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Isaiah 18:1

New American Standard Bible (NASB ©1995) [2]
— Alas, oh land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,
King James Version (KJV 1769) [2]
— Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
English Revised Version (ERV 1885)
— Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
American Standard Version (ASV 1901) [2]
— Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Webster's Revision of the KJB (WEB 1833)
— Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Cush:
Darby's Translation (DBY 1890)
— Ha! land shadowing with wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush,
Rotherham's Emphasized Bible (EBR 1902)
— Ho! thou land of the buzzing of wings,—Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
Young's Literal Translation (YLT 1898)
— Ho, land shadowed [with] wings, That [is] beyond the rivers of Cush,
Douay-Rheims Challoner Revision (DR 1750)
— Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
Geneva Bible (GNV 1560)
— Oh, the lande shadowing with winges, which is beyond the riuers of Ethiopia,
Original King James Bible (AV 1611) [2]
— Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the riuers of Ethiopia:
Lamsa Bible (1957)
— WOE to the land of shadowing wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Brenton Greek Septuagint (LXX, Restored Names)
— Woe to you, ye wings of the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
Full Hebrew Names / Holy Name KJV (2008) [2] [3]
— Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Kush:

Strong's Numbers & Hebrew NamesHebrew Old TestamentColor-Code/Key Word Studies
Woe 1945
{1945} Prime
הוֹי
howy
{hoh'ee}
A prolonged form of H1930 (akin to H0188); oh!.
to the land 776
{0776} Prime
אֶרֶץ
'erets
{eh'-rets}
From an unused root probably meaning to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land).
shadowing 6767
{6767} Prime
צִלְצָל
ts@latsal
{tsel-aw-tsal'}
From H6750 reduplicated; a clatter, that is, (abstractly) whirring (of wings); (concretely) a cricket; also a harpoon (as rattling), a cymbal (as clanging).
with wings, 3671
{3671} Prime
כָּנָף
kanaph
{kaw-nawf'}
From H3670; an edge or extremity; specifically (of a bird or army) a wing, (of a garment or bed clothing) a flap, (of the earth) a quarter, (of a building) a pinnacle.
which x834
(0834) Complement
אֲשֶׁר
'asher
{ash-er'}
A primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number); who, which, what, that; also (as adverb and conjunction) when, where, how, because, in order that, etc.
[is] beyond 5676
{5676} Prime
עֵבֶר
`eber
{ay'-ber}
From H5674; properly a region across; but used only adverbially (with or without a preposition) on the opposite side (especially of the Jordan; usually meaning the east).
x4480
(4480) Complement
מִן
min
{min}
For H4482; properly a part of; hence (prepositionally), from or out of in many senses.
the rivers 5104
{5104} Prime
נָהָר
nahar
{naw-hawr'}
From H5102; a stream (including the sea; especially the Nile, Euphrates, etc.); figuratively, prosperity.
of Cûš כּוּשׁ: 3568
{3568} Prime
כּוּשׁ
Kuwsh
{koosh}
Probably of foreign origin; Cush (or Ethiopia), the name of a son of Ham, and of his territory; also of an Israelite.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary

Isaiah 18:1

_ _ Isaiah 18:1-7. Isaiah announces the overthrow of Sennacherib’s hosts and desires the Ethiopian ambassadors, now in Jerusalem, to bring word of it to their own nation; and he calls on the whole world to witness the event (Isaiah 18:3). As Isaiah 17:12-14 announced the presence of the foe, so Isaiah 18:1-7 foretells his overthrow.

_ _ Woe — The heading in English Version, “God will destroy the Ethiopians,” is a mistake arising from the wrong rendering “Woe,” whereas the Hebrew does not express a threat, but is an appeal calling attention (Isaiah 55:1; Zechariah 2:6): “Ho.” He is not speaking against but to the Ethiopians, calling on them to hear his prophetical announcement as to the destruction of their enemies.

