Isaiah 18:1-7
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 scattereda 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 considerb 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 scatteredc 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.
Isaiah 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.
Isaiah 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.