Isaiah 18:1-7

Isaiah: God controls the nations

God’s plans for Judah, Assyria and Egypt

Isaiah Chapter s 10 to 20

Norman Hillyer

Chapter 18

God will punish Cush

v1 *Woe to the country called Cush where clouds of insects fly across the rivers. v2 The people in Cush have sent *messengers across the sea. The *messengers have travelled in fast boats over the water.

Return home, fast *messengers. Go back to your nation of tall people with smooth skins. To your cruel nation that spreads fear everywhere. To your powerful nation of strange speech, to your land of many rivers. v3 Watch, all you people of the world! Listen, you who live on the earth! When a sign appears on the top of the mountains, you will see it. And when the alarm sounds, you will hear it.

v4 The *Lord said to me, ‘I shall simply watch from where I am. I shall be as quiet as warmth that comes from the sun. I shall be as quiet as the early mist when it lifts in the summer of harvest.’

v5 Before the new *grapes appear, an enemy will have destroyed the great army of Cush. It will happen as easily as a sharp knife cuts branches from a tree. v6 All the soldiers will be dead. Their bodies will be food for vultures (birds that eat dead bodies) all the summer and for wild animals all the winter. v7 The time is coming when the *Lord (commander of heaven’s armies) will accept gifts from the fierce inhabitants of the land of many rivers. And the tall people with smooth skins, who once frightened everyone, will give honour to the *Lord in *Jerusalem.