_ _ shadowing with wings — rather, “land of the winged bark”; that is, “barks with wing-like sails, answering to vessels of bulrushes” in Isaiah 18:2; the word “rivers,” in the parallelism, also favors it; so the Septuagint and Chaldee [Ewald]. “Land of the clanging sound of wings,” that is, armies, as in Isaiah 8:8; the rendering “bark,” or “ship,” is rather dubious [Maurer]. The armies referred to are those of Tirhakah, advancing to meet the Assyrians (Isaiah 37:9). In English Version, “shadowing” means protecting — stretching out its wings to defend a feeble people, namely, the Hebrews [Vitringa]. The Hebrew for “wings” is the same as for the idol Cneph, which was represented in temple sculptures with wings (Psalms 91:4).

_ _ beyond — Meroe, the island between the “rivers” Nile and Astaboras is meant, famed for its commerce, and perhaps the seat of the Ethiopian government, hence addressed here as representing the whole empire: remains of temples are still found, and the name of “Tirhakah” in the inscriptions. This island region was probably the chief part of Queen Candace’s kingdom (Acts 8:27). For “beyond” others translate less literally “which borderest on.”

_ _ Ethiopia — literally, “Cush.” Horsley is probably right that the ultimate and fullest reference of the prophecy is to the restoration of the Jews in the Holy Land through the instrumentality of some distant people skilled in navigation (Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 60:9, Isaiah 60:10; Psalms 45:15; Psalms 68:31; Zephaniah 3:10). Phoenician voyagers coasting along would speak of all Western remote lands as “beyond” the Nile’s mouths. “Cush,” too, has a wide sense, being applied not only to Ethiopia, but Arabia-Deserta and Felix, and along the Persian Gulf, as far as the Tigris (Genesis 2:13).

Matthew Henry's Commentary

Isaiah 18:1-7

_ _ Interpreters are very much at a loss where to find this land that lies beyond the rivers of Cush. Some take it to be Egypt, a maritime country, and full of rivers, and which courted Israel to depend upon them, but proved broken reeds; but against this it is strongly objected that the next chapter is distinguished from this by the title of the burden of Egypt. Others take it to be Ethiopia, and read it, which lies near, or about, the rivers of Ethiopia, not that in Africa, which lay south of Egypt, but that which we call Arabia, which lay east of Canaan, which Tirhakah was now king of. He thought to protect the Jews, as it were, under the shadow of his wings, by giving a powerful diversion to the king of Assyria, when he made a descent upon his country, at the time that he was attacking Jerusalem, 2 Kings 19:9. But though by his ambassadors he bade defiance to the king of Assyria, and encouraged the Jews to depend upon him, God by the prophet slights him, and will not go forth with him; he may take his own course, but God will take another course to protect Jerusalem, while he suffers the attempt of Tirhakah to miscarry and his Arabian army to be ruined; for the Assyrian army shall become a present or sacrifice to the Lord of hosts, and to the place of his name, by the hand of an angel, not by the hand of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Isaiah 18:7. This is a very probable exposition of this chapter. But from a hint of Dr. Lightfoot's, in his Harmony of the Old Testament, I incline to understand this chapter as a prophecy against Assyria, and so a continuation of the prophecy in the last three verses of the foregoing chapter, with which therefore this should be joined. That was against the army of the Assyrians which rushed in upon Judah; this is against the land of Assyria itself, which lay beyond the rivers of Arabia, that is, the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, which bordered on Arabia Deserta. And in calling it the land shadowing with wings he seems to refer to what he himself had said of it (Isaiah 8:8), that the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel! The prophet might perhaps describe the Assyrians by such dark expressions, not naming them, for the same reason that St. Paul, in his prophecy, speaks of the Roman empire by a periphrasis: He who now letteth, 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Here is,

