Bible Commentaries

β) ETHIOPIA NOW AND IN TIME TO COME

Isaiah 18

א) The danger that threatens in the present

Isaiah 18:1-3

1 Woe to the land ¹shadowing with wings,

Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea,

²Even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters,

Saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation ³⁴scattered and peeled,

To a people ⁵terrible from their beginning hitherto;

⁶A nation^{7 8}meted out and trodden down,

⁹ Whose land the rivers have spoiled!

3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the ¹⁰earth,

See ye, when ¹¹he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains;

And when ¹²he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 18:1. הוי like Isaiah 17:12.—צְלָצַל occurs only here in Isaiah. Beside this: in Deuteronomy 28:42, with the meaning “cricket, cicada;” Job 40:31 meaning “harpoon” (so Called from the clinking); 2 Samuel 6:5 and Psalm 150:5, we find the plural meaning “cymbals.” Older expositors have taken the word in the sense of the simple צֵל “shadow,” or also, because of the reduplication = “double shadow,” with supposed reference to the double shadow of the tropics (ἀμφίσκιος, Strabo). Both are impossible. The word can only mean “stridor, clinking, whizzing, buzz,” because this is the underlying sense of every shade of its use.—But what are the כְּנָפַיִם? Some have thought of the wings of an army, referring for proof to Isaiah 8:8. But what would this afford as a characteristic? The same objection lies against the construction “grasshopper wings,” or “sails” (LXX.). It is a hardy conjecture to refer this to the wings of the sun, Malachi 3:20 ( Malachi 4:2) comp. Tac. Germ. 45; Juven. Sat. 14, 279; the Egyptian Sistrum [a kind of cymbal] with two rims or wings, is too insignificant as a characteristic, and cannot be shown to belong to Ethiopia. On the other hand it is quite suitable to call a land that is warm and that abounds with water and rushes, and hence also with winged insects, the land “of the whirring wings.” The conjecture is very enticing, that the expression צלצל כנפים is chosen with reference to the Tzaltzala, or Tsetse-fly, which was first described by the Englishman Francis Galton (“Exploring expedition in tropical South-Africa, London, Murray, 1854). It is “a little fly, in size and form nearly like our house fly, but somewhat lighter colored, of which the natives say that a single bite is sufficient to kill a horse, an ox or a dog; whereas asses and goats suffer no harm from it.” But it is not satisfactorily made out whether this resemblance is to be traced to a radical relation or whether it is only an accidental similarity in sound. Comp. in the Ausland 1868, No8, p192.

