God, in care of his people, will destroy the Ethiopians, 1-6. An accession thereby shall be made to the church, 7.
1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings,/
which is beyond the rivers of Cush,
2 That sends ambassadors by the sea,/
even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying,/
"Go, you swift messengers/
to a nation scattered and peeled,/
to a people awesome from their beginning until now,/
a nation measured by line and trodden down,/
whose land the rivers have laid waste."
3 All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth,/
see when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains./
And when he blows a trumpet, hear.
4 For thus 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 cloud of dew in the heat of 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 birds of the mountains/
and to the beasts of the earth./
And the birds shall summer upon them/
and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time the present shall be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people scattered and peeled, and from a people awesome from their beginning until now, a nation measured by line and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have divided, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, mount Zion.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 18[➚]