the Week of Proper 22 / Ordinary 27
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Isaiah 18:1
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Alas, O land of whirring wingsWhich lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
Alas, oh land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,
O that lande that trusteth vnder the shadow of wynges, [that lande] which is beyonde the waters of Ethiopia,
Ha! land shadowing with wings, which art beyond the rivers of Cush,
Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings, Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
Woe to the land of whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Look at the land along the rivers of Ethiopia where you can hear the buzzing of insect wings.
Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the riuers of Ethiopia:
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
Wo be to the londe of flienge shippes, which is of this syde ye floude of Ethiopia:
Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes beyond the Ethiopian rivers, Shipping emissaries all over the world, down rivers and across seas. Go, swift messengers, go to this people tall and handsome, This people held in respect everywhere, this people mighty and merciless, from the land crisscrossed with rivers.
Woe (judgment is coming) to the land of whirring wings Which is beyond the rivers of Cush (Ethiopia),
Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Ho! land of the sounding of wings, on the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia:
Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Cush:
The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead, the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
Downstream from Ethiopia lies the country of Egypt, swarming with insects.
Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Oh, the lande shadowing with winges, which is beyond the riuers of Ethiopia,
WOE to the land of shadowing wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Kush;
Ah, land of the buzzing of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Listen, Ethiopia—land of fluttering sails that lies at the headwaters of the Nile,
Trouble will come to the land on the other side of the rivers of Cush where the sound of wings is heard.
Woe to you, ye wings of the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush,
Ah, land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
Ho! thou land of the buzzing of wings, - Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,
Ah! land of the whirring of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush,
Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush,
Woe, land of whirring wings Which lies beyond the rivers of Cush,
How terrible it will be for the land beyond the rivers of Cush. It is filled with the sound of wings.
Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia there is a land where the sound of wings is heard.
Ah! The land of buzzing insect wings beyond the rivers of Cush
Wo to the lond, the cymbal of wyngis, which is biyende the flood of Ethiopie; that sendith messangeris bi the see,
Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
Ho, land shadowed [with] wings, That [is] beyond the rivers of Cush,
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
am cir, 3290, bc cir, 714
Woe: Bp. Lowth renders, after Bochart, "Ho! to the land of the winged cymbal;" which he thinks is a periphrasis for the Egyptian sistrum; and consequently, that Egypt, "which borders on the rivers of Cush," is the country to which the prophecy is addressed. If we translate "shadowing with wings," it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings.
the land: Isaiah 20:3-6, Isaiah 30:2, Isaiah 30:3, Isaiah 31:1
shadowing: Ruth 2:12, Psalms 17:8, Psalms 36:7, Psalms 57:1, Psalms 61:4, Psalms 63:7, Psalms 91:4, Matthew 23:37
which: 2 Kings 19:9, Ezekiel 30:4, Ezekiel 30:5, Zephaniah 2:12, Zephaniah 3:10
Reciprocal: Esther 1:1 - from India Ezekiel 29:2 - against all Ezekiel 30:9 - messengers
Cross-References
And Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said, To your seed I will give this land: and there he built an altar to Yahweh, who appeared to him.
After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, Don't be afraid, Abram: I am your shield, [and] your exceeding great reward.
And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
And Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, don't pass away, I pray you, from your slave:
And Yahweh appeared to him, and said, Don't go down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I shall tell you of.
And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
And Moses answered and said, But, look, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, Yahweh has not appeared to you.
In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, Ask what I shall give you.
And he said, Men, brothers and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Woe to the land shadowing with wings,.... Or, "O land", as calling to it; so Aben Ezra and Kimchi. It is very difficult to determine what land is here meant: some think the land of Assyria is here designed, as Aben Ezra and others, and so it is a continuation of the prophecy concerning the destruction of the Assyrians, in the three last verses of the preceding chapter Isaiah 17:12; the stretching out of whose wings is mentioned, Isaiah 8:8 and thought to be referred to here; others are of opinion that the land of Judea is intended, which trusted under the shadow of the wings of Egypt and Ethiopia, to whom the characters in the next verse Isaiah 18:2 are supposed to belong: but the more generally received sense is, that either Egypt or Ethiopia themselves are pointed at, described as "shadowing with wings"; not with the wings of birds, as Jarchi interprets it, which flocked thither in great numbers, the country being hot, and so shaded it with their wings; but rather with mountains, with which Ethiopia, at least some part of it, was encompassed and shaded; or else with ships, whose sails are like wings, and which resorting hither, in numerous fleets of them, and hovering about their coasts and ports, seemed to shadow them; to which agrees the Septuagint version, "Woe to the land, the wings of ships!" and so the Targum,
"Woe to the land to which they come in ships from a far country, whose sails are stretched out, as an eagle that flies with its wings;''
so Manasseh Ben Israel c renders them,
"Woe to the land, which, under the shadow of veils, falls beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.''
