A Message to Cush (Ethiopia)
Isaiah 18:1-7
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Isa.18.1 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- הוי: INTJ
- ארץ: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- צלצל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- כנפים: NOUN,f,pl,abs
- אשר: PRON,rel
- מעבר: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- לנהרי: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,cons
- כוש: NOUN,prop,sg,m
Parallels
- Isaiah 11:11 (thematic): Mentions the gathering/upbringing of a remnant 'from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush,' linking Isaiah's concern with Cush as a distant nation in the prophetic program.
- Psalm 68:31 (thematic): Foresees envoys from Egypt and Cush coming with tribute; echoes the motif of Cush as a distant land involved in relations with Israel and the nations.
- Exodus 19:4 (verbal): Uses wing imagery ('I bore you on eagles' wings')—a similar metaphor of wings and swift movement resonant with 'whirring wings' in Isaiah 18:1.
- Deuteronomy 32:11 (verbal): Describes an eagle stirring up its nest and hovering with wings—parallel natural imagery of wings conveying protection, movement, or announcement.
- Zephaniah 2:12 (thematic): Pronounces judgment concerning Cush (Ethiopia); another prophetic oracle directed at the southern African realm comparable to Isaiah's address to Cush.
Alternative generated candidates
- Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush.
- Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush.
Isa.18.2 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- השלח: NOUN,prop,m,sg,def
- בים: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- צירים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- ובכלי: CONJ+PREP+NOUN,m,pl,cs
- גמא: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- על: PREP
- פני: NOUN,m,sg,cons
- מים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- לכו: VERB,qal,imp,2,m,pl
- מלאכים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- קלים: ADJ,m,pl
- אל: NEG
- גוי: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ממשך: VERB,qal,ptcp,_,m,sg
- ומורט: VERB,qal,ptcp,_,m,sg
- אל: NEG
- עם: PREP
- נורא: ADJ,m,sg,abs
- מן: PREP
- הוא: PRON,3,m,sg
- והלאה: ADV
- גוי: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- קו: INTJ
- קו: INTJ
- ומבוסה: VERB,qal,ptcp,_,m,sg
- אשר: PRON,rel
- בזאו: VERB,qal,perf,3,pl
- נהרים: NOUN,m,du,abs
- ארצו: NOUN,f,sg,abs+3,ms
Parallels
- Isaiah 5:26 (verbal): Both verses summon distant peoples to come swiftly: Isaiah 5:26 speaks of whistling to the nations 'and behold, they shall come with speed, swiftly,' echoing the call for 'swift messengers' in Isa. 18:2.
- Isaiah 20:3-6 (thematic): Same geographic focus on Cush/Egypt and prophetic action against them; both passages treat Cush as a subject of prophetic pronouncement and humiliation.
- Psalm 68:31 (thematic): Mentions Ethiopia/Cush coming to God ('Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God'), thematically linked to Isa. 18's attention to the land and peoples of Cush.
- Isaiah 45:14 (thematic): Lists Cush among nations involved in Israel's history ('the labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Cush'), reflecting the international role of Cush found in Isa. 18.
- Zephaniah 3:10 (thematic): Speaks of people 'from beyond the rivers of Cush' bringing offerings—echoing Isa. 18:2's geographic language about a land of rivers and the motif of distant Cushite peoples.
Alternative generated candidates
- Send out swift messengers by sea, in reed boats upon the surface of the waters. Go, swift envoys, to a tall, smooth-skinned people, to a people feared from their beginning, a nation of ancient habitations whose land the rivers divide.
- Send by sea ambassadors in reed boats and in swift vessels on the surface of the waters; go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive and plundering nation whose land is divided by rivers.
Isa.18.3 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- כל: DET
- ישבי: NOUN,m,pl,cons
- תבל: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- ושכני: CONJ+NOUN,m,pl,construct
- ארץ: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- כנשא: PREP+VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- נס: VERB,niphal,perf,3,m,sg
- הרים: NOUN,m,pl,cons
- תראו: VERB,qal,imperfect,2,m,pl
- וכתקע: CONJ+VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- שופר: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- תשמעו: VERB,qal,impf,2,m,pl
Parallels
- Isaiah 13:2 (verbal): Uses the same banner-on-high imagery (lift up a banner on the bare hill) — a visible signal set upon a mountain to summon/watch the nations, closely paralleling נֵס נָשָׂא motif.
