Isaiah 18

Trouble is coming to the land of whirring wings, the land that lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

1Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

Note"Ethiopia" here translates Cush, the kingdom on the Nile south of Egypt, in what is now southern Egypt and Sudan, not the modern country of Ethiopia. In Isaiah's day a Cushite dynasty ruled Egypt as well, so this is a message to a great power. "Land of whirring wings" renders a Hebrew phrase whose sense is disputed: it may point to swarms of insects along the Nile, to clouds of birds, or to the beating of many oars or sails on the river.

2It sends its messengers out over the water by sea, traveling in boats made of papyrus reeds. Go, swift messengers, to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, to a people feared far and wide from their beginning until now, a strong nation whose speech is strange, a nation that tramples others down, whose land the rivers divide.

2That 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!

NotePapyrus boats were light craft made from bundled reeds, well known on the Nile and fast enough for carrying urgent messages; Egyptian and Cushite envoys were famous for them. The "messengers" are diplomatic envoys sent to arrange alliances. The description of the people is uncertain in the Hebrew: the words behind "tall and smooth-skinned" mean literally something like "drawn out and scraped clean," and behind "tramples others down" lies a phrase that could mean either a nation that measures out and treads down others, or one that has itself been measured out for conquest and trodden down. Ancient readers had the same ambiguity in front of them. "Whose land the rivers divide" points to the Nile and its branches cutting the country into sections.

3All of you who live in the world, everyone who lives on the earth: when a signal flag is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a ram's horn is blown, you will hear it.

3All 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.

NoteA signal flag, or standard, was a pole with a marker raised on high ground to call troops together or to warn a region that something was coming. The ram's horn (Hebrew shofar) was not a musical instrument but a signaling device: its blast meant alarm, assembly, or the start of battle, and carried for miles.

4This is what the LORD said to me: I will stay still and watch quietly from the place where I live, like shimmering heat in bright sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest time.

4For 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.

NoteIn that climate almost no rain falls between spring and autumn. The shimmer of heat over the ground and the heavy night dew that settles during the harvest weeks were the ordinary, silent conditions under which crops ripened, the images are of something present and steady rather than dramatic.

5Before the harvest comes, when the blossom is finished and the flower is turning into a ripening grape, he will cut off the young shoots with pruning knives, and he will take away and cut down the spreading branches.

5For 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.

NoteVines were pruned in the normal course of the year, but cutting away the shoots at this exact moment (after the blossom has dropped and the fruit has just set) destroys that year's crop before a single grape can be picked. The pruning knife was a small curved blade used for exactly this work.

6They will all be left together for the birds of prey in the mountains and for the wild animals of the land. The birds will feed on them all through the summer, and all the wild animals will feed on them all through the winter.

6They 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.

NoteLeaving bodies out for scavenging birds and animals instead of burying them was, in the ancient Near East, the ultimate disgrace for the dead. "All through the summer... all through the winter" means they are left there right around the year, never gathered up.

7At that time a gift will be brought to the LORD of Hosts, the God who commands the armies of heaven. It will come from that people, tall and smooth-skinned, feared far and wide from their beginning until now, that strong nation of strange speech which tramples others down, whose land the rivers divide. The gift will be brought to Mount Zion, the place where the name of the LORD of Hosts is.

7In 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.

NoteThe "gift" is tribute: goods formally presented to a ruler as an acknowledgment of his authority. Mount Zion is the ridge in Jerusalem where the temple stood. "The place where the name of the LORD of Hosts is" uses a standard Hebrew way of speaking: a person's name stood for the person himself, so this means the place where God has made himself known and can be approached.