Isaiah 18 - Introduction

‘The eighteenth chapter of Isaiah,’ says bishop Horsley, ‘is one of the most obscure passages of the ancient prophets. It has been considered as such by the whole succession of interpreters from Jerome to Dr. Lowth.’ ‘The object of it,’ says Dr. Lowth, ‘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 they are sent, are all obscure and doubtful. Much of the obscurity lies in the highly figurative cast of the language, and in the ambiguity of some of the principal words, arising from the great variety of the senses often comprehended under the primary meaning of a single root.’

Lowth supposes that Egypt is the country referred to; that the prophecy was delivered before the return of Sennacherib’s expedition to Egypt; and that it was designed to give to the Jews, and perhaps likewise to the Egyptians, an intimation of the destruction of their great and powerful enemy. Taylor, the editor of Calmet’s “Dictionary,” supposes that it relates to a people lying in southern, or Upper Egypt, or the country above the cataracts of the Nile, that is, Nubia; and that the people to whom the message is sent are those who were situated north on the river Nile: where the various streams which go to form the Nile become a single river; and that the nation represented as ‘scattered and peeled,’ or as he renders it, ‘a people contracted and deprived,’ that is, in their persons, refers to the Pigmies, as they are described by Homer, Sirabo, and others (see this view drawn out in the “Fragments” appended to Calmet’s “Dict.” No. cccxxii.) Rosenmuller says of this prophecy, that ‘it is involved in so many: and so great difficulties, on account of unusual expressions and figurative sentences, and the history of those times, so little known to us, that it is impossible to explain and unfold it.

We seem to be reading mere “enigmas,” in explaining which, although many learned interpreters have taken great pains, yet scarcely two can be found who agree.’ Gesenius connects it with the closing verse of the previous chapter; and so does also Vitringa. Gesenius supposes that it refers to a nation in distant Ethiopia in alliance with Israel. To this, says he, and to all the nations of the earth, the prophet addresses himself, in order to draw their attention to the sudden overthrow which God would bring upon the enemy, after he has quietly looked upon their violence for a long time. According to this view, the prophecy belongs to the period immediately preceding the 14th year of Hezekiah, when the Assyrian armies had already overrun, or were about to overrun Palestine on their way to Egypt, and the prophet confidently predicts their destruction. At this time, he remarks, Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, with a part of Egypt, had armed himself against the Assyrians, for which purpose he had probably entered into an alliance with the Hebrews. To this friend and ally of Israel, the prophet gives the assurance that God was about to destroy completely the common enemy, the Assyrian. By some, the land here referred to has been supposed to be Egypt; by others, Ethiopia in Africa; by others, Judea; by others, the Roman empire; and others have supposed that it refers to the destruction of Gog and Magog in the times of the Messiah. Vitringa supposes that the prophecy must be referred either to the Egyptians or the Assyrians; and as there is no account, he says, of any calamity coming upon the Egyptians like that which is described in Isaiah 17:4, and as that description is applicable to the destruction of the Assyrians under Sennacherib, he regards it as referring to him.

Calvin says that many have supposed that the Troglodytes of Upper Egypt are meant here, but that this is improbable, as they were not known to have formed any alliances with other nations. He supposes that some nation is referred to in the vicinity of Egypt and Ethiopia, but what people he does not even conjecture. Amidst this diversity of opinion, it may seem rash to hazard a conjecture in regard to the situation of the nation who sent the messengers, and the nation to whom they were “sent;” and it is obviously improper to hazard such a conjecture without a careful examination of the phrases and words which occur in the prophecy. When that is done - when the characteristics of the nation have been fully determined, then, perhaps, we may be able to arrive at some satisfactory conclusion in regard to this very difficult portion of the Bible. The prophecy consists of the following parts:

1. The prophet addresses him self to the nation here described as a ‘land shadowing with wings,’ and as sending ambassadors, in a manner designed to call their attention to the great events soon to occur Isaiah 18:1.

2. He addresses all nations, calling upon them also to attend to the same subject Isaiah 18:3.

3. He says that God had revealed to him that destruction should come upon the enemies here referred to, and that the immense host should be left to the beasts of the earth, and to the fowls of the mountains Isaiah 18:4.

4. The consequence, he says, of such events would be, that a present would be brought to Yahweh from the distant nation ‘scattered and peeled,’ and whose land the rivers had spoiled Isaiah 18:7.