> [[isaiah-17|← Previous]] | [[isaiah-00|TOC]] | [[isaiah-19|Next →]] --- # Isaiah, Chapter 18 ## Chapter 18 ### Ethiopia 1 Ah! Land of buzzing insects, ^isaiah-18-1 beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, 2 Sending ambassadors by sea, ^isaiah-18-2 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. 3 All you who inhabit the world, ^isaiah-18-3 who dwell on earth, When the signal is raised on the mountain, look! When the trumpet blows, listen! 4 For thus says the LORD to me: ^isaiah-18-4 I will be quiet, looking on from where I dwell, Like the shimmering heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew at harvest time. 5 Before the vintage, when the flowering has ended, ^isaiah-18-5 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. 6 They shall all be left to the mountain vultures ^isaiah-18-6 and to the beasts of the earth; The vultures shall summer on them, all the beasts of the earth shall winter on them. 7 Then 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. ^isaiah-18-7 \* (18:1] – [2) 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. \* (18:3] – [6) 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]). a. (18:1) [Zep 3:10]. b. (18:2) [[isaiah-18|Is 18]]:7. c. (18:4) [Is 8:18]; [18:7]; [2 Chr 6:30]; [Ps 33:14]. d. (18:7) [Is 45:14]; [Ps 68:30]; [Zep 3:10]; [Mal 1:11]. --- _New American Bible, revised edition_ (2010, 1991, 1986, 1970) Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. > [[isaiah-17|← Previous]] | [[isaiah-00|TOC]] | [[isaiah-19|Next →]]