Isaiah 18

Cush, the Quiet Watchfulness of the LORD, and Tribute Brought to Mount Zion

The chapter moves from attention to the distant land of Cush and its swift envoys, to a command for those envoys to go to a feared nation, to a worldwide summons to watch the banner and hear the trumpet, to the LORD’s quiet watchfulness from his dwelling place, to pruning judgment before harvest, to birds and beasts feeding on the cut remains, and finally to tribute brought from the distant feared people to Mount Zion.

World English Bible, Public Domain

Isaiah 18:1-7

God rules quietly over global ambition and will draw the nations to his holy mountain.

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

2 that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!”

All inhabitants of the world are called to see the raised banner and hear the trumpet.

3 All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!

The LORD remains quiet and observes from his dwelling place like heat and dew over harvest.

4 For Yahweh said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

Apparent fruitfulness is pruned and left for birds and beasts.

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

6 They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter.

A feared distant people bring gifts to the Name of the LORD Almighty at Mount Zion.

7 In that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.

Key Terms

הוֹי hôy H1945
אֶרֶץ ʾereṣ H776
צִלְצַל כְּנָפַיִם ṣilṣal kĕnāphayim H6767
נַהֲרֵי nahărê H5104
כּוּשׁ kûš H3568
צִירִים ṣîrîm H6735
יָם / מַיִם yām / mayim H3220
כְּלֵי־גֹמֶא kĕlê-gōmeʾ H3627
קַלִּים qallîm H7031
מְמֻשָּׁךְ mĕmuššāḵ H4900
מוֹרָט môrāṭ H4178
נוֹרָא nôrāʾ H3372

World English Bible (WEB): Public Domain Scripture text · License details