Isaiah 18:2
sends <07971> [sendeth.]
boats <03627> [vessels.]
It is well known that the Egyptians commonly used on the Nile a light sort of ships or boats made of the papyrus. See note on Ex 2:3.
nation ................. nation <01471> [to a nation.]
tall smooth-skinned <04900 04178> [scattered and peeled. or, outspread and polished.]
Or, as Bp. Lowth renders, "stretched out in length and smoothed." Egypt, which is situated between 24 degrees and 32 degrees N. lat. and 30 degrees and 33 degrees E. long., being bounded on the south by Ethiopia, on the north by the Mediterranean, on the east by the mountains of Arabia, and on the west by those of Lybia, is one long vale, 750 miles in length, (through the middle of which runs the Nile,) in breadth from one to two or three day's journey, and even at the widest part of the Delta, from Pelusium to Alexandria, not above 250 miles broad.
people <05971> [to a people.]
[Heb. Meted out and trodden down. or, that meteth out and treadeth down. Heb. of line, line, and treading under foot.]
This is an allusion to the frequent necessity of having recourse to mensuration in Egypt, in order to determine their boundaries, after the inundation of the Nile had smoothed their land and effaced their landmarks; and to their method of throwing seed upon the mud, when the waters had subsided, and treading it in by turning their cattle into the fields.
divide <0958> [have spoiled. or, despise.]
Exodus 2:3
longer able <03201 05750> [could not.]
basket <08392> [an ark.]
papyrus <01573> [bulrushes.]
{Gom‚,} is the papyrus, so famous in all antiquity. It grows on the banks of the Nile, and in marshy grounds; the stalk rises to the height of six or seven cubits above the water, is triangular, and terminates in a crown of small filaments, resembling hair. This reed was of the greatest use to the Egyptians; the pith serving them for food, and the woody part to build vessels with; which vessels frequently appear on various monuments of Egyptian antiquity. That boats were made of this reed is also attested by Pliny and others.
bitumen <02564> [with slime.]
Job 8:11
papyrus plant <01573> [the rush.]
