprigs of the vine with pruning hooks, or because the grape is sour and good for nothing, and will not be cured, takes away and cuts down the branches. This seems to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian army by a destroying angel, when the dead bodies of the soldiers were scattered like the branches and sprigs of a wild vine, which the husbandman has cut to pieces. And they shall be left to the fowls of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth, to prey upon, both winter and summer; for as God’s people are protected all seasons of the year, both in cold and heat (v. 4), so their enemies are at all seasons exposed; birds and beasts of prey shall both summer and winter upon them, till they are quite ruined.
IV. The tribute of praise which should be brought to God from all this (v. 7): In that time, when this shall be accomplished, shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts. 1. Some understand this of the conversion of the Ethiopians to the faith of Christ in the latter days, of which we have the specimen and beginning in Philip’s baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts viii. 27, c. Those that were a people scattered and peeled, meted out, and trodden down (<i>v. 2), shall be a present to the Lord: and, though they seem useless and worthless, they shall be an acceptable present to him who judges of men by the sincerity of their faith and love, not by the pomp and prosperity of their outward condition. Therefore the gospel was ministered to the Gentiles that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, Rom. xv. 16. It is prophesied (Ps. lxviii. 31) that Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 2. Others understand it of the spoil of Sennacherib’s army, out of which, as usual, presents were brought to the Lord of hosts, Num. xxxi. 50. It was the present of a people scattered and peeled. (1.) It was won from the Assyrians, who were now themselves reduced to such a condition as they scornfully described Judah to be in, v. 1. Those that unjustly trample upon others shall themselves be justly trampled upon. (2.) It was offered by the people of God, who were, in disdain, called a people scattered and peeled. God will put honour upon his people, though men put contempt upon them. Lastly, Observe, The present that is brought to the Lord of hosts must be brought to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts; what is offered to God must be offered in the way that he has appointed; we must be sure to attend him, and expect him to meet us, where he records his name.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 18
AN ORACLE CONCERNING ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia (or Egypt) and Assyria were the two great powers of Western Asia in the days of Isaiah. Egypt and Ethiopia were united under Tirhaka, whose exploits are recorded in the Egyptian monuments, and who (according to 2Ki 19:9) fought against Sennacherib. It appears that Judah was constantly leaning on one or the other of these contending powers. According to Isa 36:9, Rabshakeh specifically reproached Hezekiah for relying on Egypt. As chapter 17 announced the presence of the Assyrian, chapter 18 prophesies his overthrow.
Verse 1-7:
1. The attention of Ethiopia (and of the whole earth) is called to a great catastrophe that is imminent, (Verse 1-2; comp. Psa 49:1; Mic 1:2).
a. Recognizing the intentions of Assyria, Egypt has sent out her ambassadors to gather as much help as possible in facing the armies of Assyria; she well knows that more than the land of Judah is at stake, (Verse 1-2; Gen 10:8-9; 2Ch 12:2-4; 2Ch 14:9; 2Ch 16:8).
b. This prophecy is presented by Isaiah to the ambassadors who were in Jerusalem at the time; they were to return to Egypt with the assurance that God would put a stop to the proud Assyrian on the mountains of Israel.
c. When an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, the whole earth is to stop, look and listen, (Verse 3; comp. Isa 5:26; Jer 50:2; Isa 26:11).
2. The prophet recognizes the fact that the battle is the Lord’s; but, He is in no hurry, (Verse 4).
a. He is still – waiting and watching from his dwelling-place, (Isa 26:21; Hos 5:15).
b. He dwells in light so brilliant that mortal man dare not draw near, (2Sa 23:3-4; Hab 3:3-4).
c. Unto Judah He is as the dew in the heat of harvest -refreshing and life-preserving, (Isa 26:19; Pro 19:12; Hos 14:5).
3. Here the intent of the Assyrian is likened unto a vineyard from which a bountiful harvest is expected, (Verse 5).
a. God will permit the enemy to pursue his purpose until he is confident that the victory is in his hands; that is when he will be ripe for destruction!
b. In a marvelous and miraculous way, the Lord will then so move, in His providence, that all the earth can see that HE ALONE IS GOD!
c. He will so “prune” and “cut down” the far-reaching branches of Sennacherib’s army as to make him abandon the field.
4. So terrible will be the loss from the army of Assyria that the ravenous birds and beasts will have a year-long feast upon their carcasses, (Verse 6; comp. Jer 7:33; Eze 32:2-6; Eze 39:17-20).
a. It is possible that this is intended to have a two-fold interpretation and fulfillment – one near; the other far off.
b. There is a great similarity here to the battle that is to be fought in connection with our Lord’s return to reign, (Rev 19:17-18).
5. In verse 7 the Egyptians (Ethiopians) are pictured as bringing to the Lord of hosts a present – to the place of His memorial name, on Mt Zion, (Isa 45:14; Psa 68:31; Zep 3:10; Act 8:27-38).
a. This surely looks forward to the coming Day of the Lord (millennium) in which Egypt will submit herself to the lordship of Jesus Christ and serve Him with gladness, (tech. Isa 14:16-18).
b. They will assist in the return of the once-holy people who, because of their sin, had been scattered to the ends of the earth, (Isa 14:1; Isa 43:6; Isa 49:22; Isa 60:4-5; etc.).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Woe to the land. I cannot determine with certainty what is the nation of which Isaiah speaks, though he shews plainly that it bordered on Ethiopia. Some consider it to refer to the whole of Egypt; but this is a mistake, for in the next chapter he treats of Egypt separately, from which it is evident that the people here meant were distinct from the Egyptians. Some think that the Troglodytes are here meant, which does not appear to me to be probable, for they had no intercourse with other nations, because their language, as geographers tell us, was hissing and not speech; (12) but those who are mentioned evidently had intercourse and leagues with other nations.
Still it is uncertain whether they leagued against the Jews or joined with the Egyptians in driving out the Assyrians. If they were avowed enemies to the Jews, Isaiah threatens punishment; but if they deceived them by false promises, he shews that nothing is to be expected from them, because by idle messages they will only protract the time. However that may be, from the neighboring nations to be mentioned in the next chapter, we may in part ascertain where they were situated, that is, not far from Egypt and Ethiopia: yet some may be disposed to view it as a description of that part of Ethiopia which lay on the sea-coast; for we shall afterwards see that the Assyrians were at war with the king of the Ethiopians. (Isa 37:9.)
When he says that that land shadows with wings, we learn from it that its sea was well supplied with harbours, so that it had many vessels sailing to it and was wealthy; for small and poor states could not maintain intercourse or traffic with foreign countries. He therefore means that they performed many voyages.
(12) “The Ethiopian Troglodytes,” says Herodotus “are the swiftest of foot of all men of whom we have received any accounts. The Troglodytes feed on serpents, and lizards, and reptiles of that sort, and the language which they have adopted has no resemblance to any other, but they screech like bats. — Herod. 4:183.
FT270 “In vessels of bulrushes.” — Eng. Ver.
FT271 “Scattered and peeled, or, outspread and polished.” — Eng. Ver.
FT272 “A nation meted out and trodden down.” Heb. “A nation of line, and line, and treading under foot.” — Eng. Ver.
FT273 “A nation meted out by line, that is, utterly subdued. Heb. Put under line and line, to decide what part of them should be destroyed, and what saved by the conquerors. In this manner David is described, (2Sa 8:2,) as having dealt with the children of Moab. See Lam 2:8. Such a nation might well deserve to be called drawn out and pilled, that is drawn through the fingers (or an instrument) like a willow, in order to be peeled and made fit for wicker work.” — Stock.
FT274 “ Videbitis.” “ Vous le verrez.”
FT275 “See ye.” “Hear ye.” — Eng. Ver.
FT276 “And I will consider in my dwelling-place.” — Eng. Ver. “I will rest, and look round in my dwelling-place.” — Stock.
FT277 “Like a clear heat upon herbs,” or “after rain” — Eng. Ver.
FT278 Like the clear heat at the coming of daylight. The resting of Jehovah, hovering over the enemy till they are ripe for destruction, is here beautifully compared to the condensed gloom before daylight, which is wont to usher in a hot summer’s day, and to the sheet of dew that appears to hang over the ground in harvest time presently after sunset. עלי, (ă lē,) is here used for near the time of, as we say, against such a time. עלי אור, (ă lēōr,) prope lucem, adventante luce. — Stock.
FT279 Rosenmüller takes notice of another reading supported by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, ביום קציר, ( bĕyōm kātzīr,) “ at the time of harvest,” instead of, בהם קציר, ( bĕhōm kātzīr,) “in the heat of harvest,” but justly remarks that it makes no difference to the meaning. — Ed.
FT280 “That is, their dead bodies.” — Jarchi.
FT281 “To quit the metaphor, the flourishing leaders of a people, devoted by Jehovah to destruction, shall be cut off and trampled on. The people here spoken of are the Assyrians under Sennacherib.” — Stock.
FT282 See vol. 1 p. 96
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
C. INCESSANT EGYPTIANS CHAPTERS 1820
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
1.
ETHIOPIA
TEXT: Isa. 18:1-7
1
Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
2
that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!
3
All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye.
4
For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5
For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away and cut down.
6
They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7
In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts from a people tall and smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.
QUERIES
a.
Why were the ambassadors told to go?
b.
Why is Jehovah going to be still?
c.
Who is going to bring a present to Jehovah?
PARAPHRASE
Ah, yes, O distant and enchanting land of Ethiopia, land beyond the upper reaches of the Nile where winged sailboats glide, which sends its ambassadors in fast boats! Go, you swift messengers from Ethiopia. Return to your homeland, a land of supple, bronze-skinned warriors, feared far and wide, a conquering, destroying nation whose land the upper Nile divides. Go with this message: Jehovah-God has said, Let all the world look and listen when God begins to raise up the sign of His mighty work in the earth. Jehovah has decreed, Let my enemies now advance against my land. I will watch quietly and serenely from my place, as unperturbed as one does on a pleasant summer day or a lovely autumn morning watching the grain field mature unto harvest. I have everything under control, says Jehovah. My enemies are like a field ripening unto harvest. But before they have begun the attack, and while their plans are ripening like grapes, I will cut them off as though with pruning shears. I will snip the spreading tendrils. Their armies will be left dead on the field for the mountain birds and wild animals to eat; the vultures will tear bodies all summer, and the wild animals will gnaw bones all winter. But the time will come when that strong and mighty nation, a terror to all both far and near, that conquering, destroying nation whose land the rivers divide, will bring gifts to the Lord of Hosts in Zion, where He has placed His name.
COMMENTS
Isa. 18:1-2 TERROR: Ethiopia was noted far and wide for the abundance of insects populating its territories. Beyond means the land extending far to the south which is bordered by the great rivers of Egypt (the White Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara) which is Ethiopia. Ethiopia had apparently sent envoys (ambassadors) to Judah. They had come in boats constructed of papyrus, a famous feed which grew in abundance along the Nile. This reed was light and would be very buoyant as well as pliable. The craft would probably be made watertight with pitch. The word saying in the text is italicized indicating that it is a word supplied but not a part of the original text. It was not the Ethiopians who said to the ambassadors, Go, but Isaiah the prophet who was saying, in effect, Go back home! The Ethiopians were little known to most of the world in Isaiahs day. There was an aura of mystery about them which tended to make them feared. Their bronze, sleek physique and their efficiency (swift messengers) all contributed to the stories told about their fearsomeness. But why would Isaiah tell them to Go back home?
Isa. 18:3-6 TRIUMPH: Apparently Ethiopia had sent ambassadors to Judah to offer treaties of alliance with Judah against her immediate foes, the Syria-Israel coalition, or perhaps, Assyria. Such treaties of alliance would involve some form of compromise by Judah to Ethiopias demands. It would probably involve Judah in pagan practices. An alternative suggestion is that the ambassadors were sent with threats to Judah from Ethiopia herself. Whatever the case, the prophet of God, as much for the benefit of the people of God as for the Ethiopians, bids them Go home and watch and listen for a signal announcing that Jehovah God, the God of Judah, was entering into battle with His enemies. The warning is to the whole world that Jehovah will, in due time, take the situation in hand. There were those of Gods people who probably were getting impatient with Jehovahs postponement of disaster upon their enemies. Twice before the prophet Isaiah had predicted Jehovahs judgment upon Assyria (Isa. 10:5-34; Isa. 14:24-27). The Lord was apparently doing nothing about all those massive empires threatening Judah on all sides except predict their overthrow. Isaiah portrays Jehovah dwelling quietly, serenely, observing unperturbed as His enemies prepare for the attack. What else befits the Sovereign God of Creation! He has all things completely under His control. He is simply allowing all circumstances to ripen unto His harvest. He is allowing these circumstances and purposes of men to come to fruition in order better to serve His own omniscient purposes. As men prepare their schemes to carry out their own evil purposes, God waits. He wants to give men time to repent. But when they deliberately exchange the truth of God for a lie and deliberately refuse to have God in their knowledge, He gives them up to their own self destruction. What else can He do. They are cut off. They become carrion. They reap what they sow. Almighty God triumphs over them just as He warned He would.
Isa. 18:7 TREASURE: This verse is futuristic. As usual the future is not defined whether it be the immediate future or the remote. More than likely both are thought of as involved. We have here another of the manifold instances of shortened perspective where the prophet sees the mountain peaks of Gods redemptive activity but he does not see the valleys in between the peaks. Those valleys unexplored (centuries of time elapsing between great events) by the prophets eye must also remain unexplored by the readers mind. Isaiah may have reference initially to the more immediate future when some in Ethiopia watched developments as they took place round about Jerusalem, and when the disastrous defeat of the Assyrians occurred, this news penetrated to Ethiopia and induced some to acknowledge Jehovah (Cf. 2Ch. 32:23). However, one has only to remember the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) to realize this prediction also has a distant future fulfillment and focuses on messianic times. In a context definitely messianic (Zep. 3:10) Ethiopia is depicted bringing offerings to the Lord. Zion is symbolic to designate the dwelling place of God and the church of Christ is His ultimate dwelling place (Cf. Heb. 12:18-24; Eph. 2:11-22). This verse parallels the many predictions of Isaiah and other prophets that in messianic times (the church) God and/or Gods people will possess peoples (as treasure) from every nation of the world. Isaiah portrays the future glorious Zion (kingdom of God) to be a universal kingdom. All the nations will flow to it (Isaiah 2, etc.). This is another expression of the universality of the messianic kingdom (the Church). The treasure is the people themselves, converted to Jehovah.
QUIZ
1.
What is the reference to the rustling of wings?
2.
Who is saying Go to the ambassadors?
3.
What are they to wait to see and hear?
4.
Why is God not dealing with His enemies immediately?
5.
What N.T. incident may be referred to in Isa. 18:7?
6.
What are the presents brought from Ethiopia?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XVIII.
(1) Woe to the land shadowing with wings.A new kingdom, hitherto unnamed by Isaiah, comes now within his horizon. The movements of Tirhakah, king of Cush or Ethiopia, from the upper valley of the Nile, subduing Egypt, and prepared to enter into conflict with the great Assyrian king (Isa. 37:9), had apparently excited the hopes of such of Hezekiahs counsellors as put their trust in an arm of flesh. To these Isaiah now turns with words of warning. The words shadowing with wings have been very variously interpreted as implying (1) the image of a mighty eagle stretching out its imperial wings (Eze. 17:1-8); (2) the urus or disk with outspread wings which appears in Egyptian paintings as the symbol of Ethiopian sovereignty; (3) the rendering resounding being adopted instead of shadowing, the swarms of the tse-tse fly that have been the terror of all travellers in Abyssinia. Of these (2) has most to commend it, and receives confirmation from the inscription of Piankhi-Mer-Amon, translated by Canon Cook in Records of the Past (2 p. 89), in which that king, an Ethiopian, who had conquered Egypt, appears with the urus on his head, and the chiefs of the north and south cry out to him, Grant us to be under thy shadow. (Comp. Isa. 30:2-3.) The phrase, beyond the river, points, as in Zep. 3:10, to the region of the White and the Blue Nile, south of Meroe or Sennar, and not far from the Lake Nyanza of modern explorers.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Woe Not minatory, but salutatory: Ho!
Land shadowing with wings Or, land of the clanging sound of wings; the buzz or rustling of insect wings; or, as some interpret, referring to the rustle and clatter of marching armies; as if it means, “Ho, land that sends forth armies to the aid of invaded Egypt below.”
Beyond the rivers That is, regions lying south of Egypt around and beyond the head-waters of the Nile.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Analysis of Isa 18:1-7 .
a
b “All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when an ensign (a flag or banner) is lifted up on the mountains, see, and when the trumpet is blown, hear” (Isa 18:3).
c For thus has Yahweh said to me, “I will be still, and I will behold in my dwellingplace, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew (mist) in the heat of harvest” (Isa 18:4).
c For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the sprigs with pruninghooks, and the spreading branches He will take away and cut down (Isa 18:5).
b They will be left together to the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth, and the ravenous birds will summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them (Isa 18:6).
a In that time will a present be brought to Yahweh of hosts, from a people tall and smooth, and from a people terrible from their beginning onwards, a nation which metes out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts, The Mount Zion (Isa 18:7).
In ‘a’ either Israelite representatives, or returning ambassadors, are told to go to a people tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onwards, a nation which metes out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, and in the parallel such a people will bring presents to Yahweh and to Mount Zion. In ‘b’ all the ‘inhabitants of the world’ were to note when an ensign (a flag or banner) was lifted up on the mountains and when the trumpet was blown, and in the parallel they would become food for the birds. In ‘c’ Yahweh has said, “I will be still, and I will behold in My dwellingplace, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew (mist) in the heat of harvest” (perfect for ripening harvests), and in the parallel we learn that before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the sprigs with pruninghooks, and the spreading branches He will take away and cut down. It will not be because Yahweh was not there with His provision, but because He purposes it.
Isa 18:1-2
‘Ah, the land of the whirring of wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Cush,
Which sends messengers by the sea,
Even in vessels of papyrus on the waters.’
‘Ah.’ This connects the passage back to Isa 17:12-14 which began with the same expression. Isaiah is sighing because of the coming of these messengers. It does not please him.
‘The land of the whirring of wings which is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends messengers by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters.’ The land of the whirring of wings could be any land where insects were a problem. In Deu 28:42 the whirring ones were locusts. When locusts visited Egypt they tended to be swept down the Nile by winds from North Africa. This tends to point to Sudan/Ethiopia, especially as they had swept down like a cloud of locusts and had conquered Egypt. Alternately some see it as a reference to Sudan/Ethiopia based on the fact that the peculiar sails on their boats looked from a distance, as they approached, like whirring wings (so LXX has ‘wings of the land of ships’).
‘Beyond (over) the rivers of Cush.’ The same description is given by Zep 3:10. It may refer to northern Ethiopia where Jewish colonists had apparently settled along with other Semites from Southern Arabia. For evidence of the close relationship between southern Arabia and Ethiopia see 2Ch 21:16. The phrase was probably a technical term for Sudan/Ethiopia. Geography was not exact in those days.
‘Which sends messengers by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters.’ The sea may well be the Red Sea across which vessels of papyrus could sail to southern Arabia, and then the messengers would travel via the trade routes to countries including Palestine. Others see it as referring to the Nile, as vessels of papyrus were not generally seagoing, but ‘sea’ is not the usual description applied to the Nile (although see Isa 19:5).
Isa 18:2-3
‘Go you swift messengers to a people tall and smooth (or ‘spread out and ready for action’),
To a people terrible from their beginning onwards,
A nation that metes out and treads down,
Whose land the rivers divide.
All you inhabitants of the world,
And you dwellers on the earth,
When an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see,
And when the trumpet is blown, hear!’
The ambassadors of Cush having arrived in Jerusalem, and presumably following discussions, were sent back with suitable flattering and diplomatic compliments, (presumably by Hezekiah and the other members of the alliance). They were told to ‘Go’ back to their own people and return to Cush with the message that even now was about to be circulated to the interested nations, ‘When an ensign (banner) is lifted up on the mountains, see, and when the trumpet is blown, hear!’ They too are to await the signal to act. The world around is waiting to act and at a given time the signal will be given, the banner raised, and the war trumpet will sound. Possibly they were delighted to have such powerful allies and were convinced that they could now defeat Assyria, which was already in trouble due to successful rebellions by Babylon and Elam. Isaiah builds up the picture because he will later condemn it (Isa 30:1-5; Isa 31:1).
The description as a whole might well be taken from the blurb included in the ambassadorial message that the Cushites brought (compare Isa 18:7). The verb translated ‘tall’ here means ‘to draw’ in its various uses, e.g. to draw a bow, time drawn out, to draw on a tablet, to draw a lover, to draw oneself up to one’s full height. It can mean ‘drawn out’ and therefore ‘extended’. Thus here it is translated ‘tall’ but it may equally signify a people who were extended in the sense of being spread over a wide area. The verb translated ‘smooth’ here means to ‘polish, furbish’ (e.g. a sword) and thus make it ready for action. So we could equally translate ‘spread over a wide area and ready for action’, which would fit the purpose of the visit. Their boast was of their conquests and their readiness for war. But the Cushites were taller than average and smooth skinned which is why many translate ‘tall and smooth’, although the word never elsewhere means ‘tall’.
