A³ M e 1,2. Israel. Spoiling.
f 3. Zion. Yahaveh's ensign.
N 4. Yahaveh's withdrawal. Cause of recall.
N 5,6. Yahaveh's act. Cause of spoiling.
M e 7-. Israel. Present to Yahaveh.
f -7. Zion. Mount of Yahaveh's name.649-588 B.C.
Isaiah 18)
1 Woe (= Ho! The 3rd of 7 burden) to the land shadowing with wings (= of the rustling zalzal [from zalal, to tinkle, cp. Deut. 28:42]. Occ. only in Job 41:7. 2 Sam. 6:5. Ps. 150:5. See also 1 Chron. 13:8), which is beyond Abyssinia the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sends ambassadors by the Nile ("the sea" so called by inhabitants of the Sudan today), even in vessels of reeds upon the waters (Not the papyrus, but its companion reed, the ambach, which reaches a height of 15 feet and has yellow flowers. See 35:7; Ex. 2:3; and Job 8:1), saying, “Go, all you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-faced (as Professor Sayce describes them), to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto (they formed the armies of "So" or Shabaka, and are the backbone of the Anglo-Egpytian army [see Records of the Past, vol. vii, part iv]); a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!” (i.e. the "sudd" or swamps [hence Sudan]. The Dinka and Shilluk Negroes live on the floating cakes of sudd)
3 All you all inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see you all, when the Lord lifts up an ensign on the mountains; and when the Lord blows a trumpet, hear you all.
4 For so the Lord said to me, “I will take My rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a summer night mist in the heat of harvest. (Heb. ‘âb. Not a rain-cloud, which is never seen in harvest)
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together to the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth (see "forsaken" in 1:4): and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time shall the present be brought (Heb. shai, because of being conveyed) to the Lord of hosts of a people tall and smooth-faced, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled,
to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts (see Ps. 20:1), the mount Zion.