CHAPTER XVIII _This chapter contains a very obscure prophecy; possibly_ _designed to give the Jews, and perhaps the Egyptians, whose_ _country is supposed to be meant_, 1, 2, _and with whom many Jews resided, an indignation of God's_ _interposition in favour of Sion_, 3, 4; _and of his counsel... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 18:2. _IN VESSELS OF BULRUSHES_ - "In vessels of papyrus"] This circumstance agrees perfectly well with Egypt. It is well known that the Egyptians commonly used on the Nile a light sort of ships, or boats, made of the reed papyrus. Ex ipso quidem papyro navigia texunt. PLINY, xlii. 11.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 18:3. _WHEN HE LIFTETH UP AN ENSIGN_ - "When the standard is lifted up"] I take God to be the Agent in this verse; and that by the standard and the trumpet are meant the meteors, the thunder, the lightning, the storm, earthquake, and tempest, by which Sennacherib's army shall be destro... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 18:4. _FOR SO THE LORD SAID UNTO ME_ - "For thus hath JEHOVAH said unto me"] The subject of the remaining part of this chapter is, that God would comfort and support his own people, though threatened with immediate destruction by the Assyrians; that Sennacherib's great designs and migh... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 18:5. _THE FLOWER_ - "The blossom"] Heb. _her_ blossom; נצה _nitstsah_, that is, _the blossom of the vine_, גפן gephen, vine, understood, which is of the common gender. See Genesis 40:10. Note, that by the defective punctuation of this word, many interpreters, and our translators among... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Isaiah 18:7. _THE PRESENT_ - "A gift"] The Egyptians were in alliance with the kingdom of Judah, and were fellow-sufferers with the Jews under the invasion of their common enemy Sennacherib; and so were very nearly interested in the great and miraculous deliverance of that kingdom, by the dest... [ Continue Reading ]