The reference is to the Cushite peoples who in around 715 BC, under their king Piankhi, followed by his successor Shabaka, had conquered Egypt and were seeking to influence affairs to their north, especially against Assyria who would keep threatening her northern borders. At this stage they probably seemed invincible (they would soon learn otherwise). It was from Cush that Nimrod the great conqueror came (Gen 10:8-12), and thus they were ‘a people terrible from their beginnings onwards’. The reference to meting out and treading down could have in mind their treatment of Egypt, which they had at this time conquered. The division of their land by rivers could look back to Isa 18:1, ‘beyond the rivers of Cush’, but may also be a boast as to the fruitfulness of their land, criss-crossed by rivers.
Isa 18:4
‘For thus has Yahweh said to me,
“I will be still,
And I will behold in my dwellingplace,
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew (mist) in the heat of harvest”.
For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the sprigs with pruninghooks,
And the spreading branches he will take away and cut down.
They will be left together to the ravenous birds of the mountains,
And to the beasts of the earth,
And the ravenous birds will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.’
Isaiah is not impressed. He gives God’s verdict on the situation. God will stand back and be still. He will not intervene on behalf of the alliance. Rather He will watch the disaster that is coming, from His dwellingplace, possibly signifying Mount Zion (Isa 18:7), but more probably here signifying His heavenly dwellingplace. But men will be conscious that He is there in the background, ‘like clear heat in sunshine, like a mist in the heat of harvest’. God’s mysterious presence will be active in His own way.
‘Like clear heat in sunshine, like a mist in the heat of harvest.’ Both would be seen as presaging a good harvest. When the harvest failed it would not be because Yahweh was lacking. It would be because He had greater purposes.
And before the rebellion comes to harvest and full growth, He will prune its sprigs and remove its spreading branches. Pruning before harvest would be recognised by men as being portentous, it is thing that no man would do, but it is what God will do. The rebellion will not flourish. Rather it will result in the downfall of the rebels. So His action will result in the foreshortening of the rebellion, and what is pruned will then feed the ravenous birds and beasts for a long time to come, in both summer and winter.
Thus Isaiah warns Hezekiah and the other leaders in the alliance that their efforts will come to nought, and that it is Yahweh Who will do it. And especially he is letting Hezekiah know what the result would be of his trusting in such alliances rather than in Yahweh Himself. His words may well have been heeded. If this was prior to the rebellion of around 713 BC (although it may have been later) we learn from Assyrian sources that Sargon of Assyria was aware of the rebellion and of the possible participants in it, but when he moved down and savagely crushed the rebellion (Isa 20:1) over a period of three years Judah appears to have come out of it unscathed, which suggests that Hezekiah had not committed himself. And when the rebel king of Ashdod fled to Egypt for sanctuary, the brave Pharaoh handed him over to Sargon.
If it was at that time Shabaka was trying to keep in with Assyria so that any part he had had in negotiations were only perfunctory. It was only later that Shebitku took positive action and sent his brother Tirhakah to oppose Assyria positively (Isa 37:9), an attempt which proved a failure, or at the best only partially successful. (Our knowledge of history is based on sources which are not always reliable. Assyria claimed victory but withdrew, which suggests that it was not a resounding one. We do not have Egypt’s side of the story).
Isa 18:7
‘In that time will a present be brought to Yahweh of hosts,
From a people tall and smooth,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onwards,
A nation which metes out and treads down,
Whose land the rivers divide,
To the place of the name of Yahweh of hosts,
The Mount Zion.’
This probably initially has in mind gifts brought by the Cushite ambassadors, either at that time, or later, when the new rebellion was planned, seen as handed over to Yahweh and put in the temple treasury, and again handed over with the complimentary phrases which probably originated from the Cushites themselves. In that case he is simply saying that it had been useless to try to bribe Yahweh with gifts.
We may, however, see in it an indication from Isaiah that they too in the future, after the failure of the rebellion with its devastating results for the participants (‘in that time’), will submit to Yahweh and worship Him (not necessarily immediately). See Act 8:26-39. (As in chapter 7 of the sign of Immanuel, the fact that it would certainly one day happen, however far distant in time, was to be seen as proof that the rebellion would fail). He sees in a number of these nations who approach Judah/Israel seeking treaties, nations who will one day submit to Yahweh. God’s final purpose for the Gentiles is blessing. Note how in the following chapter the description of what will happen to Egypt in the fairly near future is then capped off with a vision of (to us) the long distant future when Egypt will turn to Yahweh (Isa 19:19-25).
Note.
The picturesque and enigmatic language of this chapter has resulted in many differing interpretations, especially by those who whenever they see the word ‘world’ (which can also mean ‘land’) immediately think of eschatological ideas. In our view the above satisfactorily and reasonably in its context expounds its meaning. But certainly some of the themes are in one way or another later applied eschatologically (e.g. Rev 14:14-19; Rev 19:17-18), and Isaiah’s prophecies were undoubtedly the seedbed of eschatology, for he saw both near and far as one whole (which from his point of view it was).
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 18:1-7 Judgment upon Ethiopia Isa 18:1-7 contains Isaiah’s prophecy against Ethiopia.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecies Against the Nations Isa 13:1 to Isa 27:13 records prophecies against twelve nations, culminating with praise unto the Lord. God planted the nation of Israel in the midst of the nations as a witness of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. Instead of embracing God’s promises and commandments to mankind, the nations rejected Israel and their God, then they participated in Israel’s destruction. Although God judges His people, He also judged these nations, the difference being God promised to restore and redeem Israel, while the nations received no future hope of restoration in their prophecies; yet, their opportunity for restoration is found in Israel’s rejection when God grafts the Church into the vine of Israel (Rom 11:11-32). The more distant nations played little or no role in Israel’s idolatry, demise, and divine judgment, so they are not listed in this passage of Scripture.
It is important to note in prophetic history that Israel’s judgment is followed by judgment upon the nations; and Israel’s final restoration is followed by the restoration of the nations and the earth. Thus, some end time scholars believe that the events that take place in Israel predict parallel events that are destined to take place among the nations.
Here is a proposed outline:
1. Judgment upon Babylon Isa 13:1 to Isa 14:27
2. Judgment upon Philistia Isa 14:28-32
3. Judgment upon Moab Isa 15:1 to Isa 16:14
4. Judgment upon Damascus Isa 17:1-14
5. Judgment upon Ethiopia Isa 18:1-7
6. Judgment upon Egypt Isa 19:1-25
7. Prophecy Against Ethiopia & Egypt Isa 20:1-6
8. Judgment upon the Wilderness of the Sea Isa 21:1-10
9. Judgment upon Dumah Isa 21:11-12
10. Judgment upon Arabia Isa 21:13-17
11. Judgment upon Judah Isa 22:1-25
12. Judgment upon Tyre Isa 23:1-18
13. Judgment upon the Earth Isa 24:1-23
14. Praise to God for Israel’s Restoration Isa 25:1 to Isa 27:13
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecy against Ethiopia.
v. 1. Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, v. 2. that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, v. 3. All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye, v. 4. For so the Lord said unto me, I will take My rest, and I will consider in My dwelling-place, v. 5. For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, v. 6. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, v. 7. In that time,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 18:1-7
THE HOMAGE OF ETHIOPIA TO JEHOVAH. Amid the general excitement caused by the advance of Assyria, Ethiopia also is stirred, and stirred to its furthest limits. The king sends messengers in beats upon the canals and rivers to summon his troops to his standard (Isa 18:1, Isa 18:2). The earth stands agaze to see the result of the approaching collision (Isa 18:3); but God rests calmly in heaven while events are ripening (Isa 18:4, Isa 18:5). When the time comes he will strike the blowAssyria will be given to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field (Isa 18:6). Then Ethiopia will make an act of homage to Jehovah by the sending of a present to Jerusalem (Isa 18:7). The time seems to be that immediately preceding the great invasion of Sennacherib, when Shabatok the Ethiopian was King of Egypt, and Tirhakah (Tahark) either Crown Prince under him, or more probably Lord Paramount of Egypt over him, and reigning at Napata.
Isa 18:1
Woe to the land; rather, Ho for the land! (comp. Isa 17:12). Shadowing with wings; literally, either the land of the shadow of wings or the land of the noise of wings, most probably the latter. Allusion is thought to be made to the swarms of buzzing flies, especially the tsetse, with which Ethiopia abounds. At the same time, these swarms are, perhaps, intended to be taken as emblems of the hosts of warriors which Ethiopia can send forth (comp. Isa 7:18). Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. The prophet cannot be supposed to have had more than a vague knowledge of African geography. He seems, however, robe aware that Ethiopia is a land of many rivers (see Baker’s ‘Nile Tributaries’), and he assumes that the dominion of the Ethiopian kings extends even beyond these rivers to the south of them. His object is, as Mr. Cheyne says, “to emphasize the greatness of Ethiopia.” It may be questioned, however, whether the dominion of the Ethiopian kings of the time extended so far as he supposed. The seat of their power was Napata, now Gebel Berkal, in the great bend of the Nile between lat. 18 and 19 N.; and its southern limit was probably Khar-toum and the line of the Blue Nile.
Isa 18:2
That sendeth ambassadors; rather, perhaps, messengers, as the word is translated in Isa 57:9 and Pro 25:13. They are sent, apparently, by the king to his own people. By the sea. “The sea” must in this place necessarily mean the Nile, which is called “the sea” in Nah 3:8 certainly, and probably in Isa 19:5. Vessels of papyrus could not possibly have been employed in the very difficult navigation of the Red Sea. Vessels of bulrushes. That some of the boats used upon the Nile were constructed of the papyrus (which is a sort of bulrush) we learn from Herodotus (2. 96), Theophrastus (‘Hist. Plant.,’ 4.9), Plutarch (‘De Isid. et Osir.,’ 18), Pliny (Hist. ‘Nat.,’ 6.22), and Lucan (‘Pharsal.,’ 4.136). They are represented occasionally on the Egyptian monuments. Saying. This word is interpolated by our translators, and gives a wrong sense. It is the prophet that addresses the messengers, not the king who sends them. To a nation scattered and peeled; rather, tall and polished, or tall and sleek. The word translated “scattered” means properly “drawn out,” and seems to be applied here to the physique of the Ethiopians, whose stature is said to have been remarkable. The other epithet refers to the glossy skin of the people. A people terrible from their beginning hitherto; The Israelites first knew the Ethiopians as soldiers when they formed a part of the army brought by Shishak (Sheshonk I.) against Rehoboam, about B.C. 970 (2Ch 12:3). They had afterwards experience of their vast numbers, when Zerah made his attack upon Asa; but on this occasion they succeeded in defeating them (2Ch 14:9-13). It was not till about two centuries after this that the power of Ethiopia began to be really formidable to Egypt; and the “miserable Cushites,” as they had been in the habit of calling them, acquired the preponderating influence in the valley of the Nile, and under Piankhi, Shabak, Shabatek, and Tirhakah (Tahark), reduced Egypt to subjection. Isaiah, perhaps, refers to their rise under Piankhi as “their beginning.” A nation meted out and trodden down; rather, a nation of meting out and trampling; i.e. one accustomed to mete out its neighbors’ bounds with a measuring-line, and to trample other nations under its feet. Whose land the rivers have spoiled; rather, whose land rivers despoil. The deposit of mud, which fertilizes Egypt, is washed by the rivers from Ethiopia, which is thus continually losing large quantities of rich son. This fact was well known to the Greeks (Herod; 2.12, ad fin.), and there is no reason why Isaiah should not have been acquainted with it.
Isa 18:3
All ye inhabitants of the world. From exhorting the messengers to hasten on their errand, Isaiah turns to the nations generally, and bids them attend to a coming signalan ensign is about to be raised, a trumpet is about to be soundedlet them gaze and hearken; the result will be well worth noting. The imagery is not to be taken literally, but in the same way as the notices in Isa 11:10, Isa 11:12; Isa 13:2. When he lifteth up an ensign when he bloweth a trumpet; rather, when an ensign is lifted up when a trumpet sounds. On the mountains. Wherever the great event took place, the signal for it was given on the mountains of Judea (see 2Ki 19:20-34).
Isa 18:4
For so; rather, for thus. The word koh is prospective. I will take my rest, and I will consider; or, I will be still and look on. The rest of God is contrasted with the bustle and hurry of the Ethiopians and Assyrians. God “sits in his holy seat,” calm and tranquil, knowing what the result is about to be, and when it will be; he waits while the influences of heat and moisture, sunshine and dewhis own agenciesripen Assyria’s schemes, impassive, taking no part. Then, suddenly, he takes the part described in the latter portion of Isa 18:5, “cuts off the shoots and hews down the branches.” Like a clear heat upon herbs, etc.; rather, while there is clear heat in the sunshine, while there is a cloud of dew in the harvest-warmth; i.e. while surrounding influences are such as must favor the growth of Assyria’s power and pride.
Isa 18:5
For afore the harvest. God can rest thus tranquil, because he can step in at any time; and this he is about to do, before Assyria reaps her harvest. When the bud is perfect, etc.; rather, when the blossom is past, and the green grape is becoming a ripening bunch. He shall cut off (comp. Isa 10:33, Isa 10:34). The metaphor is slightly varied in this place, to suit the imagery of the preceding clause, where Assyria has been represented as a vine-stock. Formerly her “boughs” were to be “lopped;” now her “branches” and “sprigs” or “sprouts” are to be cut away with pruning-hooks.
Isa 18:6
They shall be left together unto the fowls. At length imagery is dropped. The vine is shown to be an army, slaughtered all “together,” and left a prey to kites and vultures, jackals and hyaenas. Shall summer shall winter. They will furnish food to the beasts and birds of prey for the remainder of the year.
Isa 18:7
In that time shall the present be brought; rather, a present. It would not be at all improbable that Tirkakah should, after the destruction of Sennacherib’s army, send a gift to the temple of the Jews, either as a recognition of the miracle as wrought by Jehovah, or simply as a thank offering. Necho sent the armor in which he had fought at Megiddo to the temple of Apollo at Branchidae, near Miletus, as a thank offering (Herod; 2.159). We have, however, no historical record of Tirkakah’s present as sent. Of a people; rather, from a people (compare the next clause, which supplies the ellipse of the preposition). (For the rest of the verse, see notes on Isa 18:2.)
HOMILETICS
Isa 18:1-4
The contrast of Divine calm with human bustle, hurry, and excitement.
When men take a matter in hand wherein they feel an interest, and set themselves either to carry out a certain design of their own, or to frustrate the designs of others, nothing is more remarkable than the “fuss” that they make about it. Heaven and earth are moved, so to speak, for the accomplishment of the desired end; the entire nation is excited, stirred, thrilled to its lowest depths; a universal eagerness prevails; all is noise, clamor, haste, bustle, tumult, whirl, confusion. Assyria’s “noise” is compared (Isa 17:12) to the roar of the sea, and the rushing of mighty waters. Ethiopia’s stir is like the sound of many wings (Isa 18:1). Even Cyrus, though he has a Divine mission, cannot set about it without “the noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together” (Isa 13:4). It is in vain that men are told to “stand still and see the salvation of God” (Exo 14:13), or admonished that “in quietness and confidence should be their strength” (Isa 30:15); they cannot bring themselves to act on the advice tendered. Great minds indeed are comparatively quiet and tranquil; but even they are liable upon occasion to be swept away by the prevailing wave of excited feeling, and dragged, as it were, from their moorings into a turbid ocean. And the mass of mankind is wholly without calm or stability. It trembles, flutters, rushes hither and thither, mistakes activity for energy, and “fussiness” for the power of achievement. This condition of things results from three weaknesses in man:
1. His want of patience.
2. His want of confidence in himself.
3. His want of confidence in God.
I. MAN‘S WANT OF PATIENCE. Man desires to obtain whatever end he sets himself at once. The boy is impatient to be grown up, the subaltern would at once be a general, the clerk a partner, the student a professor of his science. Men “make haste to be rich” (Pro 28:20), and overshoot the mark, and fall hack into poverty. They strive to become world-famous when they are mere tyros, and put fetch ambitions writings which only show their ignorance. They fail to recognize the force of the proverb, that “everything comes to those who wait.” To toil long, to persevere, to make a small advance day after daythis seems to them a poor thing, an unsatisfactory mode of procedure. They would reach the end per saltum, “by a bound.” Hence their haste. Too often “most haste is worst speed” “Vaulting ambition cloth o’er leap itself, and falls on the other side.”
II. MAN‘S WANT OF CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF. He who is sure of himself can afford to wait. He knows that he will succeed in the end; what matters whether a little sooner or a little later? But the bulk of men are not sure of themselves; they misdoubt their powers, capacities, perseverance, steadiness, reserve fund of energy. Hence their spasmodic efforts, hurried movements, violent agitations, frantic rushings hither and thither. If they do not gain their end at once, they despair of ever attaining it. They are conscious of infinite weakness in themselves, and feel that they cannot tell what a day may bring forth in the way of defeat and disappointment. They say that it is necessary to strike while the iron is hot; but their real reason for haste is that they question whether their ability to strike will not have passed away if they delay ever so little.
III. MAN‘S WANT OF CONFIDENCE IS GOD. He who feels that God is on his side has no need to disquiet himself. He will not fear the powers of darkness; he will not be afraid of what flesh can do unto him. But comparatively few men have this feeling. Either they put the thoughts of God altogether away from them, or they view him as an enemy, or they misdoubt, at any rate, his sympathy with themselves. Mostly they feel that they do not deserve his sympathy. They cannot “rest in the Lord,” and they cannot find rest outside of him. Hence they remain in perpetual disturbance and unrest. Strangely in contrast with man’s unquiet is God’s immovable calm and unruffled tranquility. “The Lord said, I will take my rest” (Isa 18:4). None can really resist his will, and hence he has no need to trouble himself if resistance is attempted. “The fierceness of man” will always “turn to his praise.” Time is no object with him who is above time, “whose goings have been from the days of eternity” (Mic 5:2). In silence and calm he accomplishes his everlasting purposes. Himself at rest in the still depths of his unchangeable nature, it is he alone who can give his creatures rest. As they grow mere like to him, they will grow more and more tranquil, until the time comes when they will enter finally into that rest which “remaineth for his people” (Heb 4:9).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 18:1-7
Homage of Ethiopia to Jehovah.
I. AGITATION IN ETHIOPIA. The oracle opens with a scene full of life. Hosts of Egyptian and Ethiopian warriors are seen, like buzzing swarms of flies moving to and fro. Messengers are speeding in papyrus boats to announce the approach of the Assyrians. The Ethiopians are described as a nation “tall and polished,” terrible, strong, and all-subduing, whose land rivers cut through. A sense of mystery and greatness hung about this! and from the earliest timesthe land of the source of the Nile, opened up by our countryman Spoke and others. The prophet lifts up his voice to this people. A signal will be seen on the mountains, the blast of a trumpet will be heard. There will be symptoms of the Divine presence, restraining, overruling the wrath of men for ends of Divine wisdom. “When wars are carried on, every one sees clearly what is done; but the greater part of men ascribe the beginning and end of them to chance. On the other hand, Isaiah shows that all these things ought to be ascribed to God, because he will display his power in a new and extraordinary manner; for sometimes he works so as to conceal his hand, and to prevent his work from being perceived by men, but sometimes he displays his hand in it in such a manner that all men are constrained to acknowledge it; and that is what the prophet meant” (Calvin).
II. THE WAITING OF JEHOVAH. Impressive is the contrast between the noise and stir and agitation below, and the calmness above. Jehovah “will be still”as the blue sky behind a moving host of clouds, above a surging sea below. In the second psalm we have the picture of him sitting in the heavens and “laughing” at the vain attempts of the enemies of the Messianic kingdom. There are three thoughts here.
1. The repose of God. It seems as if we must ever contemplate him resting from his toils of designing and creating and providingentered on an eternal sabbath. The consciousness of vast force, sleeping, held in reserve, we must conceive of in God. Hence his stillness amidst our excitement. At times when vague movements are passing through the bosom of society, many voices rend the air with opposing cries, deep questions agitate the heart and conscience of thoughtful men. We long to hear the one infallible voice, to see the signal extended; and yet “God speaks not a word.” Perhaps it may be said, a still small voice, saying, “Be still, and know that I am God!” may be heard by acuter spiritual ears. His stillness must be the effect of infinite strength and profoundest confidence.
2. His contemplativeness. He “looks on in his mansion.” Not as the Epicureans represented the gods of the heathen, sitting apart, reckless of the weal or woe of men; but intently watchful of the development of things, the ripening of good, the gathering up of evil towards the day of sifting and judgment. In a powerful biblical image, “his eyes are in every place, beholding the good and the evil.” And our thought, to be in harmony with his, must in many matters and at many times fall into the mood of contemplation. Instead of seeking to theorize rashly upon the strange mixture of tendencies life at any troubled epoch presents, it were well to possess our souls in patienceto look on and “let both grow together till the harvest.”
3. His waiting attitude. “While there is clear heat in sunshine, while there are clouds of dew in harvest-heat,” he is waiting “till the fruit of Assyrian annoyance is all but ripe.” The heat and the clouds of dew hasten the powers in nature; there are corresponding forces at work in the moral world, seen by him to be working towards certain results. God can wait because he knows. And may not we in a measure compose our souls into that attitude of waiting? Some things we, too, know; about many others we can say, “God knows,” and so leave them. Especially so in times or in moods of alarm. In the present case men below see one picture of the future; quite another is seen by God above. To them a vast black cloud is gathering over the horizon; he sees the sun that will presently smite it asunder. They see a fell harvest of woe for themselves ripening; he has the pruning-knife in his hand, with which he will make havoc among the growth. They see an immense host of irresistible warriors; he the birds of prey and the beasts that will soon be feeding upon their remains. Let us think of the immense reserves of force at the disposal of Jehovah. The statesman, in times of alarm, assures a trembling country that the “resources of civilization” are not yet exhausted; yet they have their limit. Behind them lie the absolutely inexhaustible resources of the living and eternal God. Let our hearts be stayed on him, and all will be well.