The word translated "shadowing" is used for a cymbal, 2 Samuel 6:5
Psalms 150:5 and so it is rendered here in the Vulgate Latin version, "Woe to the land, with the cymbal of wings": and some think the "sistrum", is meant, which was a musical instrument used by the Egyptians in their worship of Isis; and which had wings to it, or had transverse rods in the middle of it, which looked like wings, one of which may be seen in Pignorius d; and so it describes the land of Egypt, famous for its winged cymbals. Minucius Felix e makes mention of the swallow along with the sistrum, which was a bird of Isis; and which some say was placed over the statue of Isis, with its wings stretched out.
Which [is] beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; the principal of which were Astaboras and Astapus f, and also Nile itself, which came out of Ethiopia into Egypt: or, "which is on this side of the rivers of Ethiopia" g; and so may intend Egypt, which bordered on this side of it towards Judea; or, "which is beside the rivers of Ethiopia" h; and so may denote Ethiopia itself, situated by these rivers. The Targum renders it,
"the rivers of Judea.''
Some would have it, that the rivers of Arabia Chusaea are meant, which, lay between Judea and Egypt, as Besor, Rhinocorura, Trajan, and Corys; and Arabia seems rather to be meant by "Cush", than Ethiopia in Africa, since that lay beyond the rivers of Egypt, rather than Egypt beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
c Spes Israelis, sect. 17. p. 57. d Mensa Isiaca, p. 67. e Octav. p. 21. f Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 9. Ptolem. Geograph. 1. 4. c. 8. g אשר מעבר לנהרי כוש "quae est citra flumina Cuscheae", Vitringa. So some in Gataker. h "Quae est secundum flumina Aethiopiae", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Woe to the land - (הוי hôy). This word, as has been already remarked (the note at Isaiah 17:12), may be a mere interjection or salutation, and would be appropriately rendered by ‘Ho!’ Or it may be a word denouncing judgment, or wrath, as it is often used in this prophecy (the note at Isaiah 5:8).
Shadowing with wings - (כנפים צלצל tsı̂letsal kenāpāı̂ym). This is one of the most difficult expressions in the whole chapter; and one to which as yet, probably, no satisfactory meaning has been applied. The Septuagint renders it, Οὐαὶ γῆς πλοὶων πτέρυγες Ouai gēs ploiōn pteruges - ‘Ah! wings of the land of ships.’ The Chaldee, ‘Woe to the land in which they come in ships from a distant country, and whose sails are spread out as an eagle which flies upon its wings.’ Grotius renders it, ‘The land whose extreme parts are shaded by mountains.’ The word rendered, ‘shadowed’ צלצל tsı̂letsal, occurs only in this place and in Job 41:7, where it is translated ‘fish-spears’ - but as we know nothing of the “form” of those spears, that place throws no light on the meaning of the word here. The word is derived, evidently, from צלל tsālal, which has three significations:
(1) “To be shady, dark, obscure;” and hence, its derivatives are applied to anything that “makes” a shade or shadow - particularly “shady trees” Job 40:21-22; the shades of night Song of Solomon 2:17; Song of Solomon 4:6; or anything that produces obscurity, or darkness, as a tree, a rock, a wing, etc.
(2) It means “to tingle,” spoken of the ears 1Sa 3:11; 2 Kings 21:13; “to quiver,” spoken of the lips Habakkuk 3:16; and hence, its derivatives are applied to anything that makes a sound by “tinkling” - an instrument of music; a cymbal made of two pieces of metal that are struck together 2Sa 6:5; 1 Chronicles 15:16; 1 Chronicles 16:42; 1Ch 25:6; 2 Chronicles 5:12; Nehemiah 12:27; Psalms 150:5)
(3) It means “to sink” Exodus 15:10. From the sense of making “a shade,” a derivative of the verb צלצל tselâtsâl - the same as used here except the points - is applied to locusts because they appear in such swarms as to obscure the rays of the sun, and produce an extended shade, or shadow, over a land as a cloud does; or because they make a rustling with their wings.
