Isaiah 18 (ASV)

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Chapter Text

18:1 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

18:2 that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, [saying], Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!

18:3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye.

18:4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

18:5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away [and] cut down.

18:6 They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

18:7 In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts [from] a people tall and smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "world", "land", "rustling", "wings", "beyond", "rivers", "ethiopia", and "sendeth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "world" and "land", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local ASV text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "world" and "land" carries the first interpretive weight. In The Suffering Servant Bears Iniquity, the local focus is the servant of the LORD, atonement, and judgment and restoration.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "world" and "land" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.