III. THE EFFECT ON ETHIOPIA. They will bring a tribute to Jehovah Sabaoth, to the Lord of hosts, in his seat on Mount Zion. It is he who has done these things. We find the like impressive picture passing before a prophetic eye in Psa 68:32 : “Kingdoms of splendor come out of Egypt, Ethiopia stretches out her hands to God.” The gathering of so glorious a people into the true Church is to be the result of the manifestation of the power of Israel’s God.
LESSONS.
1. The providence of God over the Church. “He shows that he takes care of the Church, and that, though he determines to chastise it, still he comes forward at the proper season to hinder it from perishing, and displays his power in opposition to tyrants and other enemies, that they may not overthrow it or succeed in accomplishing what they imagined to be in their powers. In order, therefore, to excite them to patience, he not only distinguishes them from the Ethiopians, but likewise reminds them that God mitigates his judgments for their preservation” (Calvin).
2. The indestructibility of the spiritual life. This must not be confounded with the institutions in which it dwells for a time. But, understanding the “Church“ in the spiritual or mystical sense, it cannot perish. Calvin wrote in his day, “The Church is not far from despair, being plundered, scattered, and everywhere crushed and trodden underfoot. What must be done in straits so numerous and so distressing? We ought to lay hold on these promises so as to believe that God will still preserve the Church. The body may be torn, shivered into fragments and scattered; still, by his Spirit, he will easily unite the members, and will never allow the remembrance and calling on his Name to perish.”
3. The self-concealment of God. The trial of faith in all ages. Oh that he would show his face, bare his arm, disclose his majesty, exert his power, appear as Judge to end once for all the strifes of the world! But we must learn to say, “God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world.” At the proper season he will come forth. “If he instantly cut the wicked down and took them away like a sprouting blade of corn, his power would not be so manifest, nor would his goodness be so fully ascertained, as when he permits them to grow to a vast height, to swell and blossom, that they may afterwards fall by their own weight, or, like large and fat ears of corn, cuts them down with pruning-knives.”
4. The unity of religion the prophetic ideal. Mount Zion was its ancient symbol; for us it is not Rome, nor any other city or mount,it is the human heart, with all its pathos, its faith, hope, and love, its regenerate life and aspirations, it is one spirit universal in mankind.J.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 18:1-6
The patience of power.
The most striking and distinctive truth this chapter contains is that of the patience of Divine power, which permits evil to rise and to mature, and which, at the right moment, effectually intervenes. But there are other points beside this; they are
I. THE MISDIRECTION OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. Whatever may be the right translation and the true application of these verses, it is clear that reference is made to a warlike peoplea people “terrible” to their neighbors, a people “of command” or “treading underfoot,” aggressive and victorious. It shows how far we have fallen from our first estate and from the condition for which we were created, that it does not, strike us as strange that this should be the description of a people; that the number of nations whom it characterizes is so great that we fail to identify the nation which is in the prophet’s vision. Under sin it has become common, not to say natural, that a nation should be “terrible,” should be treading down or crushing, and full of commands to its neighbors. But to how much better purpose might the strong peoples of the earth devote their strength! God has made rich provision for the peaceable and fruitful exercise of our largest powers. There are rivers and seas (Isa 18:2) for travelling, exploration, commerce; there is vegetation (bulrushes, papyrus), which may be made to carry men’s bodies, or which, by the exercise of human ingenuity, may be made to convey their thoughts to distant lands and remotest times; there is land and there are seeds, there is sunshine and there is dew, which can be made to produce golden harvests that will satisfy man’s wants and minister to his most refined tastes (Isa 18:4, Isa 18:5); there are birds and beasts (Isa 18:6), with whose habits men may become intelligently familiar; there is wealth beneath the soil in precious metals, which can not only be raised and collected to enrich the homes of men, but which can be conveyed, as the tribute of piety, to the house of the Lord (Isa 18:7). But, despising and neglecting such materials and such ambitions as these, nations have aspired to rule over othershave perfected themselves in all the arts and enginery of war, have congratulated themselves on nothing so much as in being “terrible” to those on the other side the river or across the mountain range.
II. THE COMPLETENESS OF MAN‘S OVERTHROW IN THE DAY OF DIVINE ANGER. The destruction threatened (Isa 18:5, Isa 18:6) probably refers to that of the army of Sennacherib; but if the reference be to some other national calamity, it certainly points to an overthrow, signal and fearful, from which the imagination turns away oppressed. So has it been found, both by individual men and nations, that when God arises to judgment, their feeble defenses are scattered to the winds, and their doom is utterly irreversible by anything they can do to mend it (see Psa 2:1-12.; 63:17-20; Psa 92:6, Psa 92:9).
III. THE LESSON OF GOD‘S JUDGMENTS. The result in this case is seen in the bringing of a tribute to the Lord (Isa 18:7). If God puts forth his power in overwhelming retribution, it is, chiefly if not wholly, that they who witness it (men or nations) may repent of their own misdeeds or impiety, and may return unto the Lord in penitence, in prayer, in consecration; for the most acceptable “present” that can be “brought unto the Lord of hosts” is the humbled, believing, obedient heart.
IV. THE PATIENCE OF DIVINE POWER. (Isa 18:4.) The Lord said, “I will fake my rest [I will be calm or still], I will consider in my dwelling-place [I will look on from my habitation] like a clear heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” God will not be provoked into hurried and impatient judgments; he will retain a Divine composure, he will manifest the patience which belongs to conscious power; the heavens should be as still as on the calmest summer day while evil was working to its bitter end, while sin was advancing to its doom. Here is a contrast to us and here are lessons for us. We, in our finite feebleness, are often impatient in spirit and hurried in action. We are afraid that, if we do not strike at once, we shall not have time to strike at all, or that our resources of retribution will fall, or that our adversary will be out of our reach. God can entertain no such fear and be affected by no such thought.
1. All time is at his command.
2. All resources are in his hands.
3. The men (nations) whom he may find it needful to chastise can never be beyond the reach of his power.
Hence his calmness in place of our confusion, his patience in contrast with our feverish restlessness.
(1) Let not the wicked presume on Divine disregard; God will put forth his hand in punishment at his own chosen time.
(2) Let not the righteous be surprised or disheartened by his delay; he does not count time by our chronometry; he has not the reasons for haste which urge us to immediate action; the hour of his merciful intervention will arrive in time.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 18:1
Man’s energy put in place of trust in God.
This comes to view in a more precise translation of the passage. The King of Ethiopia, who was nominally also King of Egypt, alarmed by the near approach of the Assyrians, is aroused to the exhibition of great energy, and sends messengers in the light river-vessels to spread the news through the empire as rapidly as possible, and call the troops of all his dependent nations to his standard. Geikie translates, or paraphrases the passage thus: “O land of the buzz of fly-swarmsemblems of countless armiesby the rivers of Ethiopia, which art sending messengers upon the seas, and in swift, light, papyrus boats along all your waters, to gather allies, and muster all the force of your empire: Go back to your homes, ye swift messengersgo back to Ethiopiathe tall and strong race, terrible in war from their rise till now,the nation very strong and all-subduing, whose land is seamed with rivers! Jehovah, alone, will destroy the invader!” The energy of the Ethiopian king is so far commended, but the prophet urges that in this case it is not needed, for God proposes to take to himself all the glory of driving back the Assyrian invasion.
I. MAN‘S ENERGY IS CALLED FOR. Whatsoever a man findeth to do he should do “with his might,” “heartily.” Success in life greatly depends on the strength and vigor in our touch of life’s duties and claims. Energy includes strength of will, decision, promptness, perseverance, power to overcome obstacles and hindrances, and fertility of resources. Energy is the quality most commended in business life; and it is found to make up for the absence of actual abilities. The man of energy compels life to yield him some of its best. It is thought of as a characteristic of American business life, and is illustrated in the man who put together the blackened rafters and boards of his burnt warehouse, and commenced business again before the great fire was fully quenched, putting up this for a sign, “William D. Kerfoot; all gone, save wife, children, and energy.” However much this energy may be a peculiarity of individual disposition, it is also subject to culture, and may be nourished into strength by a firm self-mastery of our life and habits. Exercise thyself thereunto.
II. MAN‘S ENERGY IS CONSISTENT WITH DEPENDENCE ON GOD. Only the weak man fails to make try harmonize with trust. Here the point may be fully argued and illustrated, that the submission which God seeks is no slavish lying down to bear, which is the Islam, or submission of Mohammedanism, but the submission of an active and cheerful obedience, which expects God’s will to be doing rather than bearing, and carries a noble spirit of watching for God and waiting on him, into every detail of life. To suffer and submit is no very great triumph; to carry the spirit of submission at the heart of our work is the sublime victory of Christian life. And just this is the glory of the energy illustrated in the Apostle Paul. To men’s view “beside himself;” his secret this, “To me to live is Christ.”
III. MAN‘S ENERGY MUST NEVER BE PUT IN THE PLACE OF GOD. But just in this the worldly man is constantly failing. “This is great Babylon, which I have builded.” “I will pull down my barns and build greater.” “See this business which I have established.” “My might, and the strength of my arm, have gotten me this victory.” Nothing tends more readily to separate a man from God, and God from a man, than life-success attending energy. And of this great peril the Christian man needs to beware. Even he may find that he has dethroned God from the rule of his life, and raised up in his place the old idol of self, dressed in the garments of “energy.”
IV. SOMETIMES MAN‘S ENERGY MUST BE PUT ASIDE, THAT GOD ALONE MAY WORK. As in this case, the Ethiopian king must stop his hurrying messengers, and be still; for Jehovah would work the needed rescue. There are times m our lives when we cannot work, when we must not work; and in those times we learn how to put energy and enterprise into their right place. God puts us in his school, and teaches us the hard lesson of practically uniting “energy” with “dependence.” And yet this is but the same lesson as joining harmoniously together “faith and “works;” or, as the apostle expresses it, “working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”R.T.
Isa 18:4
God can wait.
“I will rest.” God was apparently inactive and unobservant, while the Assyrian was maturing his plans and taking all his first steps. But God watches the influences gathering round the growing-time of the trees, though men trace his working almost only in their fruitage. The words of this passage “paint with marvelous vividness the calmness and deliberation of the workings of Divine judgments. God is at once unhasting and unresting. He dwells in his resting-place (i.e. his palace or throne) and watches the ripening of the fruit which he is about to gather. While there is a clear heat in sunshine, while there is a dew-cloud in harvest-heat, through all phenomenal changes, he waits still” (Dean Plumptre). The figure of a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest is well illustrated by Thomson, in ‘The Land and the Book,’ who writes of a cloud which “absolutely reposed upon the vast harvest-fields of Philistia, lying on the corn serene and quiet as infancy asleep. I have never seen such a cloud in this country except in the heat of harvest.” Cheyne brings out the point of this verse. “In the midst of all the excitement, of the Assyrians on the one hand, and of the Ethiopians on the other, Jehovah is calmly waiting till the fruit of Assyrian arrogance is all but ripe. Favoring circumstances are hastening the process (clear heat, etc.), and when perfection seems just within reach, God will interpose in judgment.” God can waitquietly waituntil the fullness of time has come. God reproaches our restlessness by his example, for our time is “always ready,” and by our impatience and failure in self-control we spoil a thousand things. This subject may be opened in the following way.
I. IN SECURING MATERIAL ENDS THERE IS OFTEN GREAT NEED FOR WAITING. Illustrate from the failure of the general, because he did not wait until preparations were complete; or from the farmer who loses his crops by cutting them too soon, before the weather has become settled; or the artist who cannot wait to give his work the perfecting touches of his own criticism; or the pastor who injures the young blade by worrying anxiety over it, and cannot wait to let young soul-life gather quiet strength in its own simple ways. The wisdom of waiting is harder to learn and practice than the wisdom of acting and working. Yet the motto, by no means untruthfully, says, “All things come round to him who can wait.”
II. IN SECURING MORAL ENDS THERE IS OFTEN ABSOLUTE NEED FOB WAITING. Because moral processes can never bear forcing. They vary in different individuals. The lesson of virtue which one person learns at once, another grasps only as a final result of the training of a long life. This point may be opened up in relation to the work of mothers and teachers. They seek moral ends. They are often distressed by the slowness of the approach to the end. They must learn the importance of active, watchful waiting. And in the highest sense, in relation to God’s moral working, we all need to hear the voice that pleads, “Wait thou his time.” Marvelous is the long-suffering patience of him who waited while the ark was building, and waited through the ages until the “fullness of times” for his Christ had come.
III. IN MAN WAITING MAY BE EITHER STRENGTH OR WEAKNESS. It may be “masterly inactivity,” and it may be that “procrastination” which loses golden opportunities.
IV. IN GOD WAITING IS ALWAYS WISDOM AND STRENGTH. So we never need fret under it, or make mystery of it, or think untrustful things about it. God acts on the absolutely best moment, and we should wait on for ages, and never want a thing until God’s best moment for it has come. Because God can wait, we should trust.R.T.
Isa 18:5, Isa 18:6
God can work.
When his time has come. Then, before man can do his harvesting work; when the blossoming and the growing times are over, through which God had waited; when the fruit becomes the full ripe grape,then God will show how he can work, putting in his implements, and proving himself to be a Deliverer and a Judge. God’s working here referred to is doubtless the sudden, unexpected, and complete overthrow of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib, which came at the time when it would prove absolutely overwhelming, and perfectly effective as a deliverance. Matthew Henry states the case in this way: “When the Assyrian army promises itself a plentiful harvest in the taking of Jerusalem and the plundering of that rich city, when the bud of that project is perfect, before the harvest is gathered in, while the sour grape of their enmity to Hezekiah and his people is ripening in the flower, and the design is just ready to be put into execution, God shall destroy that army as easily as the husbandman cuts off the vine with pruning-hooks, or because the grape is sour and good for nothing, and will not be cured, takes away and cuts down the branches. This seems to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian army by a destroying angel, when the dead bodies of the soldiers were scattered like the branches and sprigs of a wild vine, which the husbandman has cut to pieces.”
I. GOD‘S WORKING IS WELL–TIMED. This is the point made specially prominent here. What was needed, for the due impression of Judah and the surrounding nations, was some startling deliverance; something that should be at once complete, and yet should be manifestly beyond man’s accomplishing. Such a working must be exactly timed. When the success of Assyria seemed assured, when its prey seemed within its grasp, and when men’s hearts were failing them for fear,just then the wild hot Simoom blast swept over the army, and as in a moment there were heaps of dead men, and few escaped to tell the awful story. For the timeliness of God’s judgment-workings find illustration in the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, the extirpation of the Canaanites, the captivities, and the final siege of Jerusalem.
II. GOD‘S WORKING IS FULL OF ENERGY. Ever setting before us the example of thoroughness in the doing of whatever work has to be done. This is in great part the reason why, in making Israel his executioner, God required Israel to treat everything belonging to the Canaanites as accursed, and doomed to destruction. It was, for the first ages, a Divine lesson in thoroughness, energy, and promptitude. God never works with a slack hand, and his servants must not.
III. GOD‘S WORKING IS ALWAYS EFFECTIVE TO ITS END. And that, not because it is almighty working, so much as because it is all-wise working. Power is quite a secondary thing to adaptation. A thing fitted to its end will accomplish it, and it will be accomplished better through the fitness than by any displays of power. The end here designed was an adequate impression of the sole and sovereign rights of Jehovah, and a loud call to the nations to put their trust in him. The overthrow of a mighty army, in the fullness of its pride, by purely naturalwhich are purely Divineforces, was exactly adapted to secure this end. Illustrate by the moral impression produced by great and destructive earthquakes. When the end of God’s working is the persuasion of his fatherly love, then we find his means marvelously adapted and effective. “He gave his Son, his only begotten Son.” And herein we say is love, “not that we loved God, but that lie loved us, and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins.” Be it work of judgment or work of mercy, of this we may be quite sureGod accomplishes that which he pleases, and his work prospers in that to which he sends it.R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 18:1. Woe to the land The fourth member of this prophesy is contained in the present chapter; which, being another part of the second section, connects with the preceding most closely, as containing an enarration of the former member; that is, of the Assyrian punishment, figuratively set forth in the manner of our prophet; for he commands ambassadors to be sent to the Egyptians, who not only reverenced but feared the Assyrian power; as also to other nations, to inform them concerning this great work of the divine justice to be effected in the most proper season, and to invite them to this tremendous spectacle. This is Vitringa’s idea of the present prophesy, which is extremely obscure, and has been very differently interpreted. The scene of it, says he, is fixed in Judaea, at that time which immediately preceded the Assyrian overthrow, when the mountains nearest to Jerusalem were occupied by the Assyrian forces, whose standards were erected upon them, and they now threatened destruction to the city. The prophet sees the tents removed, the hurry of the forces, the standards moving on the mountains, and all things prepared to execute the destructive purposes of the Assyrian. But God had fixed upon this time as most proper to execute the judgment decreed on the haughty enemy. He commands the Egyptians therefore first, (Isa 18:1-2.) who feared from the Assyrians, for themselves, the same things which the Jews feared, and then all the other nations of the earth to be informed by swift messengers, that they should diligently attend to this period of time, and expect this specimen of the divine judgment. The parts of the prophesy therefore are, first, A declaration of the divine judgment decreed for the Assyrians, to be made to the Egyptians and other nations: Isa 18:1-3. Secondly, A description of that judgment to be inflicted upon these enemies of the people of God in the most proper season: Isa 18:4-6. Thirdly, The consequence of this judgment: Isa 18:7. The first part contains, I. An address to Egypt, whereby that nation is excited to attention, and prepared to receive some messenger of great importance; which address is composed with so great art, that the Egyptian superstition is at the same time ridiculed in it; Isa 18:1 to the middle of Isa 18:2. II. A figurative proposition, concerning that messenger to the Egyptians now attentive and ready to receive him;latter part of the second verse. III. A similar declaration to the other nations of the earth, Isa 18:3. Egypt is addressed here, and spoken of under three of its attributes: in the first place, it is said to be shadowing or shadowed with wings, because it is situated between two mountains on its eastern and western side, which as it were overshadow it; and as Egypt is most narrow towards Ethiopia, these two mountains overshadowing it from the east of the Nile towards Arabia, and from the west towards Lybia, unfold themselves more and more, in the manner of two wings, from the south towards the north, or, from Syene towards Arabia; as if the prophet had said, “Hearken, O land, which art defended on either side by great mountains overshadowing thee, and expanding themselves gradually more and more, after the manner of wings, from the south towards the north.” The word kanap, rendered wings, signifies the extremity or border of any thing, and is so used by our prophet, chap. Isa 11:12 Isa 24:16 in the original. This interpretation is exactly agreeable to history. See Strabo, lib. 17: p. 543. Herod. lib. 2: p. 103. The second attribute is, that it is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; whereby Vitringa understands the Nile, and the rivers Astabor and Astapus, which flow into it from Ethiopia: great and celebrated rivers, which very much increase the waters of the Nile. The prophet the rather denominates Egypt from this epithet, because at this time it was under the power of the Ethiopians. The third character is in the second verse, that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters; which words contain a criterion of the people of the land of Egypt; as if the prophet had said, “As you, Egyptians, are accustomed, in little barks and vessels made of papyrus, which are extremely quick in their motion, to send ambassadors or letters, which bear your commands to your confederates; prepare your vessels, which may bear my commands, &c.” Vitringa is of opinion, that something farther is referred to in these expressions; namely, a superstitious custom among the Egyptians, who used to send a vessel of papyrus to Byblos, with a letter concerning the death of Adonis, which was lamented by the people of Byblos; a superstition which is mentioned by Ezekiel, chap. Isa 8:14. The reader will find this matter explained at large in Vitringa. After the preface, by which Egypt is excited to attention, a third person is here introduced, who supplies the messengers with the command to be borne through all the creeks and parts of the Nile to the Egyptians, to inform them of the judgment to be inflicted on the Assyrian, the enemy of them and of the Ethiopians. We are either to suppose God, or the prophet by his command, speaking here. By the swift messengers, we are to understand those vessels above-mentioned, which were the usual and speedy conveyances of their notices and commands; and the inhabitants of Egypt are here described from their true attributes. They are first called a nation scattered, which should rather be rendered a nation protracted, or stretched out. The prophet alludes to the land of Egypt, which, from the north to the south, was stretched out or extended in length, and so inhabited on either side of the Nile. Diodorus says its figure is oblong. It is, secondly, called peeled; depilata, shaven, which very exactly characterises the Egyptians, who in many cases used to shave off all the hair of their body, as ancient historians in general witness. The third character is, A people formidable from their beginning, and still so; which also well suits the Egyptians, whose kingdom was one of the most ancient, and continued long to be extremely formidable. The fourth criterion is, as we render it, a nation meted out; but literally, goi kav kav, a nation of precept and precept; that is, a superstitious nation, and abounding with innumerable rites and religious ceremonies; (see chap. Isa 28:9-10.) which also is well known to have been the case with Egypt. The fifth and sixth criterions are, A nation trodden down, and whose land the rivers have spoiled; literally, A nation of conculcation, or of treading down; that is to say, according to some, “a terrible nation, which hath frequently trodden down others:” But the word may certainly be understood in the passive sense; which seems the more proper, from the clause that follows it, and which should be rendered, whose land the rivers (that is, of the Nile) carry away, or spoil; which is the case when the Nile in its annual overflowings rises above its common height. The prophet, therefore, here alludes to an usual custom among the Egyptians, who, when the Nile had returned to its channel, used to sow their land, and with their cattle tread in their seeds. See Diodor. lib. 1: p. 23. Herodotus, lib. 2: p. 106 and Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
) ETHIOPIA NOW AND IN TIME TO COME
Isaiah 18
) The danger that threatens in the present
Isa 18:1-3
1Woe to the land 1shadowing with wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2That sendeth ambassadors by the sea,
2Even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters,
Saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation 34scattered and peeled,
To a people 5terrible from their beginning hitherto;
6A nation7 8meted out and trodden down,
9 Whose land the rivers have spoiled!
3All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the 10earth,
See ye, when 11he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains;
And when 12he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 18:1. like Isa 17:12. occurs only here in Isaiah. Beside this: in Deu 28:42, with the meaning cricket, cicada; Job 40:31 meaning harpoon (so Called from the clinking); 2Sa 6:5 and Psa 150:5, we find the plural meaning cymbals. Older expositors have taken the word in the sense of the simple shadow, or also, because of the reduplication = double shadow, with supposed reference to the double shadow of the tropics (, Strabo). Both are impossible. The word can only mean stridor, clinking, whizzing, buzz, because this is the underlying sense of every shade of its use.But what are the ? Some have thought of the wings of an army, referring for proof to Isa 8:8. But what would this afford as a characteristic? The same objection lies against the construction grasshopper wings, or sails (LXX.). It is a hardy conjecture to refer this to the wings of the sun, Mal. 3:20 (Mal 4:2) comp. Tac. Germ. 45; Juven. Sat. 14, 279; the Egyptian Sistrum [a kind of cymbal] with two rims or wings, is too insignificant as a characteristic, and cannot be shown to belong to Ethiopia. On the other hand it is quite suitable to call a land that is warm and that abounds with water and rushes, and hence also with winged insects, the land of the whirring wings. The conjecture is very enticing, that the expression is chosen with reference to the Tzaltzala, or Tsetse-fly, which was first described by the Englishman Francis Galton (Exploring expedition in tropical South-Africa, London, Murray, 1854). It is a little fly, in size and form nearly like our house fly, but somewhat lighter colored, of which the natives say that a single bite is sufficient to kill a horse, an ox or a dog; whereas asses and goats suffer no harm from it. But it is not satisfactorily made out whether this resemblance is to be traced to a radical relation or whether it is only an accidental similarity in sound. Comp. in the Ausland 1868, No. 8, p. 192.