The word used here, therefore, may mean either “shaded, or rustling, or rattling,” in the manner of a cymbal or other tinkling instrument. It may be added, that the word may mean a “double shade,” being a doubling of the word צל tsêl, a “shade, or shdow,” and it has been supposed by some to apply to Ethiopia as lying betwen the tropics, having a “double shadow;” that is, so that the shadow of objects is cast one half of the year on the north side, and the other half on the south. The word ‘wings’ is applied in the Scriptures to the following things, namely:
(1) The wing of a fowl. This is the literal, and common signification.
(2) The skirts, borders, or lower parts of a garment, from the resemblance to wings Numbers 15:38; 1Sa 24:5, 1 Samuel 24:11; Zechariah 8:13. Also a bed-covering Deuteronomy 33:1.
(3) The extremities or borders of a country, or of the world Job 37:3; Isaiah 24:16; Ezekiel 17:3, Ezekiel 17:7.
(4) The “wing” or extremity of an army, as we use the word “wing” Isaiah 8:8; Jeremiah 48:40; Daniel 9:27.
(5) The expanding rays of the morning, because the light “expands or spreads out” like wings Psalms 139:9; Malachi 4:2.
(6) The “wind” - resembling wings in rapid motion Psalms 18:10, Psalms 18:21; Psalms 104:3; Hosea 4:19.
(7) The battlement or pinnacle of the temple - or perhaps the porches extended on each side of the temple like wings (Daniel 9:27; compare Matthew 4:5).
(8) “Protection” - as wings are a protection to young birds in their nest (see Psalms 18:8; Psalms 36:7; Psalms 61:4; Psalms 91:4; Matthew 23:37). It has been proposed by some to apply this description to “ships,” or the sails of vessels, as if a land was designated which was covered with “sails,” or the “wings” of vessels. So the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. But there is no instance in which the word “wings” is so applied in the Scriptures.
The expression used here “may,” therefore, be applied to many things; and it is not easy to determine its signification. The “general” idea is, that of “something” that abounds in the land that is stretched out or expanded; that, as it were, “covers” it, and so abounds as to make a shade or shadow everywhere. And it may be applied:
(1) to a nation that abounds with birds or fowls, so that they might be said to shade the land;
(2) to a nation abounding with locusts, shading the land or making a rustling noise; or
(3) to a nation furnishing protection, or stretching out its wings, as it were, for the defense of a feeble people. So Vitringa interprets this place, and supposes that it refers to Egypt, as being the nation where the Hebrews sought protection. Or
(4) to a country that is shaded with trees, mountains, or hills. So Grotius supposes it means here, and thinks that it refers to Ethiopia, as being bounded by high hills or mountains.
(5) It “may” mean a people distinguished for navigation - abounding in “sails” of vessels - as if they were everywhere spread out like wings. So the Septuagint and the Chaldee understand this; and the interpretation has some plausibility, from the fact that light vessels are immediately mentioned.
(6) The editor of Calmet’s “Dictionary” supposes that it refers to the “winged Cnephim” which are sculptured over the temple gates in Upper-Egypt. They are emblematic representatives of the god “Cneph,” to which the temples are dedicated, and abound in Upper Egypt. The symbol of the “wings” is supposed to denote the “protection” which the god extended over the land.
(7) Gesenius (“Com. on Isaiah”) renders it, ‘land rustling with wings,’ and supposes that the word rendered ‘shadowing,’ denotes the “rustling” sound that is made by the clangor of weapons of war. Amidst this variety of interpretation, it is, perhaps, not possible to determine the meaning of the phrase. It has no parallel expression to illustrate it; and its meaning must be left to conjecture.
Almost anyone of the above significations will suit the connection; and it is not very material which is chosen. The one that, perhaps, best suits the connection, is that of the Septuagint and the Chaldee, which refers it to the multitude of ships that expand their sails, and appear to fill all the waters of the land with wings.
Which is beyond - (מעבר mē‛ēber). This does not, of necessity, mean “beyond,” though that is its usual signification. It properly means “from the passing, the passages, the crossing over,” of a river; and may be rendered what is on the other side; or over against. It sometimes means on this side, as if used by one living on the other side Deuteronomy 4:49; Jos 13:27; 1 Kings 4:24; in which places it has not the sense of “beyond,” but means either on this side, or lying alongside. The sense here is, probably, that this country was situated “not far” from the rivers of Cush, “probably” beyond them, but still it is implied that they were not “far” beyond them, but were rather at their passings over, or crossing-places; that is, near them.
