Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1712)

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I S A I A H.

CHAP. XVIII.

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Whatever country it is that is meant here by “the land shadowing with

wings,” here is a woe denounced against it, for God has, upon his

people’s account, a quarrel with it.

I. They threaten God’s people,

ver. 1, 2.

II. All the neighbours are hereupon called to take notice what will be

the issue,

ver. 3.

III. Though God seem unconcerned in the distress of his people for a

time, he will at length appear against their enemies and will

remarkable cut them off,

ver. 4-6.

IV. This shall redound very much to the glory of God,

ver. 7.

Judgments Denounced.	B. C. 712.

     

1 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the

rivers of Ethiopia:

  2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of

bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to

a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their

beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose

land the rivers have spoiled!

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

see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when

he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

  4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will

consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

  5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour

grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs

with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.

  6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains,

and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon

them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

  7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of

hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people

terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and

trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the

place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.

     

Interpreters are very much at a loss where to find this land that lies

beyond the rivers of Cush. Some take it to be Egypt, a maritime

country, and full of rivers, and which courted Israel to depend upon

them, but proved broken reeds; but against this it is strongly objected

that the next chapter is distinguished from this by the title of the

burden of Egypt. Others take it to be Ethiopia, and read it,

which lies near, or about, the rivers of Ethiopia, not

that in Africa, which lay south of Egypt, but that which we call

Arabia, which lay east of Canaan, which Tirhakah was now king

of. He thought to protect the Jews, as it were, under the shadow of

his wings, by giving a powerful diversion to the king of Assyria,

when he made a descent upon his country, at the time that he was

attacking Jerusalem,

2 Kings xix. 9.

But though by his ambassadors he bade defiance to the king of Assyria,

and encouraged the Jews to depend upon him, God by the prophet slights

him, and will not go forth with him; he may take his own course, but

God will take another course to protect Jerusalem, while he suffers the

attempt of Tirhakah to miscarry and his Arabian army to be ruined; for

the Assyrian army shall become a present or sacrifice to the Lord of

hosts, and to the place of his name, by the hand of an angel, not by

the hand of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia,

v. 7.

This is a very probable exposition of this chapter. But from a hint of

Dr. Lightfoot’s, in his Harmony of the Old Testament, I incline to

understand this chapter as a prophecy against Assyria, and so a

continuation of the prophecy in the

last three verses

of the foregoing chapter, with which therefore this should be joined.

That was against the army of the Assyrians which rushed in upon Judah;

this is against the land of Assyria itself, which lay beyond the rivers

of Arabia, that is, the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, which bordered on

Arabia Deserta. And in calling it the land shadowing with

wings he seems to refer to what he himself had said of it

(ch. viii. 8),

that the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy

land, O Immanuel! The prophet might perhaps describe the Assyrians

by such dark expressions, not naming them, for the same reason that St.

Paul, in his prophecy, speaks of the Roman empire by a periphrasis:

He who now letteth,
2 Thess. ii. 7.

Here is,

     

I. The attempt made by this land (whatever it is) upon a nation

scattered and peeled,
v. 2.

Swift messengers are sent by water to proclaim war against them, as a

nation marked by Providence, and meted out, to be trodden under

foot. Whether this refer to the Ethiopians waging war with the

Assyrians, or the Assyrians with Judah, it teaches us,

1. That a people which have been terrible from their beginning, have

made a figure and borne a mighty sway, may yet become scattered and

peeled, and may be spoiled even by their own rivers, that should enrich

both the husbandman and the merchant. Nations which have been

formidable, and have kept all in awe about them, may by a concurrence

of accidents become despicable and an easy prey to their insulting

neighbours.

2. Princes and states that are ambitious of enlarging their

territories will always have some pretence or other to quarrel with

those whose countries they have a mind to. “It is a nation that has

been terrible, and therefore we must be revenged on it; it is now a

nation scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden down, and therefore

it will be an easy prey for us.” Perhaps it was not brought so low as

they represented it. God’s people are trampled on as a nation scattered

and peeled; but whoever think to swallow them up may find them still as

terrible as they have been from their beginning; they are cast down,

but not deserted, not destroyed.

     

II. The alarm sounded to the nations about, by which they are summoned

to take notice of what God is about to do,

v. 3.

The Ethiopians and Assyrians have their counsels and designs, which

they have laid deep, and promise themselves much from, and, in

prosecution of them, send their ambassadors and messengers from place

to place; but let us now enquire what the great God says to all this.

1. He lifts up an ensign upon the mountains, and blows a

trumpet, by which he proclaims war against the enemies of his

church, and calls in all her friends and well-wishers into her service,

v. 3.

He gives notice that he is about to do some great work, as Lord of

hosts.