Isaiah 18:2. השׁלה is to be referred to ארץ. The masculine is explained in that while Isaiah 18:1 ארץ means the land proper, in Isaiah 18:2 it represents more particularly the notion of people: for the messengers are sent by men. Comp. on Isaiah 15:1.—יָם like Isaiah 19:5; Isaiah 27:1; Nahum 3:8.—צִיר, in the sense of “messenger,” again in Isaiah 57:9.—מְמֻשָׁךְ part. Pual from מָשַׁךְ trahere, protrahere, extrahere, used again only Proverbs 13:12, of the תּוֹכֶלֶת מְמֻשָּׁכָה, “the long-drawn out expectation.” Therefore the word here, too, can mean nothing but “long-drawn, long-stretched, procerus, élancé.” The Sabeans, too, are called, Isaiah 45:14, אַנְשֵׁי מִדָּה [“men of extension.” Eng. Bib. “men of stature”].—מָרַט is “to make smooth, bright.” It is used of the sword that is not only sharpened, but polished till it flashes ( Ezekiel 21:14-16); also of pulling out the hair till the crown is smooth and shining ( Leviticus 13:40 sq.). Comp. moreover 1 Kings 7:45; Ezekiel 29:18. In Isaiah the word occurs only once more, Isaiah 50:6, of the pulling out of the hair. The form מוֹרָט stands for מְמורָט, comp. Ezekiel 21:15 sq.——נורא מן־הוא והלאה; the construction is the same as מִמְּךָ וָהָֽלְאָה 1 Samuel 20:22; 1 Samuel 10:3, and מֵּעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם .מִקָּטוֹן וְעַד־גָּדוֹל. Only we are surprised that it does not read מִמֶּנּוּ. But the pron. sep. is used for the sake of emphasis (comp. Genesis 27:34; 1 Samuel 19:23. etc.). And wherefore may it not stand instead of the suffix? The Prophet wishes to mark the point of departure and support of the Ethiopian power, thus he does not write מִמֶּנּוּ. Analogous is מִימֵי הִיא Nahum 2:9 (8) (a closed up water pool was Nineveh since its existence; but now the pool runs out, the people of Nineveh flee on all sides). There, too, מִיָּמֶיהָ might have been used. When Stade remarks that it must properly read here מֵאֲשֶׁר הוּא, he is correct. But מִן הוּא can be used also. On the other hand, according to his explanation, i.e., if הוּא should be referred to Israel, it must of necessity read מִזֶּה. Or if מִן הוּא is to be understood of time, who in the world would know that הוּא should point to the period of time, “quo Aethiopes Aegyptiorum jugo excusso aliis populis et imprimis Aegyptiis bella inferre coeperunt?”——מִן הוּא, in a temporal sense, could only mean: ex quo est. But in order to express this Isaiah would likely have written מִימֵי הוּא, not to mention that it is not credible that the Ethiopians were a widely feared people from the moment of their existence onwards. It is my opinion therefore that מִן הוּא stands in a local sense, brief and pregnant for מִן אֲשֶׁר הוּא or מן אֲשֵׁר הוּא שָׁם.—The meaning of קו־קו must be measured by Isaiah 28:10; Isaiah 28:13, for no other passage exists so nearly like this text. There, too, the word appears repeated, קו לקו. It means originally “measuring line,” and occurs in is, beside the above mentioned places, Isaiah 28:17; Isaiah 34:11; Isaiah 34:17; Isaiah 44:13. From the meaning “measuring line” is developed “norm, prescription rule,” Isaiah 28:10; Isaiah 28:13. So we must take it here; and the choice of the short, abruptly spoken word, which moreover is repeated, is not to be regarded as accidental and undesigned. For this reason (see also Exegct. Comm. below) we take קו־קו = “command, command.” There was much commanding, but short and sharp.—מבוסה (again only Isaiah 18:7; Isaiah 22:5) is “conculcatio, treading down,” comp. אִישׁ תּוֹכָחוֹת Proverbs 29:1; בִּן־הַכּוֹת Deuteronomy 25:2.—בָּזָז = בָּזָא, like שַׁסַם = שָׁאַם,שָׁסַם = שָׁסָה (Ewald, § 112 g; 114 b; 151 b).

Isaiah 18:3. שׁכני ארץ only here.——כְּ designates the coincidence, as in cases of time when. We have here the Inf. Constr. after a Prepos. forming a phrase with the subject latent.——הָרִים is accusative of place.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Prophet sends a cry of alarm to the remote Ethiopians, because they too are threatened by the Assyrians. He characterizes the land by the use of predicates suggested by the abundance of its insects, and its situation on great rivers ( Isaiah 18:1). In this land the messengers fly away in swift skiffs over the waters. Therefore the Prophet summons these swift messengers to command the people, at the same time describing them as a people of lofty stature, and shining color of skin, as a nation dreaded far beyond its borders, as a nation among whom reigns strict command and ruthless use of power, that is yet exposed to the power of mighty streams that carry off its land ( Isaiah 18:2). This nation is commanded: it will arm itself for this strife. Between it and the Assyrian there shall come to pass a terrible collision. When it is announced by visible and audible signals, all nations must give good heed: for all are in the highest degree interested in it.

2. Woe——hear ye.

Isaiah 18:1-3. Cush is Ethiopia, the land that bounds Egypt on the south, which began at Syene below the first cataract of the Nile (comp. Ezekiel 29:10; Ezekiel 30:6), and had Meroe for its capital (Herod2:29). The Egyptians, also, call Ethiopia Kus′ or Kes′ (comp. Eber’s Egypten und die Bucher Mosis, I. p57; Lepsius in Herz. R. Encycl. I, p148). I do not believe, as Stade maintains (De Is. vatt. aeth, p16), that the assumption of Mesopotamian Cushites rests merely on the erroneous identifying of the κίσσιοι (Her. III:91) or κοσσαῖοι (Strabo XI. p524, XIV:744) with the biblical Cushites. The streams of Ethiopia are the White Nile (Bahr-el-Abjad) and its tributaries, the Atbara, the Blue Nile (Bahr-el-Asrak), the Sobat, the Bahr-el-Ghasal, etc. In describing the land of whirring-wings as beyond the rivers of Ethiopia (comp. Zephaniah 3:10), this form of expression arises from the mighty waters occupying the foreground in the mental vision of the Prophet, thus the land lies for him beyond them.—גֹּמֶא ( Isaiah 35:7; Exodus 2:3) is the papyrus-reed. Light and fleet boats were made of it, as is abundantly testified by the ancients and by the monuments (comp. Gesen. in loc., Wilkinson, The ancient Egyptians, V, p119). Papyrus, once very abundant in Egypt, is no longer found there; but is found in Abyssinia (comp. Champollion-Figeac, L’Egypte ancienne, p24, sq195) and Sicily (Herz. R. Encycl. I, p140 sq.).

