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About this chapterIsaiah addresses Cush, a land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, whose envoys travel in papyrus boats along the Nile. A messenger is sent to a people tall and smooth-skinned, feared far and wide. Some readers think Cush was seeking an alliance with Judah against Assyria. God tells the nations to watch as he quietly observes from his dwelling, like the heat of the sun in harvest. At the right moment, he will cut off the shoots, leaving the nation's plans to be picked apart by birds and beasts. In the end, gifts will be brought to the Lord from these distant peoples to Mount Zion.

Isaiah addresses Cush, a land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, whose envoys travel in papyrus boats along the Nile. A messenger is sent to a people tall and smooth-skinned, feared far and wide. Some readers think Cush was seeking an alliance with Judah against Assyria. God tells the nations to watch as he quietly observes from his dwelling, like the heat of the sun in harvest. At the right moment, he will cut off the shoots, leaving the nation's plans to be picked apart by birds and beasts. In the end, gifts will be brought to the Lord from these distant peoples to Mount Zion.

Themes

  • God quietly watches
  • Human alliances cut down
  • Nations bring gifts to Zion

Key verses

Audio Bible · Isaiah 18

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Isaiah 18

Berean Standard Bible7 verses · 1 min read

1Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush, 2which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. 3All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it. 4For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” 5For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches. 6They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the land. The birds will feed on them in summer, and all the wild animals in winter. 7At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts— from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.

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Verses in Isaiah 18

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