2. All the world is bidden to take notice of it; all the dwellers on

earth must see the ensign and hear the trumpet, must observe the

motions of the divine providence and attend the directions of the

divine will. Let all enlist under God’s banner, and be on his side, and

hearken to the trumpet of his word, which gives not an uncertain

sound.

     

III. The assurance God gives to his prophet, by him to be given to his

people, that, though he might seem for a time to sit by as an

unconcerned spectator, yet he would certainly and seasonably appear for

the comfort of his people and the confusion of his and their enemies

(v. 4):

So the Lord said unto me. Men will have their saying, but God

also will have his; and, as we may be sure his word shall stand, so he

often whispers it in the ears of his servants the prophets. When he

says, I will take my rest, it is not as if he were weary of

governing the world, of as if he either needed or desired to retire

from it and repose himself; but it intimates that the great God has a

perfect, undisturbed, enjoyment of himself, in the midst of all the

agitations and changes of this world (the Lord sits even upon the

floods unshaken; the Eternal Mind is always easy), and, though he may

sometimes seem to his people as if he took not wonted notice of what is

done in this lower world (they are tempted to think he is as one

asleep, or as one astonished,
Ps. xliv. 23; Jer. xiv. 9),

yet even then he knows very well what men are doing and what he himself

will do.

     

1. He will take care of his people, and be a shelter to them. He will

regard his dwelling-place; his eye and his heart are, and shall

be, upon it for good continually. Zion is his rest for ever, where he

will dwell; and he will look after it (so some read it); he will

lift up the light of his countenance upon it, will consider over it

what is to be done, and will be sure to do all for the best. He will

adapt the comforts and refreshments he provides for his people to the

exigencies of their case; and they will therefore be acceptable,

because seasonable.

(1.) Like a clear heat after rain (so the margin), which is very

reviving and pleasant, and makes the herbs to flourish.

(2.) Like a dew and a cloud in the heat of harvest, which are

very welcome, the dew to the ground and the cloud to the labourers.

Note, There is that in God which is a shelter and refreshment to his

people in all weathers and arms them against the inconveniences of

every change. Is the weather cool? There is that in his favour which

will warm them. Is it hot? There is that in his favour which will cool

them. Great men have their winter-house and their summer-house

(Amos iii. 15);

but those that are at home with God have both in him.

     

2. He will reckon with his and their enemies,

v. 5, 6.

When the Assyrian army promises itself a plentiful harvest in the

taking of Jerusalem and the plundering of that rich city, when the bud

of that project is perfect, before the harvest is gathered in, while

the sour grape of their enmity to Hezekiah and his people is ripening

in the flower and the design is just ready to be put in execution, God

shall destroy that army as easily as the husbandman cuts off the sprigs

of the vine with pruning hooks, or because the grape is sour and good

for nothing, and will not be cured, takes away and cuts down the

branches. This seems to point at the overthrow of the Assyrian army

by a destroying angel, when the dead bodies of the soldiers were

scattered like the branches and sprigs of a wild vine, which the

husbandman has cut to pieces. And they shall be left to the fowls of

the mountains, and the beasts of the earth, to prey upon, both

winter and summer; for as God’s people are protected all seasons of the

year, both in cold and heat

(v. 4),

so their enemies are at all seasons exposed; birds and beasts of prey

shall both summer and winter upon them, till they are quite ruined.

     

IV. The tribute of praise which should be brought to God from all this

(v. 7):

In that time, when this shall be accomplished, shall the

present be brought unto the Lord of hosts.

1. Some understand this of the conversion of the Ethiopians to the

faith of Christ in the latter days, of which we have the specimen and

beginning in Philip’s baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch,

Acts viii. 27,

&c. Those that were a people scattered and peeled, meted out, and

trodden down

(v. 2),

shall be a present to the Lord: and, though they seem useless and

worthless, they shall be an acceptable present to him who judges of men

by the sincerity of their faith and love, not by the pomp and

prosperity of their outward condition. Therefore the gospel was

ministered to the Gentiles that the offering up of the Gentiles

might be acceptable,
Rom. xv. 16.

It is prophesied

(Ps. lxviii. 31)

that Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.

2. Others understand it of the spoil of Sennacherib’s army, out of

which, as usual, presents were brought to the Lord of hosts,
Num. xxxi. 50.

It was the present of a people scattered and peeled.

(1.) It was won from the Assyrians, who were now themselves reduced to

such a condition as they scornfully described Judah to be in,

v. 1.

Those that unjustly trample upon others shall themselves be justly

trampled upon.

(2.) It was offered by the people of God, who were, in disdain, called

a people scattered and peeled. God will put honour upon his

people, though men put contempt upon them. Lastly, Observe, The

present that is brought to the Lord of hosts must be brought to the

place of the name of the Lord of hosts; what is offered to God must

be offered in the way that he has appointed; we must be sure to attend

him, and expect him to meet us, where he records his name.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1712)

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