Against the “land beyond the rivers of Cush”
18
📚Woe to the land of whirring wings 📖,
which is beyond
the rivers of Ethiopia 📖,
2 📚That sends ambassadors
by sea,
in vessels of bulrushes
on the water, saying,
“Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and
smooth skinned,
to a people dreaded from
their beginning to now,
a nation powerful and oppressive,
whose land is divided
by rivers.
18:1-2 The language of this chapter is very obscure and so interpretation is difficult.⚜
3 📚All you inhabitants
of the world,
and dwellers on the earth,
look when he lifts up a banner
on the mountains;
and listen when he blows
a trumpet.
18:3 Banners and trumpets indicate war (Isa 5:26-29; 13:2-3; 31:9; Josh 6:20; Jud 3:27). A great movement of armies is suggested by this verse.⚜
4 📚For so the LORD said
to me,
“I will take my rest,
and I will look on from
my dwelling place 📖,
like bright heat in the
sunshine,
and like a cloud of dew
in the heat of harvest”.
5 📚For before the harvest,
when the bud is perfect,
and the sour grape is ripening
in the flower,
he will both cut off the shoots
with pruning hooks,
and remove and cut away
the branches.
6 📚They will be left together
for the birds of
the mountains,
and for the beasts of the earth;
and the birds will spend
their summers in them,
and all the beasts of the earth
will winter in them.
18:5-6 Depicts a sudden destruction of an army. Compare Isa 17:12-14.⚜
7 📚At that time a present 📖
will be brought to the LORD
of hosts from a people 📖 tall
and smooth skinned,
and from a people dreaded
from their beginning up
to now,
a nation powerful and
oppressive,
whose land is divided
by rivers,
to the place of the name of the LORD
of hosts, Mount Zion.