- Isaiah 11:12 (thematic): Speaks of setting up a signal/banner for the nations and gathering the dispersed — similar universal summons to all inhabitants of the earth to look to a raised standard.
- Joel 2:1 (allusion): Calls for blowing the trumpet in Zion as an alarm to the whole land; parallels the trumpet/shofar motif as a universal summons or warning heard by all.
- Amos 3:6 (thematic): Poses the proverbical link between trumpet sounding and public alarm/response (‘If a trumpet is blown in a city…’), echoing Isaiah 18:3’s expectation that all will hear and respond when the trumpet is sounded.
Alternative generated candidates
- All you inhabitants of the world, and you who dwell on the earth: when the banner is raised on the mountains you shall see it, and when the trumpet is blown you shall hear it.
- All you inhabitants of the world, and you who dwell on the earth: when a banner is raised on the mountains you will see it; when a trumpet is blown you will hear it.
Isa.18.4 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- כי: CONJ
- כה: ADV
- אמר: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- אלי: PREP+PRON,1,sg
- אשקטה: VERB,qal,impf,1,sg
- ואביטה: VERB,qal,impf,1,sg
- במכוני: PREP+NOUN,m,pl,abs,1,sg
- כחם: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- צח: ADJ,m,sg,abs
- עלי: PREP+PRON,1,sg
- אור: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- כעב: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- טל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- בחם: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- קציר: NOUN,m,sg,construct
Parallels
- Isa.30.18 (thematic): Both verses portray YHWH as one who 'waits' (or 'is patient') to show favor—God's deliberate, patient stance toward his people rather than immediate action.
- Psalm 37.7 (verbal): Psalm 37:7 exhorts believers to 'be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him,' echoing Isaiah 18:4's language of quiet/being still and waiting on the LORD.
- Habakkuk 2.3 (thematic): Habakkuk emphasizes that the vision has an appointed time and must be waited for; Isaiah 18:4 likewise speaks of watching/ waiting 'in its time' (במכונו), linking both to the theme of divinely timed fulfilment.
- Hosea 14.5 (verbal): Hosea uses the image of God as 'dew' restoring Israel; Isaiah 18:4's simile of a cloud/dew in the heat of harvest connects through the dew imagery as a quiet, life-giving divine intervention.
- Psalm 33.13-14 (verbal): Psalm 33 depicts the LORD 'looking down from heaven' and 'from his dwelling' observing the earth—parallel to Isaiah 18:4's motif of God looking/observing from his habitation.
Alternative generated candidates
- For thus says the LORD to me: I will be silent and watch from my dwelling place; like heat upon the bright sun, like a cloud of dew in the heat of the harvest.
- For thus said the LORD to me: I will look from my dwelling; like clear heat upon sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
Isa.18.5 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- כי: CONJ
- לפני: PREP
- קציר: NOUN,m,sg,construct
- כתם: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- פרח: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ובסר: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- גמל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהיה: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- נצה: VERB,qal,perf,3,f,sg
- וכרת: VERB,qal,impf,2,ms,sg
- הזלזלים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- במזמרות: PREP+NOUN,f,pl,abs
- ואת: CONJ
- הנטישות: NOUN,f,pl,def
- הסיר: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- התז: NOUN,m,sg,def
Parallels
- John 15:1-2 (verbal): Uses the same pruning vocabulary and metaphor: the vinedresser prunes branches to increase fruitfulness—parallel to cutting off sprigs with pruning hooks.
- Matthew 3:10 (thematic): John the Baptist’s image of trees being cut down at the root before harvest echoes the judgment/harvest motif and the removal of unfruitful growth.
- Isaiah 10:5-6 (structural): Within Isaiah the use of cutting/rod imagery portrays divine judgment executed through an instrument (e.g., Assyria), thematically comparable to cutting before the harvest in ch.18.
- Isaiah 27:2-6 (thematic): The vineyard motif in which the LORD tends, prunes and removes unfruitful shoots closely parallels the pruning/cutting and agricultural imagery of Isa.18:5.
Alternative generated candidates
- For before the harvest, when the bud is formed and the blossom becomes a grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks and take away the spreading branches.
- For before the harvest—when the bud is perfect and the grape has ripened—he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks and remove and cut down the luxuriant branches.
