Isaiah 18

Isaiah 18:1

Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush,

Isaiah 18:1 · BSB

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.

Isaiah 18:2

which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

Isaiah 18:2 · BSB

vessels It is well known that the Egyptians commonly used on the Nile a light sort of ships or boats made of the papyrus. See note on Exodus 2 . 3.

scattered and peeled or , outspread and polished , Or , as Bp. Lowth renders , "stretched out in length and smoothed." Egypt , which is situated between 24 degrees and 32 degrees n lat. and 30 degrees and 33 degrees e long. , being bounded on the south by Ethiopia , on the north by the Mediterranean , on the east by the mountains of Arabia , and on the west by those of Lybia , is one long vale , 750 miles in length . through the middle of which runs the Nile in breadth from one to two or three day's journey , and even at the widest part of the Delta , from Pelusium to Alexandria , not above 250 miles broad.

Meted out and trodden down or , that meteth out and treadeth down , Heb. of line , line , and treading under foot , This is an allusion to the frequent necessity of having recourse to mensuration in Egypt , in order to determine their boundaries , after the inundation of the Nile had smoothed their land and effaced their landmarks; and to their method of throwing seed upon the mud , when the waters had subsided , and treading it in by turning their cattle into the fields.

Isaiah 18:3

All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it.

Isaiah 18:3 · BSB

Isaiah 18:4

For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

Isaiah 18:4 · BSB

upon herbs or , after rain

Isaiah 18:5

For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches.

Isaiah 18:5 · BSB

Isaiah 18:6

They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the land. The birds will feed on them in summer, and all the wild animals in winter.

Isaiah 18:6 · BSB

Isaiah 18:7

At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.

Isaiah 18:7 · BSB