Isa 18:2. is to be referred to . The masculine is explained in that while Isa 18:1 means the land proper, in Isa 18:2 it represents more particularly the notion of people: for the messengers are sent by men. Comp. on Isa 15:1. like Isa 19:5; Isa 27:1; Nah 3:8., in the sense of messenger, again in Isa 57:9. part. Pual from trahere, protrahere, extrahere, used again only Pro 13:12, of the , the long-drawn out expectation. Therefore the word here, too, can mean nothing but long-drawn, long-stretched, procerus, lanc. The Sabeans, too, are called, Isa 45:14, [men of extension. Eng. Bib. men of stature]. is to make smooth, bright. It is used of the sword that is not only sharpened, but polished till it flashes (Eze 21:14-16); also of pulling out the hair till the crown is smooth and shining (Lev 13:40 sq.). Comp. moreover 1Ki 7:45; Eze 29:18. In Isaiah the word occurs only once more, Isa 50:6, of the pulling out of the hair. The form stands for , comp. Eze 21:15 sq. ; the construction is the same as 1Sa 20:22; 1Sa 10:3, and . . Only we are surprised that it does not read . But the pron. sep. is used for the sake of emphasis (comp. Gen 27:34; 1Sa 19:23. etc.). And wherefore may it not stand instead of the suffix? The Prophet wishes to mark the point of departure and support of the Ethiopian power, thus he does not write . Analogous is Nah 2:9 (8) (a closed up water pool was Nineveh since its existence; but now the pool runs out, the people of Nineveh flee on all sides). There, too, might have been used. When Stade remarks that it must properly read here , he is correct. But can be used also. On the other hand, according to his explanation, i.e., if should be referred to Israel, it must of necessity read . Or if is to be understood of time, who in the world would know that should point to the period of time, quo Aethiopes Aegyptiorum jugo excusso aliis populis et imprimis Aegyptiis bella inferre coeperunt? , in a temporal sense, could only mean: ex quo est. But in order to express this Isaiah would likely have written , not to mention that it is not credible that the Ethiopians were a widely feared people from the moment of their existence onwards. It is my opinion therefore that stands in a local sense, brief and pregnant for or .The meaning of must be measured by Isa 28:10; Isa 28:13, for no other passage exists so nearly like this text. There, too, the word appears repeated, . It means originally measuring line, and occurs in Isaiah, beside the above mentioned places, Isa 28:17; Isa 34:11; Isa 34:17; Isa 44:13. From the meaning measuring line is developed norm, prescription rule, Isa 28:10; Isa 28:13. So we must take it here; and the choice of the short, abruptly spoken word, which moreover is repeated, is not to be regarded as accidental and undesigned. For this reason (see also Exegct. Comm. below) we take = command, command. There was much commanding, but short and sharp. (again only Isa 18:7; Isa 22:5) is conculcatio, treading down, comp. Pro 29:1; Deu 25:2. = , like = , = (Ewald, 112 g; 114 b; 151 b).
Isa 18:3. only here. designates the coincidence, as in cases of time when. We have here the Inf. Constr. after a Prepos. forming a phrase with the subject latent. is accusative of place.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet sends a cry of alarm to the remote Ethiopians, because they too are threatened by the Assyrians. He characterizes the land by the use of predicates suggested by the abundance of its insects, and its situation on great rivers (Isa 18:1). In this land the messengers fly away in swift skiffs over the waters. Therefore the Prophet summons these swift messengers to command the people, at the same time describing them as a people of lofty stature, and shining color of skin, as a nation dreaded far beyond its borders, as a nation among whom reigns strict command and ruthless use of power, that is yet exposed to the power of mighty streams that carry off its land (Isa 18:2). This nation is commanded: it will arm itself for this strife. Between it and the Assyrian there shall come to pass a terrible collision. When it is announced by visible and audible signals, all nations must give good heed: for all are in the highest degree interested in it.
2. Woehear ye.
Isa 18:1-3. Cush is Ethiopia, the land that bounds Egypt on the south, which began at Syene below the first cataract of the Nile (comp. Eze 29:10; Eze 30:6), and had Meroe for its capital (Herod. 2:29). The Egyptians, also, call Ethiopia Kus or Kes (comp. Ebers Egypten und die Bucher Mosis, I. p. 57; Lepsius in Herz. R. Encycl. I., p. 148). I do not believe, as Stade maintains (De Is. vatt. aeth., p. 16), that the assumption of Mesopotamian Cushites rests merely on the erroneous identifying of the (Her. III. 91) or (Strabo XI. p. 524, XIV. 744) with the biblical Cushites. The streams of Ethiopia are the White Nile (Bahr-el-Abjad) and its tributaries, the Atbara, the Blue Nile (Bahr-el-Asrak), the Sobat, the Bahr-el-Ghasal, etc. In describing the land of whirring-wings as beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (comp. Zep 3:10), this form of expression arises from the mighty waters occupying the foreground in the mental vision of the Prophet, thus the land lies for him beyond them. (Isa 35:7; Exo 2:3) is the papyrus-reed. Light and fleet boats were made of it, as is abundantly testified by the ancients and by the monuments (comp. Gesen. in loc., Wilkinson, The ancient Egyptians, V., p. 119). Papyrus, once very abundant in Egypt, is no longer found there; but is found in Abyssinia (comp. Champollion-Figeac, LEgypte ancienne, p. 24, sq. 195) and Sicily (Herz. R. Encycl. I., p. 140 sq.).
Go ye swift messengers, to a nation, etc., is understood by most expositors as if the Prophet sent the messengers home, because Jehovah Himself would undertake Himself the destruction of the enemy. But then the Prophet would not have used , but rather . Besides one cant understand why, if the Ethiopians were not to fight, their warlike qualities are depicted in such strong colors. I therefore take in its proper sense; go ye. The Ethiopians are to be bidden to the contest, and actually to fight; but they must know that it is the Lord that gives them the victory.
To a nation grown high: see under Text. and Gram. It is, moreover, not impossible that, as Jos. Friedr. Schelling conjectured, there lies in the expression an allusion to the longevity of the Ethiopians which was an accepted notion of the ancients. The Ethiopians are called smooth and shining, not, we may suppose, because they deprived the body of hair, but because they had a way of making the skin smooth and shining. This is known from what Herodotus relates of the scouts of Cambyses (Isa 3:23). When these wondered at the long life of the Ethiopians, they were led to a spring: by washing in which they became very shining as if it were of oil. By the constant use of this spring, the Ethiopians became, it was said, , long-lived. It is seen from this that to the Ethiopians was ascribed a skin shining as if oiled. In general the Ethiopians, according to Herodotus, were accounted the largest and comeliest of all men. On the upper Nile there yet live men whom this description suits. For example the Schilluks, that were reached by the British Consul, John Petherick, after eight days journey on the White Nile, from Chartum, are described by him as a large, powerful, finely formed race, with countenances of noble mould (Ausland, 1861, No. 24). Comp. Ernst Morno (in Petermans Geogr. Mitheilungen, 1872, 12 Heft., p. 452 sqq.) on the ethnological relations in Upper-Sennar, and especially on the Hammedach and their neighbors. That is dreaded far away; so the Prophet names the people because they are feared from their borders and far away. See Text. and Gram. We know with certainty, at least with reference to Egypt, that Ethiopia at that time had dominion beyond its own territory. The Ethiopian dynasty seems to have put an end to a condition of great disorder in Egypt. The first king of it, Sabakon, must have been a powerful and wise regent. Champollion-Figeac, l. c., p. 363, says of him: The internal disorders involved the ruin of the public establishments, and when order was revived by the presence of a wise and prudent monarch, his first thought ought to be to repair them. After his invasion of Egypt this duty devolved on the conqueror, and Sabakon did not neglect it. To the third king, Tirhaka, are ascribed great military expeditionsas far as the Pillars of Hercules,and conquests (ibid., p. 364). One may well suppose that the strict discipline and order, which naturally at times ran to the excess of ruthless oppression, was a characteristic peculiarity of those Ethiopic princes. We therefore take = command, command: there was much commanding, but short and sharp. The meaning power, strength, which some assume only for our text, after Arabian analogy, is not satisfactorily established. We do perfectly well with the meaning nearest at hand. Egypt, as is well known, is a gift of the Nile (comp. Ebers Egypten n. d. Bcher Mosis, I. p. 21. Fraas, Aus dem Orient, geologische Beobachtungen am Nil, auf der Sinai-Halbinsel u. in Syrien, 1867. p. 207). But what the Nile gives to Egypt it has stolen in Ethiopia. Therefore the expression whose land rivers carry away corresponds exactly with the fact. It appears in a measure as a Nemesis accomplished by nature that Ethiopia, in return for the down treading practised by it, should succumb to the spoiling done by the rivers flowing through it. The nation of Ethiopia therefore is summoned to the strife. A collision impends. It must be attended with important consequences. All inhabitants of the world (comp. Isa 26:9; Isa 26:18), especially the dwellers of the territory concerned, must be on the look-out when the signals for the combat are given; for something of moment will happen.
Footnotes:
[1]of whirring wings.
[2]And in boats of papyrus on the face of the waters.
[3]Or, out spread and polished.
[4]grown high and gleaming.
[5]feared far away.
[6]A nation of stem command and rough tread.
[7]Or, that meteth out, and treadeth down.
[8]Heb. of line, line, and treading under foot.
[9]Or, Whose land the rivers despise.
[10]land.
[11]one lifts up.
[12]one blows.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter, like the former, is full of threatenings to the people to whom it refers, on account of their ill-will to Israel. It is but short, but it contains heavy tidings.
Isa 18:1
Though the name of the nation against whom woe is here denounced, is not mentioned; yet, by being said to be beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, it is easy to discover, that it is a nation which had proved perfidious to Israel. The Lord taketh up, and avengeth the quarrel of his people; whoso toucheth them, toucheth the apple of his eye; Zec 2:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
God In Opposition
Isa 17:14
Reading some portions of Isaiah is like passing through a succession of thunderstorms on a dark night: no sooner is one over than another begins: the darkness is cut to pieces by lightning, and the most solid things are rent and torn by the very demon of anger: nations are split like soft wood; empires are shattered like the toys of a child; as for kings, they melt like bubbles on a stream; thrones are no more accounted of than the stubble which is cut up by the plough. It is grand reading for those who are not involved in the tragedy. Those who look from the shore upon some mighty ship, billow-struck, grappling with the very ogre of ruin, may describe the scene in poetic terms; but the men on board are white with agony or dumb with despair. So it is with this succession of thunderbursts and lightning flashes and destructive strokes. The contempt which the prophet expresses for empires, nations, kings, crowns, armies, and things grand and overwhelming could not have been his own. It is at once too sublime and too subtle to be mere poetry. We know human contempt and its measure, all its bitterness and all its little scope. There is an inspired contempt a scorn which burns like the fire of God. Men know when they are the subjects of inspired contempt. It is easy to distinguish between a sneer and a divine scorning, a prejudice and an eternal judgment. Who cares for a human sneer? It may be changed into a smile to-morrow, and both sneer and smile are of precisely the same value; but a man knows when he is righteously overborne, when he is hunted to death by God. There is a prejudice that comes and goes, and mere action of opinion; and there is a scorning which fills the sky, so terrible that a man may not look up, or he will be cursed by the just contempt. Isaiah never made this scorn; no poet ever made it. “The glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble”; “In that day shall Damascus be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, and there shall be desolation”; “The harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow”; “God shall rebuke the nations, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.” This is no mere poetry; it would not be poetry, it would be cruelty, if there be not under it all an explanatory righteousness. The moral element saves it from being a mere play of fancy, an intellectual aurora borealis. This is the very judgment of God. And we know it all. We are well aware when we are rightly judged. When others are applauding us and we are condemning ourselves, the discrepancy is an awful irony in the soul; the applause goes for nothing, it is empty wind, it is a passing noise; but this interior judgment, this self-condemnation, kills every comforter who comes unconsciously to mock us with his solace.
“And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not” ( Isa 17:14 ). God fights some battles between evening and morning. The black night is the field of war. It is all over by the dawn. Not a voice can be heard; nothing can be seen but desolation: how it was done no man can tell. The darkness fights for God; it is not only a soldier of his, but a great army, immeasurable, invincible. Some processes are hidden. The night is needed for more than rest. God could make us sleep in the daytime, and have us watched in our slumber, as it were, by the sun. But the night is wholly given over to sleep. How busy the angels are on the fields of darkness! How they dart through it like flashes of light! How they come in dream and vision! Who can tell all this nocturnal ministry, in its beginning, its action, its purpose, its end? “Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee.” Men are fetched at night by the invisible constable: they are looked for in the morning, and there is nothing but the mould they left on the bed in which they intended to sleep. Who reckons the night when he adds up his time? It may go for nothing to us because of our unconsciousness, but God sleeps not, nor do his judgments tarry for the light. Or we may reverse the scene, and make even this picture rich with beauty; it may be loaded with messages of comfort. Is it the enemy who comes up at eventide? Is it Sennacherib that plants his army at sundown, and says he will work ruin upon the fortresses of Jerusalem? Behold in the morning he is not! The angel of death swept down with a blast, and a great wind carried away the boastful foe. Thus, still God works in the night time. The ministry of the night is not interfered with by change of figure or by change of its application. Hear this singing word, and say how well it fits the scene: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Speaking of the wicked we may apply the figure of night so as to find in it terror and fear, sorrow, and judgment, and death; speaking of the good man, we may say, Dry thy tears, thou foolish unbelieving weeper, or shed them gratefully to get rid of a needless burden; for sorrow endureth but for a night, joy cometh in the morning: take in the black guest, do what thou canst for him, he is sent of God for holy purposes; he can live but for a night, thou mightest afford to be kind to him; it were but one night in a long life.
This rule may be applied to more places than one in the prophecies of Isaiah. We are not always reading of judgment, even when apparently there is a tone of threatening in the words, for the threatening may be directed against the enemy, and a rich promise may be hidden in its very heart, to be handled and lived upon by the honest soul. “This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.” So it would appear that the figure is one intended for the comfort of the people of God. We may fall asleep indeed, and in the morning inquire, How goes the war? and, behold, the warriors are dead and gone. “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Robbery is a compound act. A man who steals a loaf of bread when he is hungry, and does it openly, and does it as a last resource, is no robber. He has the right of humanity to the loaf that is in the cupboard of society. The man who steals under sudden temptation, who confesses, repents, and restores, must be forgiven, and must be numbered amongst honest men. Sydney Smith was a magistrate, but the poor people said he pleaded like a parson with the magistrates when they wished to condemn a poor man who, being half-starved, shot game or snared it for the relief of himself and his family. He was a prophet of the Lord when he so pleaded. The witty canon had understanding of human nature and of divine purposes, and he was a just judge when he said, Forgive the hard-pressed man, for thus only could he keep together body and soul. But this is not the robbery spoken of in the text, nor is it the kind of robbery that society must set itself against with a thousand unsparing penalties. The difficulty is this, that the great robber is a hero, and the little robber is a felon. It is the same with war. A man who overthrows a nation is memorialised on brass and marble; a man who kills a solitary fellow-creature is handed over to the public hangman: the one is a hero, feted by kings and princes, and the other is a murderer, locked up in an iron cage, and kept to be hanged. It is the same way with robbery. A man robs other nations, and we call him great. The little robber is a coward; he waits until the light is put out, until the streets are silent; he can hear his own heart beat, then he puts forth the thievish hand. The robber is a liar. He has to live a lie, though perhaps he may never openly tell one. He is himself a lie. The robber is a false accuser: he has to blame other people, or to blame circumstances, or to blame in some way the subtle influences which have been brought to bear upon him. The robber is an enemy of society; he brings other persons under suspicion. But there is a kind of robbery of which even honest men may be guilty. Let us be careful how we condemn a man who breaks any one of the ten commandments; he may only have broken one, and his critics may have broken the whole ten. “Thou shalt not steal” is not applied to the purse, which has been poetically denominated “trash”; we may steal good names, fair reputations, just rewards; we may endeavour to trouble a man who is being honestly applauded by those to whom he has done good by suggesting doubts and fears concerning him. He is but a little thief who takes money; he is a great robber who takes away peace of mind, trust in character, and who blocks up the way of a man in the world. In all such matters let us be just and complete in our view.
Now we come to a verse which is as divisible into two interpretations as the one we have just studied:
“For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling-place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches” ( Isa 18:4-5 ).
How full of suggestion is this as to the method of the divine administration! “I will take my rest.” God is supposed to utter these words. And they would seem to encourage those who have hidden themselves in false security; they say, The sky is clearer, the wind has gone down, all danger is past, now we may venture forth; not knowing that God is, humanly speaking, taking his rest. Having laid down the weapons of judgment he is considering in his heaven what shall be done next. The wrong-doer thinks that all is past and gone, dead and forgotten, and that he is now at liberty to go forth as a man unrecognised, without the old felon’s brand. Nothing of the kind. Whoever goes into punishment goes into everlasting punishment. Why this ado about everlasting torment and penalty? Every penalty is eternal, if it is just. A man may suffer penalty, and be the better for it, the nobler; he may even secure to himself a lasting place in the gratitude of society; we are not speaking of such penalty, but of punishment which is due, just, righteous altogether. Never can that brand be taken out of the flesh; the hideous root and seam will be observed there, though the flesh be healed to the eye. God may have but withdrawn. We are obliged to resort to figure and to illustration, for only so can we approach the mysteries of the divine nature for the time to consider what judgment can be added, or what weapon can be next employed.
Then again the figure suggests that righteousness is assured. That is to say, it will be reasserted and will be vindicated, and at last righteousness will stand up in the light, whilst wickedness will be buried in the grave, marked only by contempt. The sword is only resting; it will be used again, and always used in the interests of righteousness. Thus we may turn this image, and find in it also, as in the former one, abounding comfort; for it may suggest assured helpfulness to the good. Is God apparently withdrawn from us? He will come again. Is the Christian work being overborne? It is, but for a small moment: God is only resting, considering; and when men are putting forth their hands to reach all the fulness of the harvest he will cut off branches and all the fields of wheat, and they shall thrust their hands into the darkness, and reap nothing but emptiness. This may be the real meaning of the passage, which may be then thus paraphrased: You think I have forsaken you, but you are mistaken; you suppose your cause is lost, but the cause of righteousness can never be lost: I am resting, considering, giving time an opportunity of exerting its influence; the whole thing is still within the hollow of my hand, and all things will be settled on a basis of infinite righteousness. Let us then be careful how we apply some of the sterner passages of Scripture, for we may occasionally, by the very stress of our fear, be misapplying them, and thus make God talk judgment to us when in reality he is pronouncing benedictions. The heart in all such cases is the best annotator and critic. Let a man feel that he deserves judgment, penalty, yea, hell itself, and he will find an abundance in the Scriptures which will confirm his own self-condemnation. Let him, contrariwise, be pure of soul, docile of spirit, anxious to know the divine will and do it all; then even in the lowering clouds he will hear a voice, in the darkening heavens he will see a star, in the thunder-peal he will hear a still small voice coming to his heart like the very music of heaven. The Bible is to us what we are to the Bible: to the froward God is froward, to the pure in soul he is a condescending Friend, yea, he will come into the man’s heart and sup with him, and make his abode with him.
