Isaiahchapter 18

7 verses · ASV

This chapter sends 79 cross-references outward and receives 65 — heaviest partner: Isaiah.

Chapter summary

Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia lies the land of the rustling of wings, which sends ambassadors over the sea in vessels of papyrus. Swift messengers go to a nation tall and smooth, terrible from its beginning, whose land the rivers divide. All inhabitants of the world are told to watch for the ensign lifted on the mountains and listen for the trumpet. Jehovah himself declares his posture: he is still, beholding from his dwelling-place like clear heat in sunshine, like a dew-cloud in harvest heat. Before the harvest, when the blossom becomes a ripening grape, he cuts off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, leaving the branches to ravenous birds that summer on them and beasts that winter on them. The chapter ends with that same tall, smooth people bringing a present to Jehovah of hosts at Mount Zion.

Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.

Context

Prophecy · Isaiah — see the Isaiah overview for the book's full setting.

1 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

2 that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!

3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye.

4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away and cut down.

6 They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

7 In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts from a people tall and smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.

Continue: Isaiah 19 →