_ _ I. The attempt made by this land (whatever it is) upon a nation scattered and peeled, Isaiah 18:2. Swift messengers are sent by water to proclaim war against them, as a nation marked by Providence, and meted out, to be trodden under foot. Whether this refer to the Ethiopians waging war with the Assyrians, or the Assyrians with Judah, it teaches us, 1. That a people which have been terrible from their beginning, have made a figure and borne a mighty sway, may yet become scattered and peeled, and may be spoiled even by their own rivers, that should enrich both the husbandman and the merchant. Nations which have been formidable, and have kept all in awe about them, may by a concurrence of accidents become despicable and an easy prey to their insulting neighbours. 2. Princes and states that are ambitious of enlarging their territories will always have some pretence or other to quarrel with those whose countries they have a mind to. “It is a nation that has been terrible, and therefore we must be revenged on it; it is now a nation scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden down, and therefore it will be an easy prey for us.” Perhaps it was not brought so low as they represented it. God's people are trampled on as a nation scattered and peeled; but whoever think to swallow them up may find them still as terrible as they have been from their beginning; they are cast down, but not deserted, not destroyed.

_ _ II. The alarm sounded to the nations about, by which they are summoned to take notice of what God is about to do, Isaiah 18:3. The Ethiopians and Assyrians have their counsels and designs, which they have laid deep, and promise themselves much from, and, in prosecution of them, send their ambassadors and messengers from place to place; but let us now enquire what the great God says to all this. 1. He lifts up an ensign upon the mountains, and blows a trumpet, by which he proclaims war against the enemies of his church, and calls in all her friends and well-wishers into her service, Isaiah 18:3. He gives notice that he is about to do some great work, as Lord of hosts. 2. All the world is bidden to take notice of it; all the dwellers on earth must see the ensign and hear the trumpet, must observe the motions of the divine providence and attend the directions of the divine will. Let all enlist under God's banner, and be on his side, and hearken to the trumpet of his word, which gives not an uncertain sound.

_ _ III. The assurance God gives to his prophet, by him to be given to his people, that, though he might seem for a time to sit by as an unconcerned spectator, yet he would certainly and seasonably appear for the comfort of his people and the confusion of his and their enemies (Isaiah 18:4): So the Lord said unto me. Men will have their saying, but God also will have his; and, as we may be sure his word shall stand, so he often whispers it in the ears of his servants the prophets. When he says, I will take my rest, it is not as if he were weary of governing the world, of as if he either needed or desired to retire from it and repose himself; but it intimates that the great God has a perfect, undisturbed, enjoyment of himself, in the midst of all the agitations and changes of this world (the Lord sits even upon the floods unshaken; the Eternal Mind is always easy), and, though he may sometimes seem to his people as if he took not wonted notice of what is done in this lower world (they are tempted to think he is as one asleep, or as one astonished, Psalms 44:23; Jeremiah 14:9), yet even then he knows very well what men are doing and what he himself will do.

_ _ 1. He will take care of his people, and be a shelter to them. He will regard his dwelling-place; his eye and his heart are, and shall be, upon it for good continually. Zion is his rest for ever, where he will dwell; and he will look after it (so some read it); he will lift up the light of his countenance upon it, will consider over it what is to be done, and will be sure to do all for the best. He will adapt the comforts and refreshments he provides for his people to the exigencies of their case; and they will therefore be acceptable, because seasonable. (1.) Like a clear heat after rain (so the margin), which is very reviving and pleasant, and makes the herbs to flourish. (2.) Like a dew and a cloud in the heat of harvest, which are very welcome, the dew to the ground and the cloud to the labourers. Note, There is that in God which is a shelter and refreshment to his people in all weathers and arms them against the inconveniences of every change. Is the weather cool? There is that in his favour which will warm them. Is it hot? There is that in his favour which will cool them. Great men have their winter-house and their summer-house (Amos 3:15); but those that are at home with God have both in him.

_ _ 2. He will reckon with his and their enemies, Isaiah 18:5, Isaiah 18:6. When the Assyrian army promises itself a plentiful harvest in the taking of Jerusalem and the plundering of that rich city, when the bud of that project is perfect, before the harvest is gathered in, while the sour grape of their enmity to Hezekiah and his people is ripening in the flower and the design is just ready to be put in execution, God shall destroy that army as easily as the husbandman cuts off the sprigs of the vine with pruning hooks, or because the grape is sour and good for nothing, and will not be cured, takes away and cuts down the branches. This seems to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian army by a destroying angel, when the dead bodies of the soldiers were scattered like the branches and sprigs of a wild vine, which the husbandman has cut to pieces. And they shall be left to the fowls of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth, to prey upon, both winter and summer; for as God's people are protected all seasons of the year, both in cold and heat (Isaiah 18:4), so their enemies are at all seasons exposed; birds and beasts of prey shall both summer and winter upon them, till they are quite ruined.