Isa.18.6 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- יעזבו: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
- יחדו: ADV
- לעיט: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- הרים: NOUN,m,pl,cons
- ולבהמת: CONJ+PREP+NOUN,f,sg,def
- הארץ: NOUN,f,sg,def
- וקץ: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- עליו: PREP,3,m,sg
- העיט: NOUN,m,sg,def
- וכל: CONJ+PRON,indef
- בהמת: NOUN,f,sg,cons
- הארץ: NOUN,f,sg,def
- עליו: PREP,3,m,sg
- תחרף: VERB,qal,impf,3,f,sg
Parallels
- Deuteronomy 28:49 (verbal): An invading nation described as coming 'from far' and 'swift as the eagle'—uses the eagle metaphor for a rapid foreign military incursion, echoing Isaiah's eagle imagery.
- Habakkuk 1:8 (verbal): The enemy's horsemen 'fly like an eagle' to devour—verbal and thematic parallel in depicting a swift, predatory force likened to a bird of prey.
- Ezekiel 17:3-6 (allusion): The parable of the eagle plucking the top of the cedar uses the eagle as a symbol of a foreign power seizing and carrying off what it finds—an analogous use of eagle imagery for political/democratic depredation.
- Revelation 19:17-18 (thematic): An angel summons the birds to feast on the flesh of kings and armies—parallels the motif of birds/beasts as participants in divine judgment and the despoiling of the defeated.
Alternative generated candidates
- They shall be left to the birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the field; the birds of prey will summer on them, and every beast of the earth will winter on them.
- They will be left together for the birds of prey of the mountains and for the beasts of the earth; the birds will summer there, and every beast of the earth will feast on them.
Isa.18.7 - Details
Translation
Original Text
Morphology
- בעת: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- ההיא: DEM,f,sg
- יובל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- שי: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ליהוה: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,def
- צבאות: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- עם: PREP
- ממשך: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ומורט: CONJ+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ומעם: CONJ+PREP+PRON,3,m,sg
- נורא: ADJ,m,sg,abs
- מן: PREP
- הוא: PRON,3,m,sg
- והלאה: ADV
- גוי: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- קו: INTJ
- קו: INTJ
- ומבוסה: CONJ+ADJ,m,sg
- אשר: PRON,rel
- בזאו: PREP+NOUN,m,sg,abs
- נהרים: NOUN,m,du,abs
- ארצו: NOUN,f,sg,abs+3,ms
- אל: NEG
- מקום: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- שם: ADV
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- צבאות: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- הר: NOUN,m,sg,cons
- ציון: NOUN,prop,f,sg,abs
Parallels
- Isaiah 60:6-9 (thematic): Both passages depict distant nations bringing wealth and gifts to Zion/the LORD, envisioning foreigners and caravans coming to the holy mountain with tribute and praise.
- Psalm 72:10-11 (verbal): Speaks of kings/peoples bringing tribute and gifts and bowing before the ruler; parallels Isaiah 18:7's motif of nations bringing presents to the LORD.
- Isaiah 45:14 (verbal): Specifically mentions Egypt, Cush and men of stature bringing tribute and acknowledging Israel's God—echoing Isaiah 18:7's image of a tall, feared people bringing gifts to the LORD.
- Isaiah 66:20 (thematic): Envisions peoples and offerings being brought to the LORD on Jerusalem's holy mountain; parallels the eschatological gathering/bringing of gifts to Mount Zion in Isa. 18:7.
Alternative generated candidates
- At that time a tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts—by a people tall and smooth-skinned, a nation feared from their beginning—to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, Mount Zion.
- At that time tribute and offerings will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive and plundering nation whose land is divided by rivers—to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, Mount Zion.
Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush.
It sends envoys by sea in papyrus rafts on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth; to a people feared and mighty, a nation powerful yet subdued, whose land the rivers divide.
All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth: when the banner is raised on the mountains you will see it; when the trumpet is blown you will hear it.
For thus the LORD said to me: I will quietly watch from my dwelling; I will look like the heat of noon, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
For before the harvest—while the bud withers and the flower fades, when the grape is ripening—he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and clear away the spreading branches and take up the gleanings.
They shall be left together to the birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the field; a bird of prey will swoop upon them, and every beast of the land will be there.
At that time a tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared and mighty—indeed, from a nation whose land the rivers water—to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, to Mount Zion.