Isaiah
Chapter 18
Against the Kingdom of Nubia
Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush,
which sends ambassadors by sea in papyrus boats over the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and bronzed, to a nation feared far and wide, a nation conquering and strong, whose land the rivers divide.
All you inhabitants of the world, all you who dwell on earth, when a banner on the mountain is raised, look! When a horn on the hill is sounded, listen!
For thus the Lord spoke to me: “From where I dwell, I gaze untroubled, like heat shimmering in the sunshine, like a dewy mist in the heat of harvest.”
For before the vintage, when the flowers fall, and the blooms become ripened grapes, I will cut shoots and prune and hew away, spreading branches.
They will be left to the birds of prey and to the beasts of the earth. The birds will feed on them all summer, and the beasts all winter.
At that time, the tall, bronzed people from a country traversed by rivers —a conquering and strong nation feared far and wide— will bring offerings to the Lord Sabaoth to Mount Zion. For this is the place where the name of the Lord dwells.
Commentaries
Against the Kingdom of Nubia.
Ethiopia was called Kush, but here it refers explicitly to Egypt, which at that time was ruled by an Ethiopian dynasty. From there, messengers and ambassadors had been sent to Judah to propose a coalition against Assyria. The prophet invites them to return and concurrently predicts the invasion of that country. This indeed happened in the mid-7th century B.C. under Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. The oracle concludes with a prophecy about the conversion of the Ethiopians. Some phrases from verse 2 are repeated, describing how these people will send their gifts and offerings to the temple in Jerusalem (Zep 3:10); this was a way of signaling their friendship with the Jews.