Bible Commentaries
Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isaiah 18
Isaiah 18:1. Woe to the land shadowing with wings—ranges of inaccessible mountains called the mountains of the moon, and those to the east between the Nile and the Red sea. The Nile divided amidst those mountains.
Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; that is, the southern streams and branches of the Nile, which run into the centre of Cush or Ethiopia. We must confess that the language here is very obscure, and the innumerable glosses given to the figures of this verse, is full proof of that obscurity.
Isaiah 18:2. Vessels of bulrushes. A sort of canoes made of papyrus, and much used in navigating the Nile.
REFLECTIONS.
We learn, notwithstanding the difficulties in the language, that impenitent nations shall be visited for their sins; even the remote Ethiopians could not escape.
God will fix his rest and throne in Zion, and bring the peeled and afflicted nations to worship at his feet. Thus Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God.
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