Isaiah 18
18
Ethiopia
1Ah! Land of buzzing insects,#Land of buzzing insects: the region of the Upper Nile where these multiplied with great rapidity. Ethiopia: in Hebrew, Kush. The center of this ancient kingdom corresponds geographically to the modern Sudan, Roman Nubia. Papyrus boats: light and serviceable vessels made of bundles of papyrus stalks and sealed with pitch. Egypt, ruled by a dynasty from Ethiopia, had invited Judah to join a coalition against Assyria, but Isaiah told the ambassadors to return to their own people.
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,#Zep 3:10.
2Sending ambassadors by sea,
in papyrus boats on the waters!
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and bronzed,
To a people dreaded near and far,
a nation strong and conquering,
whose land is washed by rivers.#Is 18:7.
3#A more general address but probably relating to the same topic. The Lord will not act at once, but later there will be a “harvest” of terrible destruction, probably directed against Assyria (cf. 14:24–27). All you who inhabit the world,
who dwell on earth,
When the signal is raised on the mountain, look!
When the trumpet blows, listen!
4For thus says the Lord to me:
I will be quiet, looking on from where I dwell,#Is 8:18; 18:7; 2 Chr 6:30; Ps 33:14.
Like the shimmering heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew at harvest time.
5Before the vintage, when the flowering has ended,
and the blooms are succeeded by ripening grapes,
Then comes the cutting of branches with pruning hooks,
and the discarding of the lopped-off shoots.
6They shall all be left to the mountain vultures
and to the beasts of the earth;
The vultures shall summer on them,
all the beasts of the earth shall winter on them.
7Then will gifts be brought to the Lord of hosts—to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion—from a people tall and bronzed, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers.#Is 45:14; Ps 68:30; Zep 3:10; Mal 1:11.
Currently Selected:
Isaiah 18: NABRE
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc
Isaiah 18
18
Ethiopia Will Be Punished
1 #
Zep 2.12. Downstream from Ethiopia#18.1 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11.
lies the country of Egypt,
swarming with insects.#18.1 insects: Or “sailing ships.”
2Egypt sends messengers
up the Nile River
on ships made of reeds.#18.2 reeds: Ancient Egypt was famous for the papyrus reeds that grew in the Nile Delta.
Send them fast to Ethiopia,
whose people are tall
and have smooth skin.
Their land is divided by rivers;
they are strong and brutal,
feared all over the world.#18.2 world: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 2.
3Everyone on this earth,
listen with care!
A signal will be given
on the mountains,
and you will hear a trumpet.
4The Lord said to me,
“I will calmly look down
from my home above—
as calmly as the sun at noon
or clouds in the heat
of harvest season.”
5Before the blossoms
can turn into grapes,
God will cut off the sprouts
and hack off the branches.
6Ethiopians will be food
for mountain vultures
during the summer
and for wild animals
during the winter.
7Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount Zion.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.