Here, then, opens the great field of application. Have we done Wrong? We can never undo it. But we can repent. And this may, in effect, undo it for us. There is one thing we can never do we can never forgive ourselves. Though our eyes were a fountain of tears, and our head were waters poured out in torrents, yet when all the floods are past there is the dark hideous fact, as palpable and ghastly as ever. Society may forgive us, God may forgive us, but unless we are lifted up in highest spiritual communion, touching even ecstasy and rapture itself, we dare not look back, or we should see the black spectre steadily keeping an accusing eye upon us. Blessed be God, self-forgiveness is impossible. Have we taken that which is not our own? Restore it; it is in vain to think that detection can be escaped; it can be escaped to-day and to-morrow, but the third day will be alive with a light of revelation and criticism, judgment and penalty. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished. What, then, is the right spiritual attitude in relation to all this line of reflection? “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Let there be no boasting, no mockery, no ruthless taunting. “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.” If I can boast of my honesty, I am not honest; if I make it ostentatious, I make it unreal; if I have done any good, the good is all done by the living God within me. This should be the spiritual temper and attitude of every man who desires to serve God. Does this, then, mean indifference to wrongdoing? On the contrary, it means the highest sensitiveness towards wrongdoing and all its participants. But it also means self-control, self-judgment; and every incident in life will be lost upon us if it does not leave behind this impression, that: if we have been saved from being murderers, adulterers, robbers, evil men of any kind or degree, we have been so saved by the grace of God.
Prayer
Almighty God, we are full of joy, because our work is to be tried by thyself, and not by another. Thou knowest all things; thou art merciful and just; thou dost try the reins of the children of men, but thou dost look upon them all with eyes of pity and of love. Thy judgment will stand when all other criticism fails and is forgotten. We would that we might, by thy grace, stand well with thee, that we might be accepted in the Beloved, that we might in all things be approved by thyself as men who are faithfully doing the work which thou hast put into their hands. The battle is not ours, but thine; the work is not man’s, it is God’s own work, and will be done in God’s own time, yea, unto the putting on of the topstone amid gratulation and highest joy. Enable us to work during the few days that remain even to the strongest of us: behold, the time of the lengthening of the shadow hasteneth, and man goeth to his long home; may every one of us work with both hands diligently, always acknowledging the divine direction, always seeking heavenly inspiration; conceiving and inventing nothing of our own, but always with our face toward the rising sun and the opening heavens, that we may receive from on high our instruction and our charge and our inspiration. Bless those to whom thou hast appointed the discipline of suffering in great measure; say unto them that it all occurs for their purification, and release from evil bonds, and introduction into holy liberty. Dry the tears of unusual sorrow, the rivers of that great grief which can come but once in a lifetime and never reappear, compared with which all other distress is as a passing cloud. Nourish us, strengthen us, fill us with thy Spirit, redeem us every day with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, for being cleansed by that we shall be undefiled, and being released from sin by that energy we shall not be brought again into the captivity of evil. If the Lord will hear us, his hearing shall be unto us as a gracious answer. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XIV
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 6
Isaiah 13-23
This section is called “The Book of Foreign Prophecies,'” because it treats of the foreign nations in their relation to Judah and Israel.
There are ten foreign nations here mentioned, as follows: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, and Tyre, with second prophecies against Egypt, Ethiopia, and Babylon, and one thrown in against Israel, Judah) Jerusalem, and Shebna, each. This Shebna was probably a foreigner. He was to be degraded from his high office and Eliakim was to take his place.
The radical critics assign to this section a much later date because of the distinctly predictive prophecies contained in it. There is no question that it reflects the condition of Babylon long after the time of Isaiah, and unless one believes heartily in supernatural revelations, the conclusion that it was written much later than the time of Isaiah, is unavoidable. The author accepts it as a prophecy of Isaiah and holds tenaciously to the theory of the unity of the book.
In Isaiah 13-23 the prophet gives us a series of judicial acts on various surrounding peoples, each of whom embodied some special form of worldly pride or ungodly self-will. But Asshur-Babel was conspicuous above all the rest. After fourteen centuries of comparative quiet, she was now reviving the idea of universal empire, notwithstanding the fact that Nimrod’s ruined tower stood as a perpetual warning against any such attempt. This was the divine purpose, that God might use it for his own instrument to chastise, both the various Gentile races, and especially his own people, Israel. This was the “hand that is stretched out upon all the nations” (Isa 14:26 ), to break up the fallow ground of the world’s surface, and prepare it for the good seed of the kingdom of God. Not only are these chapters (Isaiah 13-23) thus bound together inwardly, but they are also bound together outwardly by a similarity of title. We cannot detach Isaiah 13-14 from what has gone before without injury to the whole series, because
1. It is only in these chapters that we have the full antithesis to the mighty overflowing of the Assyrian deluge in Isaiah 7-8, and Isa 10 .
2.Isa 12 is a fit introduction to Isaiah 13-14, in that the deliverance of Zion, so briefly alluded to in Isa 12 , requires a further view of the enemies’ prostration, which these chapters supply. In Isa 14:2-27 we find the song of triumph analogous to Exo 15 , rather than in Isa 12 .
3.Isa 14:27 seems to be a fit termination of the section which began with Isa 7:1 .
4. There are many verbal links that connect these chapters with the preceding chapters. For example, take Isa 10:25 and Isa 13:3 ; Isa 10:27 and Isa 13:5 ; Isa 9:18 and Isa 13:13 , et multa al.
5. The complete cutting off of Ephraim foretold in Isa 7 requires a fuller revelation of the divine purpose concerning Asshur-Babylon, as its counterpoise and this is found in Isaiah 13-14.
From Isa 14:28 we infer that this prophecy was written toward the end of Ahaz’s reign. At that time spiritual darkness had won the conquest of the whole world. The “lamp of God” was now dark in his tabernacle. Hoshea, king of Israel, was the vassal of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Ahaz had long ago surrendered himself to Tiglath-pileser. So the light of prophecy, with such a background, was very luminous now. Assyria was at this time at the height of her power, but Isaiah tells with distinctness that Assyria shall be broken in pieces in the Holy Land, and it is certain that Assyria received just such a blow in the defeat of Sennacherib’s army.
The prophet also saw the doom of Babylon, the city which was at this time the real center of the empire. He even mentions the instruments of the destruction, commencing with the Medes, who were not at this time an independent nation. Nothing can be more definite than Isaiah’s statements as to the absolute ruin of the “Golden City,” which prediction at the time must have seemed to violate all probability. Yet we have abundant evidence that it was all fulfilled, both regarding the nearer event of its capture by the Medes and also the ultimate desolation of its site.
The significant word with which each of these prophecies opens is the word “burden” which has here its original and ordinary meaning. This original meaning of the word seems to be supplied from 2Ki 9:25 , where it is used to mean the divine sentence on Ahab: “Jehovah laid this burden upon him.” The appropriateness of its use here is in the fact that the prophecy to which it is prefixed is usually denunciatory in character, and always so in Isaiah. It is easy to see that it here means a grievous threatening oracle. It is claimed by some that this word is used elsewhere in a good sense, as in Zec 12:1 and Mal 1:1 , but upon close examination of these passages in their connection it will be seen that they are denunciatory and that the word has its primary meaning in these instances also.
The reason that Babylon was given first consideration among the enemies of God’s people seems to be the fact that a divine revelation came to Isaiah at this early date (725 B.C.) showing that Babylon was to be the great enemy to be feared, as the ultimate destroyer of Judah and Jerusalem, the power that would carry the Jewish people into captivity. The main points of the denunciation against her are as follows:
1. The instruments of God’s destruction of Babylon are the far-away nations, which God himself will assemble for this work of destruction (Isa 13:2-5 ).
2. The vivid description of the sweeping devastation, which is all inclusive in the objects of its vengeance (Isa 13:6-16 ).
3. The Medes are named as the instruments to begin this work, and the permanent effects of the desolation to follow (Isa 13:17-22 ).
4. The reason for all this is God’s favor to Jacob who had been oppressed by these foreigners (Isa 14:1-2 ).
5. Israel’s parable of exaltation over Babylon reciting their oppressive work and God’s intervention which humbled Babylon and exalted Israel (Isa 14:3-20 ).
6. The final announcement of Babylon’s doom and the permanency of its desolation (Isa 14:21-23 ).
The prophecy against Assyria under this first burden consists of God’s oath of assurance to his people that his purpose already foretold concerning Assyria should stand. Babylon in the first part of the prophecy is presented as the most formidable enemy of God’s people, but it had not yet become so fearful then. But Assyria was their dread at this time. So Isaiah comes nearer home to meet their present need and assures them that they need not fear the Assyrian for God’s purpose concerning him should stand.
There are several things in this burden that call for special consideration:
1. In Isa 13:2-5 the prophet speaks of the mustering of the host to battle as if it were then in the process of assembling, indicating the vividness of it all to the prophet’s mind as present, though it was only a vision of the future.
2. In Isa 13:3 Jehovah speaks of his “consecrated ones,” clearly referring to the Medes and Persians. Now in what sense were they “consecrated ones”? It means that they were the instruments of his purpose, set apart for the specific work of executing his judgment. They were consecrated, or set apart, by the Lord for this work though they themselves were ungongcious of the function they performed. There are many illustrations of such use of men by the Lord recorded in the Scriptures, two notable examples of which are Cyrua and Caesar Augustus.
3. In Isa 13:10 there is a reference to the darkening of the heavenly luminaries. This is an expression of Nature’s sympathy with the Lord. When he is angry, the lights of the heavens grow dark, as at the crucifixion of our Lord, and as it will be at the end of the world. So it is often the case in the time of great judgments. There seems also to be a special fitness in the expression here in view of the importance attached to the signs of the heavenly bodies by the Chaldeans at this time.
4. The desolation described in Isa 13:20-22 is witnessed by every traveler of today who passes the site of this once glorious and proud Babylon.
5. In Isa 14:9-11 we have the glad welcome given to these Babylonians in their entrance into the lower spirit world. The inhabitants of this region are represented as rising up to greet and welcome these unfortunate Babylonians. The idea of personal identity and continued consciousness after death is here assumed by the prophet.
6. In Isa 14:12 there is a back reference to the fall of Satan who, before his fall, was called Lucifer. Here Babylon in her fall is represented as Lucifer) the bright star of the morning from heaven. Our Saviour refers to the incident of Satan’s falling also in Luk 10:18 , and we have a like picture of him in Rev 12:7-9 , all of which must be considered in the light of the analogue of Satan’s fall when he sinned and was cast out of heaven.
7. In Isa 14:25 Jehovah says he will “break the Assyrian in his land,” which refers to the destruction of Sennacherib’s host from which Assyria never recovered. In Isa 14:26 the Lord explains that Assyria was the hand that he had stretched out for chastisements upon the nations of the world as they were related to Judah and Israel.
The series of burdens from Isa 14:28-23:18 may be viewed as an unrolling of the “purpose concerning the whole earth,” just mentioned in Isa 14:26 . Though the prophet stands on his watchtower and turns his eye around to the different points of the horizon and surveys the relation in which each nation stands to the advancing judgment, his addresses to the nations must be thought of as chiefly meant for the warning and comfort of Israel, which had too often adopted the sins of those whom she was meant to sanctify.
The burden of prophecy against Philistia is a warning to Philistia, following closely upon the death of Tiglath-pileser which brought great rejoicing to Philistia, because they thought the rod that smote them was broken. The prophet here reminds them that out of the serpent’s root there would come forth the adder. In other words, there would arise from Assyria an enemy far more deadly than the one who had been cut off, and instead of being a mere serpent he would be a fiery flying serpent. The reference is, probably, to Sargon who took Ashdod, made the king of Gaza prisoner and reduced Philistia generally to subjection. At this time the poor of Israel would feed safely, but Philistia was to be reduced by famine and the remnant slain by the Assyrians who are here referred to as “a smoke out of the north.” Then God’s people will answer Philistia’s messengers that Jehovah had founded Zion and in her the afflicted would take refuge.
Some critics say that the bulk of the prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) is quoted by Isaiah from an earlier writer, and that he merely modified the wording and added a few touches here and there. To this we answer that speculations of this kind are in the highest degree uncertain and lead to no results of any importance whatever. What matters it whether Isaiah quoted or not? There is no proof that he did and it makes no difference if be did. The author will contend that Isaiah was the original author of these two chapters until the critics produce at least some proof that he quoted from an earlier author.
A brief outline of these two chapters is as follows:
1. A vivid picture of Moab’s overthrow (Isa 15 ).
2. Moab exhorted to flee to the house of David for shelter, but refuses to make the right use of his affliction (Isa 16:1-12 ).
3. A confirmation of the prophecy and its speedy fulfilment (Isa 16:13-14 ).
For the picture of Moab’s overthrow the reader may read Isa 15 . It is a vivid account of this overthrow and cannot be well improved upon.
In Isa 16:1-5 we have an exhortation to Moab to take refuge with the house of David. Perhaps there is here an implication that Moab is not safe in his relation to Israel but that there would be safety for him if he would take shelter under the wings of Judah. Anyhow, there is a promise to Moab that he might find shelter and security, if only he would comply with the conditions herein set forth. But the pride of Moab was the cause of his downfall, which was utterly complete and accompanied by great wailing (Isa 16:6-8 ).
The prophet was moved to pity and tears for Moab upon witnessing such desolation and sadness as should come to this people. No gladness, no joy, no singing, and no joyful noise was to be found in his borders (Isa 16:9-12 ). Such a prophetic sight of Jerusalem made Jeremiah the weeping prophet and moved the blessed Son of God to tears. “Your house is left unto you desolate” is the weeping wail of our Lord as he saw the sad fate of the Holy City.
The time set here by the prophet for the humiliation of Moab is exactly three years, strictly measured, as a hireling would measure the time for which he would receive his pay, the fulfilment of which cannot be determined with certainty because we do not have the exact date of the prophecy, nor do we know which one of the different invasions that would fulfil the conditions is really meant. Considering the date given in Isa 14:28 we may reasonably conclude that the date of this prophecy was in the first or second year of Hezekiah’s reign, and may have had its fulfilment by Shalmaneser, who besieged Samaria in the fourth year of the reign of Hezekiah, sending a detachment to these eastern parts of the country.
It is said that Damascus has been destroyed and rebuilt oftener than any other Eastern city. This may account for the fact that Damascus, treated so severely by Tiglath-pileser, was again in a position to attract the attention of Shalmaneser when he advanced against Samaria. In the time of Jeremiah the city had been rebuilt, but we do not hear of any more kings of Damascus.
The burden of prophecy against Damascus includes two prophecies concerning Israel and Judah and one concerning Ethiopia, and the main points of this prophecy are the ruin of Damascus (Isa 17:1-3 ) ; only a remnant left to Jacob who would look to Jehovah, because he had forgotten the God of his salvation (Isa 17:4-11 ) ; the multitude of the heathen invaders suddenly destroyed (Isa 17:12-14 ) ; Ethiopia’s interest in these movements, and her homage to Jehovah according to which she sends a present to him (Isa 18:1-7 ).
There are several things in this burden that need special attention:
1. The language referring to the overthrow of Damascus is not to be pressed too far. Damascus was besieged and temporarily destroyed, but it revived. See Jer 49:23-27 ; Eze 27:18 ; and the New Testament references. Damascus is still a city of importance.
2. In Isa 17:12-14 we have an account of the sudden destruction of the Assyrian army which was literally fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s host (2Ki 19:35-37 ).
3. There is some controversy as to what nation is referred to in Isa 18:2 ; Isa 18:7 , but it is surprising that there should be such controversy, since the evidence is overwhelming that the nation here mentioned was Ethiopia. This is a region south of Egypt and far up the Nile. The inhabitants, though black, were not ignorant and weak, but a nation of vigor and influence in the days of Isaiah. Cf. the Abyssinians.
4. The act of homage to Jehovah by Ethiopia as mentioned in Isa 18:7 is not given and therefore not easily determined and can be ascertained only with some probability. There is evidence that Ethiopia was intensely interested in the downfall of Sennacherib which is prophesied in this connection, therefore, it is probable that the present was sent to Jehovah in connection with Ethiopia’s alliance with Israel which existed at this time. It is true that the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it were not favorable. The government and idolatry were most securely established and the things predicted seemed most improbable, from the human point of view.
Then what the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this? The men of Ephraim and some in Judah were at this time bent on throwing themselves upon Egypt for protection against Assyria. This was both wrong in itself and impolitic. So Isaiah was hedging against such alliance by showing the coming humiliation of the power to which they were looking for aid.
There was an element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites. The tender sympathy expressed for penitent Egypt in Isa 19:20-23 must have assured the Israelites that if they would return to their God, he would be entreated of them and heal them.
The prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 is a prophecy relating to the political condition of Egypt, in which Jehovah will cause civil strife and confusion, destroying the power of their idols and the wisdom of their wise, and will place over them one who is a “cruel Lord” and a “fierce king.”
The fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the internal strife in Egypt during the days of Tirhakah and Psammetichus iii the early part of the seventh century B.C. and the conquering of Egypt by Esar-haddon, who was decidedly a “cruel prince” and treated Egypt with severity, splitting it up into a number of governments, yet this prophecy has been referred to Sargon, to Cambyses, and to Darius Ochus, and some think it is applicable to the successive rulers of Egypt, generally, viz: Chaldean, Persian, Greek, Roman, Saracen, and Turkish. But this is not probable.
The picture in Isa 19:5-10 is a picture of the distressful condition of Egypt while passing through the trying ordeal just prophesied. Then follows (Isa 19:11-15 ) a picture of the confusion of the wise men of Egypt as their wisdom is turned into folly.
There are five happy effects of this judgment on Egypt, in stages which reach a happy climax:
1. The Egyptians are stricken with fear because of Jehovah and because of the land of Judah, similar to the fear that came upon them when they were visited with the ten plagues (Isa 19:16-17 ).
2. Egypt shall learn the language of Canaan and swear unto Jehovah. The language here referred to is the Hebrew which was spoken largely in the country after the introduction of so many Jews there. The “five cities” represents, perhaps, the low and weakened condition of Egypt after the judgment is visited upon it (Isa 19:18 ).
3. The worship of Jehovah is established in Egypt (Isa 19:19-22 ). This was literally fulfilled in the building of the temple at Leontopolis by Onias IV, with special license from Ptolemy Philometor, to whom he is said to have quoted this passage from Isaiah. Here was offered sacrifice to Jehovah and the oblation, according to this prophecy. Through the Jewish law and influence the idolatry of Egypt was overthrown and they were prepared for the coming Saviour, whom they received through the evangelization of the missionaries in the early centuries of the Christian era.
4. The consequent union of Egypt and Assyria in worship (Isa 19:23 ).
5. The unity and equality of the nations in blessing. This and the preceding stage of this happy effect finds a primary fulfilment in the wide-spread influence of the Jews over Syria and the adjacent countries under the Syro-Macedonian kings, as well as over Egypt under the Ptolemies. But a larger fulfilment is to be found in the events at Pentecost, which sent devout men back from Jerusalem into Egypt and Libya on one side, and into Parthis, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia, on the other, to tell how God, having raised up his Son Jesus (the Prince and Saviour), had sent him to bless the Jews first, and in them all nations.
The prophecy of Isa 20 is a prophecy against Egypt and Ethiopia, who were the hope of Israel in alliance, to be delivered from Assyria, which the prophet labored to prevent. It consists, (1) of the historical circumstance. This is related in Isa 20:1 which gives the date at the year in which Tartan came to Ashdod, etc. (2) Isaiah’s symbolical action and its meaning (Isa 20:2-4 ). This was a common occurrence with the prophets. Here the action symbolized the humiliating captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia which was fulfilled either by Sennacherib or by Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal. (3) The reason for this visitation upon Egypt and Ethiopia, viz: Israel looked to these powers instead of Jehovah and they could not be blessed while they were in alliance with backslidden Israel. So the Lord was taking care of Israel in his dealings with Egypt and Ethiopia.
“The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), is a prophecy against Babylon and contains a vivid description of the marshalling of forces against Babylon for her destruction, the overwhelming sympathy of the prophets, the expelling of sensual security, instructions to the Lord’s watchman, the fulfilment, and the final declaration. The forces marshalled for her destruction are the Medes and Elamites under Cyrus and the prophet leaves us not in doubt that the reference here is to Babylon. There can be no mistake that this prophecy has its fulfilment in the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. All this is because of her relation to Israel and therefore the encouragement of God’s people and the glory of the one eternal Jehovah.
“The burden of Dumah” is generally conceded to be a prophecy against Edom, because the word “Seir” occurs in it as the place from which the one is represented as calling to the prophet. The word “Dumah” means silence and is used allegorically, “of the Silent Land” of the dead (Psa 94:17 ), and refers here, perhaps, to the silent or low state of Edom at this time. In this burden someone is represented as calling to the prophet out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night?” To which the watchman replied, “There is a brighter day ahead, but it is to be followed by a period of darkness for you; if you will repent, you may do so.”
