Isaiah 18:7

ג) THE SALVATION THAT ETHIPIA EXPECTS IN THE DISTANT FUTURE

Isaiah 18:7

7     In that time shall 21the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts

22Of a people 23 24scattered and peeled,

And from a people terrible 25from their beginning hitherto;

A nation 26meted 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.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Only עַם and מֵעָם present difficulty.——It is ungrammatical to supply the preposition before עַם from מֵעַם. To amend the text by prefixing the מ is needless violence.——הוּבַל in Isaiah again Isaiah 53:7; Isaiah 55:12.——שַׁי, of uncertain derivation, is found again only Psalms 68:30; Psalms 76:12.—The expression מְקוֹם שֵׁם י׳ occurs only here: yet comp. Leviticus 14:13; Isaiah 60:13; Isaiah 66:1.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The gaze of the Prophet embraces the immediate and the most remote future, while he overleaps all time spaces that lie between as unessential. The consequence of that mighty overthrow will be this, that Ethiopia presents itself as a sacrificial gift to the Lord, and that out of this people will be sent sacrificial gifts to the spot where men call on the name of the Lord.

2. In that time——mount Zion.

Isaiah 18:7. By the “in that time” the Prophet joins what follows close on to what precedes. Although what Isaiah 18:7 affirms belongs to the remote future, yet the Prophet sees it as the great chief effect immediately after the cause, Isaiah 18:5-6.——By עם and מעם the Prophet would say that the entire nation shall be brought to the Lord as present, tribute, or sacrificial gift; that is it will bring itself—a thought, that is familiar: Isaiah 66:20; Psalms 68:32,—that also, in consequence thereof, presents out of the nation will be brought to the place of the worship of Jehovah. For that is two different things; in order to bring itself, the nation does not need to leave its own place; but in order to bring presents to the sanctuary of the Lord, there must be a motion from one place to another. Therefore a double definition appears, for “there shall be brought a present:” 1) “to the Lord of hosts a people,” 2) “from the people dreaded,” etc. “to the place,” etc.——The passage Zephaniah 3:10 is a reminiscence of our text.

Footnotes:

[21]a gift.

[22]omit of.

[23]Or, outspread and polished.

[24]grown high and shining.

[25]from far away.

[26]of stern command and rough tread.