Go ye swift messengers, to a nation, etc., is understood by most expositors as if the Prophet sent the messengers home, because Jehovah Himself would undertake Himself the destruction of the enemy. But then the Prophet would not have used לְכוּ, but rather שׁוּבוּ. Besides one can’t understand why, if the Ethiopians were not to fight, their warlike qualities are depicted in such strong colors. I therefore take לְכוּ in its proper sense; “go ye.” The Ethiopians are to be bidden to the contest, and actually to fight; but they must know that it is the Lord that gives them the victory.

To a nation grown high: see under Text. and Gram. It is, moreover, not impossible that, as Jos. Friedr. Schelling conjectured, there lies in the expression an allusion to the longevity of the Ethiopians which was an accepted notion of the ancients. The Ethiopians are called smooth and shining, not, we may suppose, because they deprived the body of hair, but because they had a way of making the skin smooth and shining. This is known from what Herodotus relates of the scouts of Cambyses ( Isaiah 3:23). When these wondered at the long life of the Ethiopians, they were led to a spring: “by washing in which they became very shining as if it were of oil.” By the constant use of this spring, the Ethiopians became, it was said, μακρόβιοι, “long-lived.” It is seen from this that to the Ethiopians was ascribed a skin shining as if oiled. In general the Ethiopians, according to Herodotus, were accounted “the largest and comeliest of all men.” On the upper Nile there yet live men whom this description suits. For example the Schilluks, that were reached by the British Consul, John Petherick, after eight days’ journey on the White Nile, from Chartum, are described by him as “a large, powerful, finely formed race, with countenances of noble mould” (Ausland, 1861, No24). Comp. Ernst Morno (in Peterman’s Geogr. Mitheilungen, 1872, 12 Heft., p 452 sqq.) on the ethnological relations in Upper-Sennar, and especially on the Hammedach and their neighbors. That is dreaded far away; so the Prophet names the people because they are feared from their borders and far away. See Text. and Gram. We know with certainty, at least with reference to Egypt, that Ethiopia at that time had dominion beyond its own territory. The Ethiopian dynasty seems to have put an end to a condition of great disorder in Egypt. The first king of it, Sabakon, must have been a powerful and wise regent. Champollion-Figeac, l. c., p363, says of him: “The internal disorders involved the ruin of the public establishments, and when order was revived by the presence of a wise and prudent monarch, his first thought ought to be to repair them. After his invasion of Egypt this duty devolved on the conqueror, and Sabakon did not neglect it.” To the third king, Tirhaka, are ascribed great military expeditions—as far as the Pillars of Hercules,—and conquests (ibid, p364). One may well suppose that the strict discipline and order, which naturally at times ran to the excess of ruthless oppression, was a characteristic peculiarity of those Ethiopic princes. We therefore take קו־קו = “command, command:” there was much commanding, but short and sharp. The meaning “power, strength,” which some assume only for our text, after Arabian analogy, is not satisfactorily established. We do perfectly well with the meaning nearest at hand. Egypt, as is well known, is a gift of the Nile (comp. Eber’s Egypten n. d. Bücher Mosis, I. p21. Fraas, Aus dem Orient, geologische Beobachtungen am Nil, auf der Sinai-Halbinsel u. in Syrien, 1867. p207). But what the Nile gives to Egypt it has stolen in Ethiopia. Therefore the expression “whose land rivers carry away” corresponds exactly with the fact. It appears in a measure as a Nemesis accomplished by nature that Ethiopia, in return for “the down treading” practised by it, should succumb to the spoiling done by the rivers flowing through it. The nation of Ethiopia therefore is summoned to the strife. A collision impends. It must be attended with important consequences. All inhabitants of the world (comp. Isaiah 26:9; Isaiah 26:18), especially the dwellers of the territory concerned, must be on the look-out when the signals for the combat are given; for something of moment will happen.

Footnotes