18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, 1
the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
18:2 that sends messengers by sea,
who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus.
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people, 2
to a people that are feared far and wide, 3
to a nation strong and victorious, 4
whose land rivers divide. 5
18:3 All you who live in the world,
who reside on the earth,
you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains;
you will hear a trumpet being blown.
18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait 6 and watch from my place,
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, 7
like a cloud of mist 8 in the heat 9 of harvest.” 10
18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,
and the ripening fruit appears, 11
he will cut off the unproductive shoots 12 with pruning knives;
he will prune the tendrils. 13
18:6 They will all be left 14 for the birds of the hills
and the wild animals; 15
the birds will eat them during the summer,
and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.
18:7 At that time
tribute will be brought to the Lord who commands armies,
by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned,
a people that are feared far and wide,
a nation strong and victorious,
whose land rivers divide. 16
The tribute 17 will be brought to the place where the Lord who commands armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion. 18
43:3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, 21 your deliverer.
I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,
Ethiopia and Seba 22 in place of you.
46:9 Go ahead and 23 charge into battle, you horsemen!
Drive furiously, you charioteers!
Let the soldiers march out into battle,
those from Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields,
and those from Lydia 24 who are armed with the bow. 25
46:10 But that day belongs to the Lord God who rules over all. 26
It is the day when he will pay back his enemies. 27
His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied!
It will drink their blood until it is full! 28
For the Lord God who rules over all 29 will offer them up as a sacrifice
in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.
30:4 A sword will come against Egypt
and panic will overtake Ethiopia
when the slain fall in Egypt
and they carry away her wealth
and dismantle her foundations.
30:5 Ethiopia, Put, Lud, all the foreigners, 30 Libya, and the people 31 of the covenant land 32 will die by the sword along with them.
30:6 “‘This is what the Lord says:
Egypt’s supporters will fall;
her confident pride will crumble. 33
From Migdol to Syene 34 they will die by the sword within her,
declares the sovereign Lord.
30:7 They will be desolate among desolate lands,
and their cities will be among ruined cities.
30:8 They will know that I am the Lord
when I ignite a fire in Egypt
and all her allies are defeated. 35
30:9 On that day messengers will go out from me in ships to frighten overly confident Ethiopia; panic will overtake them on the day of Egypt’s doom; 36 for beware – it is coming!
1 tn Heb “Woe [to] the land of buzzing wings.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
2 tn The precise meaning of the qualifying terms is uncertain. מְמֻשָּׁךְ (mÿmushakh) appears to be a Pual participle from the verb מָשַׁךְ (mashakh, “to draw, extend”). Lexicographers theorize that it here refers to people who “stretch out,” as it were, or are tall. See BDB 604 s.v. מָשַׁךְ, and HALOT 645-46 s.v. משׁךְ. מוֹרָט (morat) is taken as a Pual participle from מָרַט (marat), which can mean “to pull out [hair],” in the Qal, “become bald” in the Niphal, and “be wiped clean” in the Pual. Lexicographers theorize that the word here refers to people with bare, or smooth, skin. See BDB 598-99 s.v. מָרַט, and HALOT 634-35 s.v. מרט. These proposed meanings, which are based on etymological speculation, must be regarded as tentative.
3 tn Heb “from it and onwards.” HALOT 245 s.v. הָלְאָה suggests the translation “far and wide.”
4 tn Once more the precise meaning of the qualifying terms is uncertain. The expression קַו־קָו (qav-qav) is sometimes related to a proposed Arabic cognate and taken to mean “strength” (see BDB 876 II קַו). Others, on the basis of Isa 28:10, 13, understand the form as gibberish (literally, “kav, kav”) and take it to be a reference to this nation’s strange, unknown language. The form מְבוּסָה (mÿvusah) appears to be derived from בּוּס (bus, “to trample”), so lexicographers suggest the meaning “trampling” or “subjugation,” i.e., a nation that subdues others. See BDB 101 s.v. בּוּס and HALOT 541 s.v. מְבוּסָה. These proposals, which are based on etymological speculation, must be regarded as tentative.
5 tn The precise meaning of the verb בָּזָא (baza’), which occurs only in this oracle (see also v. 7) in the OT, is uncertain. BDB 102 s.v. suggests “divide” on the basis of alleged Aramaic and Arabic cognates; HALOT 117 s.v., citing an alleged Arabic cognate, suggests “wash away.”
6 tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”
7 tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.
8 tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”
9 tc Some medieval Hebrew
10 sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.
11 tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”
12 tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.
13 tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”
14 tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).
15 tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).
16 tn On the interpretive difficulties of this verse, see the notes at v. 2, where the same terminology is used.
17 tn The words “the tribute” are repeated here in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “to the place of the name of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], Mount Zion.”
19 tn Heb “lightly dressed and barefoot, and bare with respect to the buttocks, the nakedness of Egypt.”
20 tn Heb “and they will be afraid and embarrassed because of Cush their hope and Egypt their beauty.”
21 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
22 sn Seba is not the same as Sheba in southern Arabia; cf. Gen 1:10; 1 Chr 1:9.
23 tn The words “Go ahead and” are not in the text but are intended to suggest the ironical nature of the commands here. The
24 sn The peoples that are referred to here are all known to have been mercenaries in the army of Egypt (see Nah 3:9; Ezek 30:5). The place names in Hebrew are actually Cush, Put, and Lud. “Cush” has already been identified in Jer 13:23 as the region along the Nile south of Egypt most commonly referred to as Ethiopia. The identification of “Put” and “Lud” are both debated though it is generally felt that Put was a part of Libya and Lud is to be identified with Lydia in Asia Minor. For further discussion see M. J. Mellink, “Lud, Ludim” IDB 3:178, and T. O. Lambdin, “Put,” IDB 3:971.
25 tn Heb “who grasp and bend the bow.”
26 tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” See the study note at 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title for God.
27 sn Most commentators think that this is a reference to the
28 tn Or more paraphrastically, “he will kill them/ until he has exacted full vengeance”; Heb “The sword will eat and be sated; it will drink its fill of their blood.”
29 tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh of armies.” See the study note at 2:19 for the translation and significance of this title for God.
30 tn The same expression appears in Exod 12:38; Jer 25:20; 50:37; Neh 13:3. It may refer to foreign mercenaries serving in the armies of the nations listed here.
31 tn Heb “sons.”
32 tn The expression “sons of the covenant land” possibly refers to Jews living in Egypt (Jer 44).
33 tn Heb “come down.”
34 sn Syene is known as Aswan today.
35 tn Heb “all who aid her are broken.”
36 tn Heb “in the day of Egypt.” The word “doom” has been added in the translation to clarify the nature of this day.