Frameworks: Isaiah 18: A prophecy against Cush [Upper Nile - Ethiopia]

 

v.1,2 A warning to the people of Cush

v.3,4 The world and the Lord will watch them

v.5-7 This people will be pruned before harvest and they will come to God

 

[Introductory Comment: This short chapter warns this particular group of people who seem to feel secure in their international travels, that the Lord is coming to prune them in the sight of the world, in order to bring them to their senses and to the Lord.]

 

 

v.1,2 A warning to the people of Cush

 

v.1 (Cush, get ready for sorrow) Woe to the land of whirring wings
    along the rivers of Cush,
v.2 (You who are strong and travel far and wide) which sends envoys by sea
    in papyrus boats over the water.

Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,
    to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers.

     

   

v.3,4 The world and the Lord will watch them

 

v.3 (The world will watch when this happens) All you people of the world,
    you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
    you will see it,
and when a trumpet sounds,
    you will hear it.
v.4 (The Lord will watch silently in anticipation) This is what the Lord says to me:
    ‘I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling-place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.'
    

     

v.5-7 This people will be pruned before harvest and they will come to God

 

v.5 (Even as there are shoots of life, they will be taken) For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
    and cut down and take away the spreading branches.
v.6 (They will be ravished by others) They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey
    and to the wild animals;
the birds will feed on them all summer,
    the wild animals all winter.

v.7 (Then this people will worship the Lord) At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty

from a people tall and smooth-skinned,
    from a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers –

the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty.

             

       

Continue to Chapter 19