4 For so H3541 the LORD H3068 said H559 unto me, I will take my rest, H8252 and I will consider H5027 in my dwelling place H4349 like a clear H6703 heat H2527 upon herbs, H216 and like a cloud H5645 of dew H2919 in the heat H2527 of harvest. H7105
For, behold, the LORD H3068 cometh out H3318 of his place H4725 to punish H6485 the inhabitants H3427 of the earth H776 for their iniquity: H5771 the earth H776 also shall disclose H1540 her blood, H1818 and shall no more cover H3680 her slain. H2026
In that time H6256 shall the present H7862 be brought H2986 unto the LORD H3068 of hosts H6635 of a people H5971 scattered H4900 and peeled, H4178 and from a people H5971 terrible H3372 from their beginning hitherto; H1973 a nation H1471 meted out H6978 and trodden under foot, H4001 whose land H776 the rivers H5104 have spoiled, H958 to the place H4725 of the name H8034 of the LORD H3068 of hosts, H6635 the mount H2022 Zion. H6726
Cry out H6670 and shout, H7442 thou inhabitant H3427 of Zion: H6726 for great H1419 is the Holy One H6918 of Israel H3478 in the midst H7130 of thee.
What shall one then answer H6030 the messengers H4397 of the nation? H1471 That the LORD H3068 hath founded H3245 Zion, H6726 and the poor H6041 of his people H5971 shall trust H2620 in it.
And he shall pass over H5674 to his strong hold H5553 for fear, H4032 and his princes H8269 shall be afraid H2865 of the ensign, H5251 saith H5002 the LORD, H3068 whose fire H217 is in Zion, H6726 and his furnace H8574 in Jerusalem. H3389
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 18
Commentary on Isaiah 18 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 18
Whatever country it is that is meant here by "the land shadowing with wings,' here is a woe denounced against it, for God has, upon his people's account, a quarrel with it.
Isa 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 Ki. 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, v. 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 (ch. 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 Th. 2:7. Here is,