Isaiah 18:1-6

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

2 that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, [saying], Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!

3 All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, look; and when the trumpet is blown, listen.

4 For thus has Yahweh said to me, I will be still, and I will see 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 becomes 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 to the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the animals of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer on them, and all the animals of the earth shall winter on them.

Isaiah 18:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 18

This chapter is a prophecy of the desolation of a land or country, described by the wings with which it was shaded, and by the rivers by which it was situated, Isa 18:1 by its messengers and message to another nation, which is also described, Isa 18:2 all the nations of the world are called upon to observe the judgment about to be inflicted on it, Isa 18:3 and a promise is made, that at the same time God will take up his rest and dwelling among his own people, and refresh and protect them, Isa 18:4 and the time, and manner, and nature of the destruction of the people before threatened, are metaphorically expressed, Isa 18:5,6 and the issue of all will be the glory of God, since these people will be brought, in after times, as a present to him in Mount Zion, Isa 18:7.