The rivers of Ethiopia - Hebrew, ‘Rivers of Cush.’ (On the meaning of the word ‘Cush,’ see the note at Isaiah 11:11) It is sometimes applicable to Ethiopia or Nubia - that is, the portion of Egypt above the cataracts of the Nile. Compare Jeremiah 13:23 : ‘Can the Ethiopian (the “Cushite”) change his skin?’ (see also Ezekiel 29:10). This word does not determine with certainty the country to which reference is made - for the country of Cush “may” mean that east of the Euphrates, or southern Arabia, or southern Egypt. Egypt and Cush are, however, sometimes connected (2 Kings 19:9; Psalms 68:31; Isaiah 20:3; Isaiah 43:3; Nahum 3:9; compare Daniel 11:43). The “probability” from the use of this word is, that some part of Upper Egypt is intended. Ethiopia in part lies beyond the most considerable of the streams that make up the river Nile.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XVIII
This chapter contains a very obscure prophecy; possibly
designed to give the Jews, and perhaps the Egyptians, whose
country is supposed to be meant, 1, 2,
and with whom many Jews resided, an indignation of God's
interposition in favour of Sion, 3, 4;
and of his counsels in regard to the destruction of their
common enemy, Sennacherib, whose vast army, just as he thought
his projects ripe, and ready to be crowned with success, 5,
should become a prey to the beasts of the field, and to the
fowls of heaven, 6;
and that Egypt should be grateful to God for the deliverance
vouchsafed her, 7.
This is one of the most obscure prophecies in tho whole Book of Isaiah. The subject of it, the end and design of it, the people to whom it is addressed, the history to which it belongs, the person who sends the messengers, and the nation to whom the messengers are sent, are all obscure and doubtful. - L.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVIII
Verse Isaiah 18:1. Wo to the land — הוי ארץ hoi arets! This interjection should be translated ho! for it is properly a particle of calling: Ho, land! Attend! Give ear!
Shadowing with wings - "The winged cymbal] צלצל כנפים tsiltsal kenaphayim. I adopt this as the most probable of the many interpretations that have been given of these words. It is Bochart's: see Phaleg, iv. 2. The Egyptian sistrum is expressed by a periphrasis; the Hebrews had no name for it in their language, not having in use the instrument itself. The cymbal they had was an instrument in its use and sound not much unlike the sistrum; and to distinguish it from the sistrum, they called it the cymbal with wings. The cymbal was a round hollow piece of metal, which, being struck against another, gave a ringing sound: the sistrum was a round instrument, consisting of a broad rim of metal, through which from side to side ran several loose laminae or small rods of metal, which being shaken, gave a like sound. These, projecting on each side, had somewhat the appearance of wings; or might be very properly expressed by the same word which the Hebrews used for wings, or for the extremity, or a part of any thing projecting. The sistrum is given in a medal of Adrian, as the proper attribute of Egypt. See Addison on Medals, Series iii. No. 4; where the figure of it may be seen. The frame of the sistrum was in shape rather like the ancient lyre; it was not round.
If we translate shadowing with wings, it may allude to the multitude of its vessels, whose sails may be represented under the notion of wings. The second verse seems to support this interpretation. Vessels of bulrushes, gome, or rather the flag papyrus, so much celebrated as the substance on which people wrote in ancient times, and from which our paper is denominated. The sails might have been made of this flag: but whole canoes were constructed from it. Mat sails are used to the present day in China. The Vulgate fully understood the meaning of the word, and has accordingly translated, in vasis papyri, "in vessels of papyrus." Reshi vesselis. - Old MS. Bib. This interpretation does not please Bp. Lowth, and for his dissent he gives the following reasons: -
In opposition to other interpretations of these words which have prevailed, it may be briefly observed that צלצל tsiltsel is never used to signify shadow, nor is כנף canaph applied to the sails of ships. If, therefore, the words are rightly interpreted the winged cymbal, meaning the sistrum, Egypt must be the country to which the prophecy is addressed. And upon this hypothesis the version and explanation must proceed. I farther suppose, that the prophecy was delivered before Sennacherib's return from his Egyptian expedition, which took up three years; and that it was designed to give to the Jews, and perhaps likewise to the Egyptians, an intimation of God's counsels in regard to the destruction of their great and powerful enemy.
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia - "Which borders on the rivers of Cush"] What are the rivers of Cush? whether the eastern branches of the lower Nile, the boundary of Egypt towards Arabia, or the parts of the upper Nile towards Ethiopia, it is not easy to determine. The word מעבר meeber signifies either on this side or on the farther side: I have made use of the same kind of ambiguous expression in the translation.
