Isaiah 18

Wesley: The Lord—either Ethiopia beyond Egypt; or of Egypt. Wings—the title of wings is given to battlements, to an army, and to the sails of a ship, as this word is here commonly understood. Shadowing with wings is nothing else but overspread or filled with them, in regard of the great numbers either of their armies, or of their ships. Rivers—called rivers in the plural, either for its greatness, or for the many rivulets that run into it. A land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

Cush beyond Egypt is a neighbor in the Assyria age.

Calvin: woe to the land. I cannot determine with certainty what is the nation of which Isaiah speaks, though he shews plainly that it bordered on Ethiopia. Some consider it to refer to the whole of Egypt; but this is a mistake, for in the next chapter he treats of Egypt separately. It is not far from Egypt and Ethiopia; some may view it as that part of Ethiopia which lay on the sea-coast, for the Assyrians were at war with the king of the Ethiopians (Isaiah 37:9). Shadowing with wings: its sea was well supplied with harbours, so that it had many vessels and was wealthy.

On this both agree: whirring wings beyond the rivers.

Wesley: Sendeth—that at this time are sending ambassadors, to strengthen themselves with alliances. Bulrushes—both the Egyptians and Ethiopians used boats of rushes or reeds, cheaper, swifter, and lighter. These seem to be the words of the prophet, who gives a commission from God to these messengers. Scattered—not by banishment but in their habitations, which agrees well to the Ethiopians. Peeled—having their hair plucked off; used in scripture for some great calamity, and this title may be given prophetically. Terrible—such were the Egyptians and Ethiopians. Meted—meted out as it were with lines to destruction. The rivers—which may be understood of the Assyrians or Babylonians breaking in upon them like a river.

Papyrus boats and swift messengers are Nile craft, not a modern embassy.

Calvin: sending ambassadors by the sea. This relates strictly to the state of those times. It would appear that this nation solicited the Egyptians or Syrians to harass the Jews, or that the Assyrians employed them, or that they had formed an alliance with the Egyptians against the Assyrians; nothing more than conjectures can be offered. In ships of reeds: the Egyptians used such because of the Nile’s cataracts. Go, ye swift messengers: if they were enemies of the Jews, the design was consolation to believers; if the Jews were led into an unlawful league, the exhortation is ironical. A nation scattered and peeled, terrible from their beginning, whose land the rivers have spoiled.

Agreed on both sides: vessels of papyrus; a feared people whose land the rivers divide.

Wesley: When—when God shall gather together the nations, as it were by the lifting up of an ensign, or by the sound of a trumpet, to execute his judgments upon this people. Look when the signal is raised.

The world is called to watch a stroke on Cush. The trumpet is the Lord’s.

Calvin: all ye inhabitants of the world. He shews that this work of God will be so manifestly displayed that the whole world will be constrained to behold it. When he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains: God will erect a banner, as it were, that all may know that the work is his. When he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye: none will be able to plead ignorance.

Both readings: look; hear.

Wesley: Rest—I will not bestir myself, to help this people. God is said in scripture to rest, or sit still, when he doth not work on the behalf of a person or people. Dwelling-place—in heaven, the place where God dwells. Harvest—the sense is, that God would look upon them with as uncomfortable an influence as the sun with a clear heat upon the herbs, which are scorched and killed by it; and as a cloud of the dew, which brings dew or rain, in the heat of harvest, when it is unwelcome and hurtful.

Quiet looking is; the LORD has already said what he will do.

Calvin: but thus said Jehovah unto me. After having threatened a slaughter of that people, he adds that God will be at rest, and will quietly look on from heaven, till they are ripe for destruction. Like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest: the resting of Jehovah, hovering over the enemy till they are ripe for destruction, compared to the gloom before a hot day and the sheet of dew in harvest. He is not idle; he waits his time.

Rest is decree, not absence. Shared: quiet look from the dwelling.

Wesley: For—before they receive the end of their hopes. When—when the bud or flower is turned into a grape, which gives hopes of good vintage. He—the Lord. The branches—instead of gathering the grapes, shall cut down the tree, and throw it into the fire. Held in common: cut before the vintage is gathered.

Hopes of a good vintage do not bind the pruner.

Calvin: for when the harvest shall be at hand. Literally it is, in presence of the harvest. When they think that they are just about to gather the fruits of their labor, the Lord will disappoint them. He shall cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and take away and cut down the branches: their flourishing leaders, devoted by Jehovah to destruction, shall be cut off. The people here spoken of are, as some take it, the Assyrians under Sennacherib; in any case it is that age’s harvest.

The lopping is still before that harvest. Where they meet: shoots cut with pruning hooks.

Wesley: Thy—the branches being cut down and thrown upon the ground, with the unripe grapes upon them. Left—they shall lie upon the earth, so that either birds or beasts may shelter themselves with them, or feed on them, both summer and winter. Summer birds, winter beasts.

Unburied shoots become a year’s food for scavengers. Field after the pruning of v. 5.

Calvin: they shall be left together. He means that they will be cast aside as a thing of no value, and will be exposed as a prey to birds and beasts. The fowls shall summer upon them, and the animals of the earth shall winter upon them: the slaughter will be so great that the wild animals will have food for a whole year.

Both traditions hear: birds summer, beasts winter.

Wesley: In that time—at or after that time, when the judgment shall be compleatly executed. A people—the people of whom I am speaking shall present themselves, and their sacrifices, to the true God. Common reading: tribute to Zion from that same people.

Cush may yet bring a present to the LORD of Armies. Wesley and Calvin share the homage as to the true God at Zion.

Calvin: in that time. The Prophet again shews why he threatened the destruction of a heathen nation: that the Church may know that God watches over her. The present shall be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, to the place of the name of the LORD of Armies, Mount Zion. Foreigners shall do homage to God; the Church shall see even distant nations acknowledging his name. It is that people’s homage after the pruning, brought to Zion.

The present is still Cush’s, to the place of the Name.