_ _ IV. The tribute of praise which should be brought to God from all this (Isaiah 18:7): In that time, when this shall be accomplished, shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts. 1. Some understand this of the conversion of the Ethiopians to the faith of Christ in the latter days, of which we have the specimen and beginning in Philip's baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8:27, etc. Those that were a people scattered and peeled, meted out, and trodden down (Isaiah 18:2), shall be a present to the Lord: and, though they seem useless and worthless, they shall be an acceptable present to him who judges of men by the sincerity of their faith and love, not by the pomp and prosperity of their outward condition. Therefore the gospel was ministered to the Gentiles that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, Romans 15:16. It is prophesied (Psalms 68:31) that Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 2. Others understand it of the spoil of Sennacherib's army, out of which, as usual, presents were brought to the Lord of hosts, Numbers 31:50. It was the present of a people scattered and peeled. (1.) It was won from the Assyrians, who were now themselves reduced to such a condition as they scornfully described Judah to be in, Isaiah 18:1. Those that unjustly trample upon others shall themselves be justly trampled upon. (2.) It was offered by the people of God, who were, in disdain, called a people scattered and peeled. God will put honour upon his people, though men put contempt upon them. Lastly, Observe, The present that is brought to the Lord of hosts must be brought to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts; what is offered to God must be offered in the way that he has appointed; we must be sure to attend him, and expect him to meet us, where he records his name.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Isaiah 18:1

The lord — Either Ethiopia beyond Egypt; or of Egypt. Wings — The title of wings is given, in scripture, to divers things which have some kind of resemblance to wings, as to the battlements of an house or temple, to an army, and to the sails of a ship, as this word is here commonly understood. And shadowing with wings is nothing else but overspread or filled with them. Which title may be given either to Ethiopia or Egypt, in regard of the great numbers either of their armies, or of their ships or vessels sailing upon the sea or rivers. Besides — Situated on both sides of the Nile. Rivers — Called rivers, in the plural number, either for its greatness, or for the many rivulets that run into it, or for the various streams into which it is divided.

Geneva Bible Translation Notes

Isaiah 18:1

Woe to the (a) land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Cush:

(a) He means that part of Ethiopia which lies toward the sea, which was so full of ships that the sails (which he compares to wings) seemed to shadow the sea.

Cross-Reference Topical ResearchStrong's Concordance
am cir, 3290, bc cir, 714

Woe:
Bp. Lowth renders, after Bochart, "Ho! to the land of the winged cymbal;" which he thinks is a periphrasis for the Egyptian sistrum; and consequently, that Egypt, "which borders on the rivers of Cush," is the country to which the prophecy is addressed. If we translate "shadowing with wings," it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings.

the land:

Isaiah 20:3-6 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years [for] a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; ... And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such [is] our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?
Isaiah 30:2-3 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! ... Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt [your] confusion.
Isaiah 31:1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because [they are] many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

shadowing:

Ruth 2:12 The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psalms 36:7 How excellent [is] thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
Psalms 57:1 [[To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.]] Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until [these] calamities be overpast.
Psalms 61:4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Psalms 63:7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
Psalms 91:4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth [shall be thy] shield and buckler.
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!

which:

2 Kings 19:9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, saying,
Ezekiel 30:4-5 And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. ... Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword.
Zephaniah 2:12 Ye Ethiopians also, ye [shall be] slain by my sword.
Zephaniah 3:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, [even] the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering.
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Chain-Reference Bible SearchCross References with Concordance

Ru 2:12. 2K 19:9. Ps 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4. Is 20:3; 30:2; 31:1. Ezk 30:4. Zp 2:12; 3:10. Mt 23:37.

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