The prophecy against Arabia is a prophecy of the desolation to come upon Arabia and her borders, deranging their commerce and causing flight and privation, which would be accomplished in one year. The date of the prophecy is not very well determined but the fulfilment is found in Sargon’s expedition into Arabia during which the caravans had to leave their regular routes and “take to the woods.”
“The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ) is a prophecy against Jerusalem in which we have set forth a vivid picture of the revellings of the city (Isa 22:1-4 ) ; then a description of an outside foreign army threatening the city, causing surprise, and a hasty preparation for the siege (Isa 22:5-11 ); instead of humbling themselves, putting on sackcloth and weeping, and appealing to God’s mercy, they try to drown care in drink and sensual enjoyment (Isa 22:12-14 ) ; then follows the degrading of Shebna from his high office and the placing of Eliakim in his position (Isa 22:15-25 ). The events herein described were fulfilled either in Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem or in that of Nebuchadnezzar. There are some difficulties in fitting this prophecy to either siege and in matters where we have such limited knowledge it does not become us to be dogmatic. Some parts fit one better, and other parts fit the other better, but all things considered, the author is inclined to believe that this prophecy refers to the Assyrian invasion.
There are three distinct paragraphs given to the burden of Tyre (Isa 22:13 ): (1) The greatness of Tyre as a city of commerce and the wail of distress for the fate of the city; (2) Jehovah’s purpose to cause this destruction and stain the pride of all her glory; (3) Babylon, an example of what will come to Tyre and the promise of Tyre’s returned prosperity after seventy years. After this period Tyre will revive and be of service to Jehovah’s people. The first part of the prophecy fits into the history which shows the many reverses of this city and may refer to the Babylonian siege specifically. The last part of the prophecy may have its fulfilment in the orders of Cyrus to the Tyrians to rebuild the Temple, and the Tyrian ships were of incalculable aid in disseminating Judaism before Christ and Christianity since Christ.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the section (Isaiah 13-23) called and what the appropriateness of the title?
2. What the foreign nations mentioned in this book of prophecies and what additional prophecies thrown in?
3. What the position of the radical critics relative to this section?
4. What the connection between the parts of this section?
5. What the special connection between Isaiah 13-14 and the preceding section?
6. What the date of the prophecy in Isaiah 13-14, what the conditions both in Israel and Judah, and also in the other nations, at this time, and what the sure light of prophecy in this dark hour?
7. What the significant word with which each of these prophecies opens, what its meaning, and what its appropriateness in this connection?
8. Why was Babylon given by the prophet first consideration among the enemies of God’s peoples and what the main points in this denunciation against her?
9. What the prophecy against Assyria under this first burden and why put in here?
10. What the special things to be noted in this burden?
11. How may the series of burdens from Isa 14:28 and Isa 23:18 be viewed and what the object of the warnings?
12. What the burden of prophecy against Philistia and how is the destructive work upon the country here described?
13. What say the critics of this prophecy against Moab (Isa 15:1-16:12 ) and what the reply?
14. Give a brief outline of these two chapters.
15. Give the picture of Moab’s overthrow?
16. What the exhortation and promise to Moab in. Isa 16:1-5 ?
17. What the cause of the downfall that was to follow?
18. How did this sight of the future destruction of Moab affect the prophet and what examples of other such sympathy in the Bible?
19. What the time fixed for the humiliation of Moab and when its fulfilment?
20. What is a remarkable characteristic of Damascus, and for what does it account?
21. What does this burden against Damascus include and what the main points in it?
22. What are the things in this burden that need special attention?
23. What the conditions in Egypt at the time Isaiah gave his prophecy against it?
24. What is the reason for a prophecy against Egypt at such a time as this?
25. What element of hope in this prophecy for the Israelites?
26. What the prophecy against Egypt in Isa 19:1-4 and when was it fulfilled?
27. What the picture in Isa 19:5-10 ?
28. What is set forth in Isa 19:11-15 ?
29. What the important and happy effects of this judgment on Egypt?
30. What the prophecy of Isa 20 and what its contents?
31. What “The burden of the wilderness of the sea” (Isa 21:1-10 ), and what its striking points?
32. What is “The burden of Dumah” and what its interpretation?
33. What the prophecy against Arabia and when the fulfilment?
34. What “The burden of the valley of vision” (Isa 22:1-25 ), and what the salient points in the prophecy?
35. What the outline of the burden of Tyre and what the salient points of the interpretation?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 18:1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
Ver. 1. Woe to the land. ] To Ethiopia, described here, (1.) By the shady mountains wherewith it is surrounded; (2.) By the rivers wherewith it is watered. a
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
a Strabo.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 18
The true reference to Egypt and Ethiopia is in Isa 19:20 , which accordingly have the title prefixed, “The Burden of Egypt.” It is not so here. Neither is the chapter called a “burden”; nor should the opening exclamation be rendered “Woe” as it often is, but “Ho!” as the context shows. It is a call to a land designedly unnamed, quite outside the bounds of those which Israel knew, and characterized at the time of the action by sentiments of friendship, in contrast with the usual animosity of Gentiles, which here breaks out once more. The last verse intimates that the time when these events occur is the closing scene marked subsequently by Jehovah’s interference on behalf of His people, and in full grace their re-establishment in Zion, to which prophecy as a whole points.
Our chapter seems thus to be distinguished from the overthrow of the nations, predicted at the close of the preceding section, “the Burden of Damascus,” and so forms a scene sufficiently distinct to be treated separately. It is a deeply interesting episode, and it is plain that the new “burden” opens Isa 19 , and distinguishes the judgement of Egypt from the subject before us.
This it is well to notice distinctly, because Jerome and Cyril, Bochart and Vitringa, among many more, have fallen into the error of supposing that Egypt is the “land shadowing with wings,” addressed in verse 1, and that the Egyptians or the Ethiopians are the people to whom the message is sent in ver. 2, some of them being even brought to the grateful worship of God in ver. 7. Others again are no less confident that Ethiopia is meant, as Calvin, Piscator, Michaelis, Rosenmller, Gesenius, Ewald, Delitzsch, Drechsler, and Driver. Yet Jerome and Calvin agree with the more famous Jewish authors that the people spoken of in vers. 2 and 7 are the Jews. All must be confusion where this is not seen. And a nation is here distinguished by favour to the Jew in its own way, but in vain. There follow nations hostile as usually of old. But the main issue is God, Who observes all, at length accomplishing His gracious purpose in Israel.
The reader need not be surprised at confusion, alas! too Common in commentators ever so erudite and otherwise eminent. For there is hardly a portion of Isaiah which has given rise to greater discord and more evident bewilderment among men of note, from Eusebius of Caesarea (who saw in it the land of Judaea in apostolic times, sending Christian doctrine to all the world, an interpretation founded on the . . . . of the LXX) down to Arias Montanus, who applied it to America, converted to Christ by the preaching and arms of the Spaniards! Plainly the right understanding of the chapter depends on seeing that the Jewish nation are those intended in verses 2 and 7; and this, not in the days of Sennacherib, save perhaps as an historic starting-point, but for the future crisis, and its glorious issues. A few expressions, especially in verses 1 and 2, may be obscure, but the general scope is remarkably clear and of exceeding interest.
It is true, as Henderson says in common with very many, that the chapter is not a “woe” (as the Sept., the Vulgate, and the A.V. translate), nor yet like the preceding or following “burdens,” but rather a call summoning attention – “Ho!” – to the land unnamed, which is to be described. The contrast seems plain between Isa 17:12-14 and Isa 18:4-6 . One nation whose name is not given, will seek to befriend the Jews in the time and way spoken of; while others break out into their old jealousy and hatred, and wreak their vengeance on them all the more. But that the friendly protector is Ethiopia seems wholly without and against the tests of the chapter. According to this idea, when Tirhakah in alarm summons his troops, the Jews send swift messengers to acquaint him with the destruction of Sennacherib’s host when it seemed to threaten, not only Jerusalem but Ethiopia. But this dislocates the chapter, making the Ethiopians the prominent figure instead of the Jews, and terminating ineptly with a present offered by the Ethiopians to the God of Israel. It is enough to examine the words of the prophet with care, in order to refute any such speculation.
“Ho! land shadowing (or, whirring) with wings, which [art] beyond [the] rivers of Cush” (i.e. beyond the Nile and the Euphrates). It means a country outside the sphere of those nations, which up to the prophet’s day had menaced or meddled with Israel. Usually firm against mere tradition, and careful of scriptural truth, even Dr. Kay has failed to notice the true force of this remarkable expression found here only and in Zep 3:10 . The object is not at all to direct attention to the country adjoining the file, nor even to combine with this the land adjacent to the Euphrates. The call is expressly to a land beyond either limit. Egypt and Assyria had been the chief of those powers, for there was an Asiatic as well as an African Cush. The land in question lay (not by any means contiguous to, but perhaps ever so far) beyond these well-known countries. Here is the first indication; and it is of the highest importance, but neglected by most. It expresses a country far away. This comparatively distant land espouses the cause of Israel; but the protection would be ineffectual in result, however loud the proffer and the preparation. The use of “wings” to convey the idea of a cover for the oppressed or defenceless is too common to need proofs. “Ho! land shadowing with wings, which [art] beyond [the] rivers of Cush; that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon [the] face of [the] waters, [saying,]” (vv. 1, 2).
The second verse shows, in addition to the previous characteristics of this future ally of the Jews, that it is a maritime power, for it sends its ambassadors over the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes (i.e. of “papyrus”)* on the face of the waters Israel is the object of their interest. “Go, swift messengers, to a nation scattered (or dragged) and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning and onward, to a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled” (v. 2). The attempt to apply this description to the Egyptians, or the Ethiopians, has largely affected the view taken of the epithets here applied (e.g. “tall and smooth,” and “that meteth out and treadeth down”). The mistake of not a few is to introduce Christianity into the chapter; whereas it is really a question of earthly things and the earthly people in presence of a friendly effort, but also of enemies before God’s time comes to deliver them Himself. The learned may enquire whether “boats” are really intended by “keli-gem’?” ; in verse 2. Here only is the word so rendered in all scripture. It occurs very frequently for an ornament, implement, or utensil; even for sack, stuff, or any such thing in general; for armour, or weapons; for instruments of music, or furniture, etc. Hence the Seventy here translate by “paper letters,” which we can well understand requisite for ambassadors sent on their errand. It is the more worthy of careful consideration, as this phrase more than any other has misled the commentators. Otherwise there is but little difficulty in the chapter.
*This description of their vessels or boats is an apparent difficulty, as it is that which has induced most to conceive that Egypt is meant. For no doubt boats of that slight material sufficient to cross the Nile were notorious of old. But may we not infer that as ships of Tarshish are sometimes used in a general way for those employed on long commercial voyages to whatever land they belonged so the vessels of papyrus may designate rapid cruisers in general whatever the material or wherein employed? Beyond the rivers of Cush must surely exclude Egypt as well as Babylonia, or any country within those limits. The maritime people meant is described as outside the lands which wed to have to do with Israel. Hence we find Bishop Horsley writing (Bibl. Crit. ii. 134, 135), Navigable vessels are certainly meant and if it could be proved that Egypt is the country spoken to these vessels of bulrushes might be understood of the light skiffs made of that material and used by the Egyptians upon the Nile. But if the country spoken to be distant from Egypt vessels of bulrush are only used as an apt image on account of their levity for quick-sailing vessels of any material. The country therefore to which the prophet calls is characterized as one which in the days of the completion of this prophecy should be a great maritime and commercial power forming remote alliances making distant voyages to all parts of the world with expedition and security and in the habit of affording protection to their friends and allies. Where this country is to be found is not otherwise said than that it will be remote from Judaea and with respect to that country beyond the Cushean streams.
But, in fact, there seems no sufficient reason to question the general accuracy of our authorised version, which, as predicating Israel in ver. 2 yields the sole clear and good sense. Above any, they are a nation whose hope is indeed long deferred, and who have suffered indignity beyond all; yet marked by portents from their existence and thenceforth. Upon them has been exactly measured divine judgement, as none other had. Who else trodden down as they? Nor had their land escaped the desolating ravages of powers overwhelming like rivers, as we find the same figure used of it in Isa 8 and elsewhere. The difference between the land in the first verse which sends out its messengers and ships, and the dispersed people from all time marvellous or hitherto formidable, but of late ravaged by their impetuous enemies, stands on no minute points of verbal criticism, but on the general bearing of scripture history as well as the context, which the English-reading Christian is quite able to judge.
This is the weakest point in Bishop Horsley’s (Bibl. Crit. ii. 162) otherwise able investigation of the chapter: “The standard of the Cross of Christ; the trumpet of the gospel. The resort to the standard, the effect of the summons, in the end will be universal.” But it is the prevalent bane of theologians to bring in the gospel or the church into the prophets, where the dealings of divine government and ultimately of Messiah’s kingdom are really meant.
Thus far we have seen the intervention of this unnamed land, described as the would-be protector of Israel actively engaging with their swift ships, it would seem on a friendly mission in quest of that scattered people, to plant them again in their own land.
But another enters the scene who puts an arrest on the zeal of man. Universal attention is demanded. Great events tremble in the balances. Signs are given visibly and audibly. “All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains; and when a trumpet is blown, hear ye. For thus Jehovah said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will observe in my dwelling-place like clear heat upon herbs, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest” (vv. 3, 4). God is contemplating this busy enterprise. Man is active. Jehovah, as it were, retires and watches. It is like a clear heat in the sunlight, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. It is a moment of deep stillness and suspense, where He allows apparent advantage of it but does not act Himself, while immense efforts are made to gather in the Jews by the patronage of the maritime nation of verses 1 and 2. All then seemed to flourish: but what is man without God? “For before the harvest, when the bud is finished (or, past), and the blossom becometh a ripening grape, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning-knives, and take away And cut down the branches” (v. 6). Thus total failure of the friendly plan ensues. Everything in appearance betokened a speedy ingathering of good to Israel, and their national hopes seemed to be on the eve of being realized, when God brings all to naught by letting loose once more the old passions of the Gentiles against His people. The effect is that “they shall be left together unto the birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth; and the birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them” (v. 6).
It was not for that power to interfere, nor was it Jehovah’s time; and yet it was for Himself in the end. The shadow of God’s wings is the true resource of His people’s faith (Ps. 57: 61). For “in that time [a period of course, not an epoch merely] shall be brought unto Jehovah of hosts a present of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning and onward, a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion” (v. 7). Thus will the presumptuous help of man be rebuked, as well as the renewed wrath of the nations once more preying on the poor but loved people of Jehovah. For as surely as they turn again to rend Israel, He will appear in the midst of the desolation, and with His own mighty hand accomplish that which man as vainly seeks to effect as to frustrate. The Jewish nation, at that very season, shall be brought a present to Jehovah; and they shall come not empty-handed but emptied of self, with lowly and grateful hearts to Jehovah in Mount Zion, after their final escape from Gentile fury in His mercy which endures for ever. They bring the present, and they are the present to Jehovah. Here, as ever, the dealings of God in judgement result in the blessing of His ancient people; and Zion accordingly is the place where His name is manifested in connection with them. We also see how unreasonable it would be to imagine that the church, called to heavenly glory, is concerned as God’s object in the chapter. It is Israel only, destined to pass through renewed and bitter trouble, most of all at the close, before Jehovah does His own work of establishing them in the seat of royal grace under Messiah and the new covenant. He has never abandoned this purpose of His for the earth.
The call of the church for union with its glorious Head and heavenly glory came into realization, when the Jews stumbled at the Messiah in humiliation, as they had gone after idols, followed respectively by the Babylonish captivity for the latter, and by the Roman destruction for the former. Meanwhile Christendom enjoys far higher privileges; but not having continued in His goodness, it too shall be cut off, and irrevocably. There is no restoration, but utter destruction for the Babylon of Christian times; there is to be for Jerusalem. The natural branches shall be grafted into their own olive-tree. All Israel shall be saved, and so declares the apostle of the Gentiles as to both. The true members of Christ’s body shall be caught up to Christ, and glorified with Him. It is Israel, not the church, which is to be purified on earth, as we see throughout Isaiah and the prophets generally. The restoration of Israel to their land, and supremacy given it over all the nations, we recognize as true and sure. But it is after the heavenly bride has joined the Bridegroom, and purging judgements then fit Israel for its destined place on earth, which is entirely incompatible with the church wherein Jewish and Gentile distinctions are gone, and Christ is all and in all. According to the last great prophecy the church has the promise of being kept out of the hour of temptation that is coming (Rev 3:10 ); whereas all the Gentiles shall be in it, though faithful ones come out (Rev 7 ). Again Jer 30:7 and Dan 12:1 are express that the Jews must pass through it but be delivered – those that are “written in the book. ”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 18:1-7
1Alas, oh land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,
2Which sends envoys by the sea,
Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth,
To a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
3All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth,
As soon as a standard is raised on the mountains, you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.
4For thus the LORD has told me,
I will look from My dwelling place quietly
Like dazzling heat in the sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
5For before the harvest, as soon as the bud blossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
Then He will cut off the sprigs with pruning knives
And remove and cut away the spreading branches.
6They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
7At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the LORD of hosts
From a people tall and smooth,
Even from a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide –
To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, even Mount Zion.
Isa 18:1
NASBAlas
NKJV,
PESHITTAwoe
NRSV, JPSOA Ah
This INTERJECTION (BDB 222) is used often in the prophets (cf. Isa 1:4; Isa 1:24; Isa 5:8; Isa 5:11; Isa 5:18; Isa 5:20-22; Isa 10:1; Isa 10:5; Isa 17:12; Isa 18:1; Isa 28:1; Isa 29:1; Isa 29:15; Isa 30:1; Isa 31:1; Isa 33:1; Isa 45:9; Isa 55:1). Mostly it expresses a negative reaction to the coming pain of divine judgment. However, in some contexts it denotes sympathy or pity, as in Isa 18:1; Isa 55:1; Jer 47:6.
NASB, NRSVland of whirring wings
NKJVthe land shadowed with buzzing wings
TEVa land where the sound of wings is heard
NJBLand of the whirring locust
LXXwings of a land of ships
PESHITTAthe land of shadowing wings
REBa land of sailing ships (from Arabic and Aramaic cognates, Targums, and LXX)
JPSOAland of the deep shadow of wings
This root (, BDB 852) has several possible meanings.
1. 852 I, whirring, buzzing as of the wings of insects
2. 852 II, spear whizzing in flight (cf. Job 40:7)
3. same CONSONANTS, but different VOWELS, whirring locust (cf. Deu 28:42)
4. PLURAL, musical percussion instrument (cf. 2Sa 6:5; 1Ch 13:8; Psa 150:5).
5. related VERB (, BDB 852), tingle (cf. 1Sa 3:11; 2Ki 21:12; Jer 19:3) or quiver (cf. Hab 3:16)
6. 853 II, sink (cf. Exo 15:10)
7. 853 III, grow dark (cf. Neh 13:19; Eze 31:3)
8. related NOUN, , shadow (BDB 853, cf. Isa 4:6; Isa 16:3; Isa 25:4-5; Isa 30:2-3; Isa 32:2; Isa 34:15; Isa 38:8; Isa 49:2; Isa 51:16 (this is how JPSOA translates the phrase)
NASB, MT,
NJB, REBCush
NKJV, LXX,
PESHITTAEthiopia
NRSV footnoteNubia
This refers to the land area south of the first cataract of the Nile. It was known in Genesis as Cush (BDB 468, cf. Gen 2:13; Gen 10:6-8). In the Greek period it was called Ethiopia. Today it would include the Sudan and parts of modern Ethiopia (TEV footnote, p. 625).
In this context (i.e., Isaiah 19), it may refer to the 25th Dynasty of Nubian rulers of Egypt (i.e., Pianchia, Shabaka).
However, notice that the people addressed are beyond the rivers of Cush. Maybe Egypt herself is looking for mercenaries!
Isa 18:2 papyrus vessels At first one would think this must refer to sailing vessels on the Nile, but these same kinds of boats also were used on the Tigris and Euphrates (cf. James M. Freeman, Manners and Customs of the Bible, p. 2560
Go This is a Qal IMPERATIVE. To whom is this addressed?
1. envoys from Cush
2. envoys from Egypt
3. envoys from mercenary groups south of Cush
4. envoys from Assyria
5. all human armies opposing YHWH and His covenant people
Isaiah regularly switches from a historical setting or event to an eschatological setting. The events and crises of his day foreshadow the events of the climatic conclusion of history. This fluidity is difficult to lock down into one historical referent (time, place, people). Cosmic consequences and purposes are at work behind existential events.
This verse characterizes the nation.
1. seafaring people (i.e., reed boats of the Nile, BDB 479 CONSTRUCT BDB 167)
2. tall people (BDB 604, KB 645, Pual PARTICIPLE, lit. to extend)
3. smooth people, BDB 598, KB 634, Pual PARTICIPLE (used of bald heads, but also polished swords and people’s skin: [1] no blemishes, REB, TEV, smooth-skinned’ [2] consistent color, bronzed, NJB; or [3] clean shaven, no facial hair)
4. feared far and wide
5. a powerful nation (Hebrew uncertain, but possibly an idiom for strange language)
6. an oppressive nation (Hebrew uncertain)
7. land divided by rivers (Hebrew uncertain, this VERB, BDB 102, KB 107, Qal PERFECT, occurs only in this chapter, twice. The translation divide is based on an Aramaic root. REB has scourged, referring to an annual flood, however, it could refer to the Tigris and Euphrates)
Numbers 2-6 are repeated in Isa 18:7. This description fits the people south of the first cataract of the Nile, a tall, dark, warlike people group.
However, this context could be understood as Egypt seeking military alliances against Assyria. The term translated tall is never translated this way anywhere else. The universal ring of Isa 18:3 could turn this poem into a message from YHWH that there is no one who can save a nation from His judgment. Egypt herself, nor any other notorious warlike people, can help Judah (cf. Isaiah 7), only YHWH.
Contextually the question
1. is Isaiah 18 an independent poem?
2. is Isaiah 18 related to Isaiah 17?
3. is Isaiah 18 related to Isaiah 19?
NASBa powerful and oppressive nation
NKJVa nation powerful and treading down
NRSVa nation mighty and conquering
TEVa strong and powerful nation
JPSOAa nation of gibber and chatter
The LXX and Peshitta translate this text as addressing a defeated nation, but this is not followed by modern translations.
There are two descriptive NOUNS used of these people.
1. The term mighty (BDB 876) is doubled. This could intensify the term (i.e., sound of their marching armies, IVP Bible Background Commentary, p. 608) or, like JPSOA, change it into a description of their language.
2. The second term (BDB 101) is literally to tread down (NKJV) in the metaphorical sense of conquer.
Isa 18:3 All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth Isaiah has addressed this larger group several times (cf. Isa 2:2-4; Isa 9:7; Isa 11:10-12; Isa 12:4-6; Isa 17:7-8; Isa 26:9). What happens to YHWH’s covenant people affects all nations. The term can refer to worldwide redemption or judgment (cf. Isa 13:11; Isa 24:4; Isa 34:1). In a sense, the use of this term world (BDB 385) shows YHWH’s universal significance, power, and presence, as does the literary unit of judgment on the surrounding nations. YHWH’s acts affect all the earth. He is the Lord of creation!
Who sends the message of Isa 18:3 and to whom is it addressed?
1. Cush to Assyria
2. Anti-Assyrian coalition to Cush (NRSV footnote)
3. Anti-Assyrian message of possible cooperation to Syria and Israel (REB footnote)
4. Cush responding to a message for help from Judah (Jewish Study Bible footnote)
5. JB footnote says that this whole passage refers to Egypt because at this period the Pharaohs were Nubian. So it would be a literary unit with Isaiah 19, not 17!
6. Assyria to the world
7. YHWH to all human enemies who oppose His purpose and people (cf. Psalms 2)
Thus we see again the ambiguous, yet powerful, imagery of Hebrew poetry.
These were means of communicating in battle (i.e., raised standard and trumpet). These symbols could be for
1. judgment (cf. Isa 18:5-6)
2. salvation (cf. Isa 18:7)
How wonderfully this little poem depicts the chaos of earth vs. the tranquility of heaven, as well as what looked like a judgment becomes an invitation (i.e., Isa 2:2-4; Isa 11:10; Isa 49:6; Isa 51:4-8).
Isa 18:4 For thus the LORD has told me This is another specific reference to Isaiah’s claim of inspiration. His message was not his own, but YHWH’s! This is the issue of biblical authority! Has God spoken? Can we understand it? Can we trust it? These are foundational questions that must be answered by everyone and anyone who comes in contact with the Bible. See the sermons The Trustworthiness of the Old Testament and The Trustworthiness of the New Testament online at www.freebiblecommentary.org in Biblical Interpretation Seminar, Lesson Two.
Lines 2-4 describe God’s message to Cush or to Assyria. He speaks securely (two COHORTATIVES) from (1) Mt. Moriah, the temple where He dwells between the wings of the Cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant or (2) a reference to heaven (cf. 1Ki 8:39; 1Ki 8:43; 1Ki 8:49). His presence is radiant!
In the book of Isaiah Jerusalem will never be taken. This verse may reflect that theology. The world may be at war (Isa 18:3), but Judah is secure in YHWH’s security (i.e., Isa 7:4; Isa 8:8). Judah need not form an alliance with Syria/Israel or Egypt. Assyria will be totally defeated.
YHWH’s security, tranquility, and peace in heaven are contrasted with the chaos on earth. This is very similar to the literary structure of the NT book of Revelation, where chaos on earth is described in chapters 2-3, but the heavenly throne room is quiet and peaceful in Isaiah 4-5! History is not a flux, but a means to a teleological climax designed and orchestrated by God!
Isa 18:5 YHWH’s message of judgment is given in agricultural metaphors, which are so common in Isaiah. A lost harvest would devastate those who depended on annual food crops.
This is a metaphor of rapid judgment (cf. Isa 17:14).
Isa 18:6 The death of the human population will become a banquet for the birds of prey and wild beasts.
Isa 18:7 A time is coming when the remnant of these people (or possibly the whole Gentile world) will send another message, but this time not a threat (cf. Isa 18:3), but an offering to YHWH in Jerusalem (cf. Isa 18:7, line 6). The gift would be a cultural/religious symbol acknowledging YHWH’s lordship and reign. The enemies of Isa 18:1-2 are now worshipers! This is the fulfillment of Gen 3:15 (see Special Topic: YHWH’s ETERNAL REDEMPTIVE PLAN ). The redemptive purpose is wider than Abraham’s physical seed. It encompasses his spiritual seed (cf. Rom 2:28-29)!
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV, REB,
LXXfrom
NJBon behalf of
The MT has the NOUN people (BDB 766 I), but no PREPOSITION. Possibly the people themselves are the offering.
The DSS and Septuagint and Vulgate have the PREPOSITION from.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Woe = Ho! The third of the seven burdens.
land. beyond: i.e. land. beyond Abyssinia.
shadowing with wings = of the rustling zalzal (from zalal, to tinkle, compare Deu 28:42).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 18
Now in chapter 18, there are those that see the United States in chapter 18, but it is rather far-fetched and I am sorry that my mind can’t stretch that far. I cannot see the United States in chapter 18.
Woe to the land shadowing with wings ( Isa 18:1 ),
And they point out that on the top of the American flag there’s an eagle with wings. So “shadowing with wings.”
which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia ( Isa 18:1 ):
And, of course, we are beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, in vessels ( Isa 18:2 )
And, of course, the only way our ambassadors could travel to the other lands prior to the aircraft and so forth were by boats. But it does say, “vessels of bulrushes,” and I don’t know of any ambassador that ever went out in a reed boat made of bulrushes.
Now as I say, people can see and I can’t, but people do see the United States in it. What it is basically dealing with is Ethiopia itself, which was making… , which had sent ambassadors to Jerusalem to the king to make a confederacy with them against Assyria. In other words, Assyria was conquering and these Ethiopian ambassadors, big, tall dark skinned, handsome men, were there trying to get Judah to join with them in a confederacy to withstand this invasion from Assyria. And Isaiah was counseling against the confederacy. Not to make a covenant with them, for God was going to watch over them and take care of them and don’t get involved in a treaty, mutual defense pact with these Ethiopians. So, “Woe to the land.”
God is pronouncing the woe that is going to come upon Ethiopia that sends the ambassadors by the sea. They came in these boats down the Nile River from Ethiopia and the boats of bulrushes were light so that when they get to the rapids and all, they could carry them and then put them in. And they came from Ethiopia in these boats of bulrushes to Israel or to Judah, the Southern Kingdom and sought then to make this covenant.
saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation that is scattered and peeled, to a people that is awesome from their beginning hitherto; a nation that is meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have cut through! All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches ( Isa 18:2-5 ).
So Isaiah is saying we don’t need to make the covenant with these people. God is going to take care of them. He’s going to cut them down before they’re able to really fully develop. And so here is the prediction of Assyria’s destruction by God.
They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them ( Isa 18:6 ).
In other words, the vultures will eat the carcasses during the summertime but there are so many, by the time winter is come, even the animals the coyotes and all will be eating the bones of them even through the wintertime.
In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people awesome from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have cut through, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, mount Zion ( Isa 18:7 ).
So the prediction of Assyria’s destruction by the hand of God and no need to join hands with the Ethiopians in a mutual defense pact because God is our defense and God will take care of us. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 18:1-6
Isa 18:1-4
THE ORACLE ABOUT ETHIOPIA
We have avoided the use of the word “burden” in this title, because this prophecy is not a prophecy against Ethiopia, but about Ethiopia. This is called by ancient and present-day commentators alike “The most difficult chapter encountered thus far,” and “One of the most obscure prophecies in Isaiah.
This little chapter falls into two divisions, or stanzas of three verses each, followed by an epilogue of a single verse. As we shall more completely explain below, this little gem gives absolute proof of the predictive nature of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the destruction of the army of Sennacherib.
Regarding the date of the chapter, in our conviction, all of Isaiah must be dated in the lifetime of Isaiah; but in regard to the date of this particular chapter within his lifetime, we have this from Kelley: “Ethiopia and Egypt in Isaiah are used almost synonymously; and this was because Egypt was ruled by Ethiopia by an Ethiopian dynasty (the 25th) from 715 until 603 B.C.; …Bright dates the oracle at 714 B.C. This is undoubtedly correct; because the messengers, or ambassadors, appearing in this passage came from Ethiopia, apparently for the purpose of enlisting Israel (under Hezekiah) in an alliance against Assyria. At this point in time, Samaria had already fallen in 722 B.C. It is most important to keep this date in mind, that is, the date of the oracle in 714, some twelve or thirteen years prior to Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem. Thus, whatever encouragement Isaiah extended to those Ethiopian ambassadors most certainly occurred before the event of Sennacherib’s siege; and that encouragement, as we shall see, included the predicted slaughter of Sennacherib’s army (Isa 18:5-6).
Kidner indicated that the Hebrew word for Ethiopia in this passage, and throughout Isaiah, actually means “Cush. The word is used loosely to refer to countries as distant as the Tigris river; and the principal reason for certainty that modern Ethiopia is meant lies in the reference to a land of flies, and to the tall men with polished skins, clearly indicating the Ethiopians.
The rendering “Woe” in the KJV for Isa 18:1, resulted in the erroneous classification of this prophecy as “Burden of Ethiopia.” Jamieson noted that, “The Hebrew word here does not express a threat, but is rather an appeal for attention.” God is not here speaking against Ethiopians, but to them, appealing for them to hear his prophecy against Assyria, pertaining especially to Sennacherib.
Isa 18:1-3
“Ah, the land of the rustling wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying (this word is italicized in the ASV, indicating that it is not in the text) Go ye, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide. All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye.”
Here is an excellent analysis of what is described in these verses:
“About 725 B.C. Piankhi, the Ethiopian king of Egypt sent ambassadors to the king of Judah, Hezekiah; we can be certain that their purpose was to involve Judah in a coalition against the Assyrians. Isaiah warned Hezekiah against any such folly by providing God’s answer to the ambassadors.
It is also sure that such a coalition with Ethiopia would have been very attractive to one like Hezekiah. Note that the message beginning with the word “Go” is the message of Isaiah, not a message from the ambassadors. The erroneous injection of the interpolated “saying” into this passage is confusing and should be ignored. The terse message of these three verses to the ambassadors is, “Do not be anxious, just go home and watch and see what is going to happen.” (Paraphrased).
“The restling of wings … the rivers of Ethiopia …” “describe Ethiopia with special reference to the swarms of flies and the rivers, which are the Blue and White Nile.” The mention of the ambassadors coming “by sea” primarily refers to the Nile, which is called “sea” in Nah 3:8, and in Isa 19:5.
18:4
“For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
The first clause positively identifies the speaker of the message “Go … etc.” as Jehovah through Isaiah, not as any kind of message from the ambassadors. The meaning is clear. God does not need any allies, nor does he need anyone to tell him what the dangers are; he is watching everything very carefully from his dwelling place On High. Jamieson paraphrased the meaning thus: “I (God) will not interpose but calmly look on while everything promises success to the enemy; but when it reaches maturity, I will destroy it. The serenity, composure, and calmness of God are here contrasted with the hustle and bustle of the Ethiopians and Assyrians. God never needs to get in a hurry. As predicted by Isaiah in Isa 14:25, the enemy will reach the very mountains of Judah. God is here allowing the sins of Assyria to mature; and when the time is ripe judgment will fall.
Isa 18:5
“For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches he will take away and cut down.”
This is an agricultural metaphor to illustrate what God had just said in Isa 18:4 about when the judgment would come. It would be delayed until just before harvest, just before the enemy would reach to claim the prize. Then the disaster would fall.
Isa 18:6
“They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.” “At length the imagery is dropped. The `vine’ is shown to be an army, slaughtered all together, and left a prey to kites and vultures, and to jackals and hyenas.
As is often true in the Bible, every reference to any subject upon which God has spoken, always carries a wealth of new and pertinent information. It was already prophesied in Isa 17:14 that the predicted disaster regarding Sennacherib’s invasion would last only a single night and that it would terminate his threat to Judah. Here it is additionally revealed (1) that a whole army shall be slaughtered “together,” all at once, (2) that the dead would remain unburied, (3) that the bodies would provide food for ravenous birds throughout the summer, and (4) that there would be so many of them that the food supply would also be sufficient to take all of the wild beasts of the earth through the winter. All of this is right here in Isa 18:6!
God through Isaiah prophesied every line of this to the ambassadors of Ethiopia in the act of turning down their request for an alliance against Assyria. Could it possibly be that the threatened nation of Judah would have turned down such a source of aid unless there had been absolute certainty in the ultimate fulfillment of God’s prophecy? and also the absolute certainty that this prophecy was God-given some dozen years before its fulfillment?
For the Biblical account of how this great prophecy was literally fulfilled, see 2 Kings 19, especially 2Ki 19:35-37. Also, if available, read Byron’s poetical account of it, ending in the lines:
“For the might of the Gentile unsmote by the sword
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
Isa 18:1-2 TERROR: Ethiopia was noted far and wide for the abundance of insects populating its territories. Beyond means the land extending far to the south which is bordered by the great rivers of Egypt (the White Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara) which is Ethiopia. Ethiopia had apparently sent envoys (ambassadors) to Judah. They had come in boats constructed of papyrus, a famous feed which grew in abundance along the Nile. This reed was light and would be very buoyant as well as pliable. The craft would probably be made watertight with pitch. The word saying in the text is italicized indicating that it is a word supplied but not a part of the original text. It was not the Ethiopians who said to the ambassadors, Go, but Isaiah the prophet who was saying, in effect, Go back home! The Ethiopians were little known to most of the world in Isaiahs day. There was an aura of mystery about them which tended to make them feared. Their bronze, sleek physique and their efficiency (swift messengers) all contributed to the stories told about their fearsomeness. But why would Isaiah tell them to Go back home?
Isa 18:3-6 TRIUMPH: Apparently Ethiopia had sent ambassadors to Judah to offer treaties of alliance with Judah against her immediate foes, the Syria-Israel coalition, or perhaps, Assyria. Such treaties of alliance would involve some form of compromise by Judah to Ethiopias demands. It would probably involve Judah in pagan practices. An alternative suggestion is that the ambassadors were sent with threats to Judah from Ethiopia herself. Whatever the case, the prophet of God, as much for the benefit of the people of God as for the Ethiopians, bids them Go home and watch and listen for a signal announcing that Jehovah God, the God of Judah, was entering into battle with His enemies. The warning is to the whole world that Jehovah will, in due time, take the situation in hand. There were those of Gods people who probably were getting impatient with Jehovahs postponement of disaster upon their enemies. Twice before the prophet Isaiah had predicted Jehovahs judgment upon Assyria (Isa 10:5-34; Isa 14:24-27). The Lord was apparently doing nothing about all those massive empires threatening Judah on all sides except predict their overthrow. Isaiah portrays Jehovah dwelling quietly, serenely, observing unperturbed as His enemies prepare for the attack. What else befits the Sovereign God of Creation! He has all things completely under His control. He is simply allowing all circumstances to ripen unto His harvest. He is allowing these circumstances and purposes of men to come to fruition in order better to serve His own omniscient purposes. As men prepare their schemes to carry out their own evil purposes, God waits. He wants to give men time to repent. But when they deliberately exchange the truth of God for a lie and deliberately refuse to have God in their knowledge, He gives them up to their own self destruction. What else can He do. They are cut off. They become carrion. They reap what they sow. Almighty God triumphs over them just as He warned He would.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
This is the second of the prophet’s soliloquies, and is of the nature of a proclamation to certain ambassadors who are charged to return to their people and to wait for Jehovah. This charge is delivered because Jehovah has declared that He is waiting, watching, and preparing, that at the right moment He will act in judgment, and the issue will be the subjugation of the opposing peoples.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE LAND SHADOWING WITH WINGS
WE ARE NOW TO CONSIDER a chapter which has given ground for many differences of opinion among Christian scholars, and particularly prophetic interpreters. Many have taken it for granted that the land shadowing with wings is Egypt, because of the winged solar disk which appears upon so many of its monuments and was really a symbol of its power and greatness. But it could hardly be said of Egypt that it lay beyond the rivers of Ethiopia when the Nile descended from Ethiopia, passed through the midst of Egypt, and emptied itself into the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Since the revival of interest in prophetic study during the last century and a half, some have thought that the symbol refers to the United States, because of the fact that on our Great Seal an eagle is represented with outstretched wings. Other nations have used the eagle upon their ensigns and coats-of-arms, but not with overshadowing wings, as it is officially used in America. Many others have assumed that, inasmuch as the reference is undoubtedly to some great maritime power, it was a prophecy of Great Britain who of old gloried in ruling the waves, but it does not seem possible to identify it as referring either to Britain or America with certainty. Perhaps, indeed, it might include both, and with them other nations linked together in the last great confederacy.
F. C. Jennings, in his monumental work on Isaiah, points out that there were two districts known as Cush, the Hebrew word translated “Ethiopia” in this passage; one on the banks of the Euphrates, and the other in what we have known as Abyssinia until recently its ancient name has been restored to it.
The great stretch of country between these two lands was included in that promised to Abraham, and was ruled by both David and Solomon for a time. It seems evident from many prophetic scriptures that Israel will possess all of this land in the millennial day. According to this view, the powers referred to here would be outside and beyond these two rivers and therefore might well include western European lands and others of the western hemisphere unknown to the prophets of old.
We know that ten kingdoms, rising out of the ancient Roman Empire, are to come to the front in the last days, bound together by an offensive and defensive alliance over which that sinister
character designated “the Beast” in Revelation 13 will bear rule. This last confederation of the Gentile nations of the west will for a time act as the friend and ally of Israel, as a nation, restored to their own land. It is, therefore, reasonable to conclude that it is these that are referred to in the opening part of this chapter.
“Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!” (verses 1, 2).
The word here translated “woe” is the same as that rendered “Ho” in Isa 55:1. It is a call to attention. The Lord is summoning this great power lying beyond the rivers of Ethiopia to come to the aid of His people. Undoubtedly it is the people of Israel who are in view for they, indeed, have been through the centuries, “a nation scattered and peeled.” What other people have suffered as they have done and yet maintained their unity and national existence in spite of every effort made to destroy them. They have been “terrible,” or “dreadful,” from their very beginning, for when they went forth as directed by the Lord, the fear of them fell upon all nations that confronted them and their power seemed unlimited, but when they became disobedient, then disaster followed.
“All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. They shall be loft together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them” (verses 3-6).
The return depicted here is evidently not that which is spoken of elsewhere in the prophets and is based upon the repentance of the nation and their recognition of JESUS as the Messiah. The ships of the Gentiles will bring them back to the land while the Lord, as it were, looks on but does not interfere in any special sense. An ensign lifted up in the land will be the signal for the returning to Palestine of those who through the centuries have wandered among the Gentiles.
We may see this being fulfilled already. They are now in the land and recognized by other nations as an independent republic. One could well hope that their sufferings were over, did we not know that even greater distress awaits them in the future when the horrors of the great tribulation will burst upon them in all their fury. Then a remnant will be distinguished from the mass and with this remnant the Lord will be identified.
“In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion” (verse 7).
This coincides with the actual return of the Lord when He will arise to deal in judgment with the enemies of Israel and will recognize the remnant as His people. The great trumpet will be blown, and the outcasts of Israel summoned to return from every land of earth to their ancient patrimony. Surely we may see in all that is going on at the present time in connection with Palestine and the new nation Israel now established there, how readily all these things will have their complete fulfillment as soon as the Church of GOD has been taken out of this scene and caught up to be with the Lord.
GOD’s heart is ever towards Israel and while He has permitted them to pass through such terrible sufferings throughout the long centuries of their dispersion because they knew not the time of their visitation, the day will surely come when, their transgressions forgiven and their hearts renewed, they will be restored to Himself and planted again in their own land – that land which so often the rivers have spoiled!
This refers to a well-known symbol in the prophetic Scriptures. Invading armies are often pictured as overflowing, destructive rivers. Such “rivers” have passed and repassed over the land of Palestine throughout the nearly two millennia since the rejection of CHRIST and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple which followed some forty years later. In all these stresses, Palestine has been an almost continual battleground. Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Rome, and later the Turks and other powers have fought over this land, and whoever has won, the Jew has always been the loser until when, in GOD’s due time, General (later Lord) Allenby entered Jerusalem without firing a shot and the Turkish army fled beyond the borders of the land. GOD has been working providentially toward the fulfillment of His purpose for Israel. Their reliance has been, however, upon their own wisdom and might, assisted at times by the Gentiles, rather than upon GOD Himself, and so there have been many disappointments, and there will be more in the future before the promises of GOD have their complete fulfillment.
~ end of chapter 18 ~
http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/
***
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 18:4
I. Consider the characteristics of the Divine dwelling-place. God’s works are not enough for Him. He dwells with His people. He takes delight in His people. God’s chosen residence is a renewed nature; the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, but the humble heart can. God dwells more really in the renewed soul than He could possibly in the curtained tabernacle or the shechinahed temple in days of old; and the music of the stringed instruments is poor compared with the melody the heart makes to God. To that celestial shrine neither man nor angel indeed can come; but Jesus can enter, and then, “The Lord said unto me, I will take my rest.”
II. “I will consider.” Exceeding sublime are all those passages in which the calm of the Divine mind is contrasted with the passion and the agitation of human affairs. We see here the perfect knowledge God has of the ways of His enemies.
III. See here the illustrations of Divine consideration, the loving and beautiful result. “Like a clear heat.” There shall be impulse, not passion; growth, not force; light and life, not fury and blast. Happy they on whom the Lord thus rests, freshening and brightening; and if the Lord rests on us, if His hand is on us, we shall know it, for we shall be able to rest on Him.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 438.
References: Isa 21:1-10.-S. Cox, An Expositor’s Note-book, p. 183. Isa 21:11.-W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 193; H. J. Robjohns, Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 152; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 219.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 18
When Israel Will be Brought Back
1. The land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (Isa 18:1) 2. The ambassadors sent (Isa 18:2) 3. The trumpet blown and Jehovahs Message (Isa 18:3-6) 4. Israel restored to Mount Zion (Isa 18:7)An interesting prophecy concerning a nation of great power, which will be used in the bringing back of Gods ancient people.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
am cir, 3290, bc cir, 714
Woe: Bp. Lowth renders, after Bochart, “Ho! to the land of the winged cymbal;” which he thinks is a periphrasis for the Egyptian sistrum; and consequently, that Egypt, “which borders on the rivers of Cush,” is the country to which the prophecy is addressed. If we translate “shadowing with wings,” it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings.
the land: Isa 20:3-6, Isa 30:2, Isa 30:3, Isa 31:1
shadowing: Rth 2:12, Psa 17:8, Psa 36:7, Psa 57:1, Psa 61:4, Psa 63:7, Psa 91:4, Mat 23:37
which: 2Ki 19:9, Eze 30:4, Eze 30:5, Zep 2:12, Zep 3:10
Reciprocal: Est 1:1 – from India Eze 29:2 – against all Eze 30:9 – messengers
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 18:1. Wo to the land Or, rather, as Bishop Lowth renders it, and as the particle , here used, undoubtedly means, Isa 55:1, and elsewhere, Ho! to the land. The words seem evidently to contain an address to the land here meant, which is supposed to be Egypt, because of the attributes under which it is spoken of. 1st, It is said to be shadowing, or shadowed with wings, a description which, it is thought, agrees to Egypt, as connected with Ethiopia, because it is situated between two mountains on the eastern and western side of the Nile, which, as it were, overshadow it, especially where it is most narrow, toward Ethiopia, and which unfold themselves more and more in the manner of two wings, from the south toward the north. Thus Vitringa interprets the first member of the prophets description. But the Hebrew word, which our translators render shadowing, properly signifies a sort of timbrel, called in Latin sistrum, which was an instrument of music peculiar to the Egyptians in their sacrifices to Isis; and the two words here used, , tziltzal kenaphim, are interpreted by some, a winged timbrel or cymbal, which is an exact description of the Egyptian sistrum, and therefore is supposed to be made use of here as a distinguishing epithet of Egypt, termed the land of the winged timbrel, or cymbal. This interpretation is adopted by Bishop Lowth and many others. Both interpretations agree in this, that Egypt is the land intended; which is still more manifest from the second attribute mentioned as descriptive of it, that it is beyond, or rather borders upon, the rivers of Ethiopia, the word , signifying either on this side, or on the further side. The word , chush, here rendered Ethiopia, sometimes signifies Arabia, and some interpreters think some rivers of a part of Arabia are meant, beyond which Egypt lay; but Vitringa, Bishop Lowth, and many others, understand the prophet as speaking of the Nile, and some great and celebrated rivers which flow into it from Ethiopia, and very much increase its waters. It is probable, that either the eastern branches of the lower Nile, the boundary of Egypt toward Arabia, are intended, or the parts of the upper Nile toward Ethiopia. It is thought the prophet the rather denominates Egypt from this epithet, because at this time it was under the power of the Ethiopians.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 18:1. Woe to the land shadowing with wingsranges of inaccessible mountains called the mountains of the moon, and those to the east between the Nile and the Red sea. The Nile divided amidst those mountains.
Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; that is, the southern streams and branches of the Nile, which run into the centre of Cush or Ethiopia. We must confess that the language here is very obscure, and the innumerable glosses given to the figures of this verse, is full proof of that obscurity.
Isa 18:2. Vessels of bulrushes. A sort of canoes made of papyrus, and much used in navigating the Nile.
REFLECTIONS.
We learn, notwithstanding the difficulties in the language, that impenitent nations shall be visited for their sins; even the remote Ethiopians could not escape.
God will fix his rest and throne in Zion, and bring the peeled and afflicted nations to worship at his feet. Thus Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isaiah 18. Isaiah Discourages the Schemes of Ethiopia.This chapter is probably connected with the policy of the Egyptian alliance so frequently denounced by Isaiah in 2931. Here the negotiations seem to be in the initial stage, and the courteous language of Isaiah agrees best with the view that at present he did not regard the alliance as within the range of practical politics. The land of Ethiopia is described, with special reference to the swarms of flies. Its rivers are the Blue and White Nile. Ambassadors have been sent to Jerusalem, apparently to induce the Jews to throw off the Assyrian yoke and assure them of support. They have come down the Nile, here called the sea (Isa 19:5*), in light boats of papyrus (Exo 2:3). These were very swift, and could be carried along the bank where the river was not navigable. EV, by inserting saying in Isa 18:2, gives a wrong sense, as if Ethiopia addressed the following words to the ambassadors, sending them to the various parts of the empire. They are rather the words spoken to them by Isaiah, bidding them return from Jerusalem to their own land. They are described as tall and with polished skins, a people of great military strength, trampling other nations beneath its feet, and inhabiting a land intersected by numerous rivers, unlike Judah, which was so poor in streams. The whole world is bidden observe the signal given for the overthrow of Assyria, since not Ethiopia alone but many other peoples are deeply concerned in her fate. Through a special revelation Isaiah has learnt the explanation of Yahwehs conduct and his knowledge of His future action. Unlike the busy, intriguing nations, whose action all ends in nothing, Yahweh waits quietly till the time is ripe, when He intervenes with effect. The heat and cloud ripen the harvest, and they also fitly symbolise the stillness in which Yahweh bides His time. He waits because Assyria has still His work to do, and only when that is accomplished does He cut her down. Just when the plans of Assyria are on the eve of accomplishment Yahweh brings them to nothing. Ravenous beasts and birds will prey on the corpses of the Assyrian soldiers. Then the Ethiopians will send a present to Zion for Yahweh.
Isa 18:2. that meteth out and treadeth down: render, probably, a people of strength and treading down.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
18:1 Woe to the {a} land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Cush:
(a) He means that part of Ethiopia which lies toward the sea, which was so full of ships that the sails (which he compares to wings) seemed to shadow the sea.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The land that lies beyond the rivers of Cush was Cush (Nubia), notable for its ships, whose sails looked like the whirring wings of insects over water from a distance. Another view of the whirling wings is that they represent swarming hordes of people, including soldiers. [Note: Young, 1:474-75.] Cush was at the end of the earth in Isaiah’s day and therefore symbolized the ends of the earth; it was a great distance from Judah. Some scholars believe Cush lay within what is now Ethiopia, but others think Cush included modern southern Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and northern Ethiopia. [Note: See J. Daniel Hays, "The Cushites: A Black Nation in the Bible," Bibliotheca Sacra 153:612 (October-December 1996):396-409.] Envoys from Cush may have traveled to Moab, Philistia, and Judah seeking an alliance against Assyria. [Note: Oswalt, p. 360.]
Isaiah called on these messengers from Ethiopia to go to a nation tall and smooth (shaven). This was a common description of the Nubians (or Cushites). They were to go to a people feared far and wide, perhaps the Egyptians or the Assyrians. They were to go to a powerful and oppressive nation whose land was divided by rivers, again perhaps the Egyptians, the Assyrians, or even the Medes. Taken together these descriptions represent all great, aggressive nations.
All the recipients of this message, the "inhabitants of the world and dwellers on earth" (Isa 18:3), were to hear that a sovereign (the Lord) would issue a call to battle. No one could miss that call when it came.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
32
CHAPTER XVII
ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS
736-702 B.C.
Isa 14:24-32; Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14; Isa 17:1-14; Isa 18:1-7; Isa 19:1-25; Isa 20:1-6; Isa 21:1-17; Isa 23:1-18
THE centre of the Book of Isaiah (chapters 13 to 23) is occupied by a number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of perplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the exhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast prospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far as the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar experience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from the twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the thirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies obscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The subjects of them are the nations, tribes, and cities with which in Isaiahs day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian conquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the familiar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in other obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a friend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of tribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to identify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much Gospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an occasional gleam of the picturesque-a sandstorm in the desert, the forsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypts canals or Phoenicias harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a grave Ethiopian embassy.
But in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand Isaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes; we must traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to search every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the various oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of Bible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the meaning of all the oracles round them.
First, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The twenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to Jerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chapters 13-14:23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that did not arise till long after Isaiahs time, and so falls to be considered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this volume. (See Book V)
All the rest of these chapters-14-21 and 23-refer to Isaiahs own day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout his career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after the year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general rebellion of the Assyrian vassals.
1. Isa 14:24-27 -OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken. Probable date, towards 701.
2. Isa 14:28-32 -ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning to Philistia not to rejoice because one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: “Out of the serpents root shall come forth a basilisk. Philistia shall be melted away, but Zion shall stand.” The inscription to this oracle (Isa 14:28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession of Assyrian, not Judaean, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of the death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it refers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne-the death of Salmanassar and the accession of Sargon.
3 Isa 15:1-9 – Isa 16:12 -ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This oracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life, or more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and intimates its immediate fulfilment, in Isa 16:13-14 : “This is the word which Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great multitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account.” The dates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its reissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about 711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod conspiracy or in 704, when, with other states, Moab came under the cloud of Sennacheribs invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for its vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the sympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of a “remnant” of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her adversity “to the mount of the daughter of Zion”; {Isa 16:1} for an appeal to Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: “Bring counsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer;” for a statement of the Messiah similar to those in chapters 9 and 11; and for the offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in Messianic times (Isa 16:4-5). But there is one great obstacle to this prospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah-Moabs arrogance. “We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud,” {Isa 16:6, cf. Jer 48:29; Jer 48:42; Zep 2:10} which pride shall not only keep this country in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their own sanctuary (Isa 16:12)-a very remarkable admission about the worship of another god than Jehovah.
4. Isa 17:1-11 -ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp of Isaiahs prophecies. Of the time of Syrias and Ephraims league against Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732.
5. Isa 17:12-14 -UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and their dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse below, is usually understood of Sennacheribs rush upon Jerusalem. Isa 17:14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and “retreat from Moscow” of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as “nations,” as they are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah. {Isa 22:6; Isa 29:7} But in all this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to Sennacheribs invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of Isaiahs confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its proximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and it would stand as a parallel prophecy to Isa 8:9 : “Make an uproar, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the distances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces”-a prophecy which we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.
6. Isa 18:1-7 -UNTITLED. An address to Ethiopia, “land of a rustling of wings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the rivers in their skiffs of reed.” The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into excitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting quietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians shall see His sudden miracle they shall send their tribute to Jehovah, “to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion.” It is difficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this prophecy-Sargons or Sennacheribs? For at the time of both of these an Ethiopian ruled Egypt.
7. Isa 19:1-25 -ORACLE FOR EGYPT. The first fifteen verses (Isa 19:1-15) describe judgment as ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the religious results to Egypt of that judgment, and they form the most universal and “missionary” of all Isaiahs prophecies. Although doubts have been expressed of the Isaiah authorship of the second half of this chapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary style, which is judged to be “a pale reflection” of Isaiahs own, there is no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there are insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date which is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this prophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiahs “missionary” opinions, see Cheynes introduction to the chapter and Robertson Smiths notes in “The Prophets of Israel” (p. 433). The latter puts it in 703, during Sennacheribs advance upon the south. The former suggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much later than the first, and justly says, “We can hardly imagine a more swan-like end for the dying prophet.”
8. Isa 20:1-6 -UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier date than at least the latter half of chapter 19. Tells how Isaiah walked naked and barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and against the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when the Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod.
9. Isa 21:1-10 -ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THESEA, announcing but lamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709.
10. Isa 21:11-12 -ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or Silence – Psa 94:17; Psa 115:17, “the land of the silence of death,” the grave – is probably used as an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in their own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under-the silence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by a cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. “Unto me one is calling from Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night? Said the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire, come back again.” What other answer is possible for a land on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may, however, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date uncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.
11. 21:13-17 -ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their neighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon Edom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: “in the forest, in Arabia,” or with the same consonants, “in the evening.” In the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling merchants have to go aside from their great trading roads “in the evening to lodge in the thickets.” There they entertain fugitives, or (for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives entertained. It is a picture of the “grievousness of war,” which was now upon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But things have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds of armies, that “within a year” shall waste the “children of Kedar,” for Jehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little Jerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his nations God.
12. Isa 23:1-18 -ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib came south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us.
These, then, are Isaiahs oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue, and go down before the might of Assyria.
We have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these prophecies round three representative texts. These are-
1. “Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of mighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the chaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the whirlwind.” {Isa 17:12-13}
2. “What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His people.” {Isa 14:32}
3. “In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My hands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel”. {Isa 19:24-25}
I.
The first of these texts shows all the prophets prospect filled with storm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst of the storm: Zion, His own watchtower and His peoples refuge; while the third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of the firm continent which shall rise out of the waters-Israel no longer a solitary lighthouse, “but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth.” These three texts give us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiahs obscure prophecies to the foreign nations-a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it, and the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.
The restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719, when Sargons victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of Egypt) found vent, as we saw, in two great Explosions, for both of which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion happened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on Sargons death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched south on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to and fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from Babylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the cities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem, the one inviolate capital from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And the one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have already seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiahs attention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of Jerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his sympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach. Jerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field-and this is the peculiar glory of the prophets later life-his field is the world.
How well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the worlds watchtower, the traveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central ridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you stand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost of Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of Gilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts beyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the immemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours walk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of Judah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills, Hermons snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and that through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest of the old worlds highways-the main caravan road from the Euphrates to the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there sweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire whose troops and commerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow the line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so out upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has brought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels. Then, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from south to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open to you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the Mediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in the world. But in Isaiahs day, when the world was smaller, the high places of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it.
But Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an actor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiahs reign he was the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection with the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days, when the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy, this little highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples. From Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no doubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or to inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us still in Isaiahs descriptions: “tall and shiny” figures of Ethiopians {Isa 18:2}, with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned, shining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the prophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a knowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and accurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her industries (chapter 19); the harbours and markets of Tyre (chapter 23); the caravans of the Arab nomads, as in times of war they shun the open desert and seek the thickets {Isa 21:14} -Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid realism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet of a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was aware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They are no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these prophecies. He looks out upon and paints for us, lands and cities surging with men-their trades, their castes, their religions, their besetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national policies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the coming storm from the north.
We have said that in nothing is the legal power of our prophets style so manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words, he calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made in this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever forget those descriptions-of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?-“Ah! the land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush, which sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of the waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to a nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and trampling, whose land the rivers divide”; or of Tyre in chapter 23?-“And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations.” What expanses of sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads of grain! what concourse of merchants moving on stately wharves beneath high warehouses!
Yet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps the prophet reaches the height of his power of expression in the first of the three texts, which we have given as representative of his prophecies on foreign nations. Here three or four lines of marvellous sound repeat the effect of the rage of the restless world as it rises, storms, and breaks upon the steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage are wonderful. The general impression is that of a stormy ocean booming in to the shore and then crashing itself out into one long hiss of spray and foam upon its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In Isa 17:12 we have thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy Bs, to five Ns, five Hs, and four sibilants. But in Isa 17:13 the sibilants predominate; and before the sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of Isa 17:12 scatters out into a long yish-sha oon. The occasional use of a prolonged vowel amid so many hurrying consonants produces exactly the effect now of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the pause of a great wave before it crashes on the shore. “Ah, the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush: nations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He checketh it”-a short, sharp word with a choke and a snort in it-“and it fleeth far away, and is chased like chaff on mountains before wind, and like swirling dust before a whirlwind.”
So did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as it crashed into pieces upon the steadfast providence of God. To those who can feel the force of such language nothing need be added upon the prophets view of the politics of the outside world these twenty years, whether portions of it threatened Judah in their own strength, or the whole power of storm that was in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed upon Zion in the year 701.
II.
But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It is upon Zion that the storm crashes itself into impotence. This becomes explicit in the second of our representative texts: “What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find a refuge the afflicted of His people”. {Isa 14:32} This oracle was drawn from Isaiah by an embassy of the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the Assyrian advance, they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other tribes did, with questions and proposals of defences, escapes, and alliances. They got their answer, Alliances are useless. Everything human is going down. Here, here alone, is safety, because the Lord hath decreed it.
With what light and peace do Isaiahs words break out across that unquiet, hungry sea! How they tell the world for the first time, and have been telling it ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and strife of history, there is a refuge and security of men, which God Himself has assured. The troubled surface of life, nations heaving uneasily, kings of Assyria and their armies carrying the world before them-these are not all. The world and her powers are not all. Religion, in the very teeth of life, builds her a refuge for the afflicted.
The world seems wholly divided between force and fear. Isaiah says, It is not true. Faith has her abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God, which neither force can harm nor fear enter.
This then was Isaiahs Interim-Answer to the Nations-Zion at least is secure for the people of Jehovah.
III.
Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so narrow an interim-answer: Zion at least is secure, whatever happens to the rest of you. The world was there, and had to be dealt with and accounted for-had even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was the problem of Isaiahs generation; and to have shirked it would have meant the failure of his faith to rank as universal.
Isaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, and to the nations: “The faith we have covers this vaster life. Jehovah is not only God of Israel. He rules the world.” These prophecies to the foreign nations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and providence of God. The Assyrian may seem to be growing in glory; but Jehovah is watching from the heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down. {Isa 18:4} Egypts statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but Jehovah of hosts swingeth His hand against the land: “they shall tremble and shudder”. {Isa 19:16} Egypt shall obey His purposes (chapter 17). Confusion may reign for a time, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and the world gather itself in order round the revealed will of God. The audacity of such a claim for his God becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiahs faith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering people. When he made his claim, Judah was still tributary to Assyria, a petty highland principality, that could not hope to stand by material means against the forces which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. It was. no experience of success, no mere instinct of being on the side of fate, which led Isaiah so resolutely to pronounce that not only should his people be secure, but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon empires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his sense that Jehovah was exalted in righteousness. Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant that took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside Judah wherever there was unrighteousness, it would be rebuked, and wherever righteousness, it would be vindicated. This is the supremacy which Isaiah proclaimed for Jehovah over the whole world.
How spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from the next step the prophet took. Looking out on the troubled world, he did not merely assert that his God ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far more difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously and willingly Gods. God rules this, not to restrain it only, but to make it His own. The knowledge of Him, which is today our privilege, shall be tomorrow the blessing of the whole world.
When we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed in the Old Testament, of making the whole world subject to Jehovah, we are told that it is simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. We are told that this wish to convert the world no more stamps the Jewish religion as being a universal, and therefore presumably a Divine, religion than the Mohammedans zeal to force their tenets on men at the point of the sword is a proof of the truth of Islam.
Now we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish religion in its every particular, even as propounded by an Isaiah. It is an article of the Christian creed that Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation, where truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. But at least let us do the Jewish religion justice; and we shall never do it justice till we pay attention to what its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how they sympathised with this, and in what way they proposed to make it subject to their own faith.
Firstly then, there is something in the very manner of Isaiahs treatment of foreign nations, which causes the old charges of religious exclusiveness to sink in our throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon-nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation-and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the same purely moral considerations with which he has treated his own land. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He shows as intelligent an interest in their social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State. He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt as careful as his pictures of the fashions and statecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole, every part of which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he says decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt, the great commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect and admiration; but that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you are unrighteous, intemperate, impure-lying diplomats and dishonest rulers-you shall certainly perish before Assyria. If you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.
But, secondly, he, who thus treated all nations with the same strict measures of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated his own, was surely not far from extending to the world the religious privileges which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his old age, at least, Isaiah looked forward to the time when the particular religious opportunities of the Jew should be the inheritance of humanity. For their old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he anticipates the same experience and education which have made Israel the firstborn of God. Speaking to Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary sermon, fit to take its place beside that which Paul uttered on the Areopagus to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, “In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel Mine inheritance.”