Isaiah 18:2

Your rulers send ambassadors that sail quickly down the river in papyrus boats. You messengers to Ethiopia, go quickly! Go up the river to people who are tall and who have smooth skin. People everywhere are afraid of those people, because they conquer and destroy other nations; they live in a land that is divided by branches of one large river.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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!

In Context

1Terrible things will happen to you people of Ethiopia! In your land there are many sailboats at the upper part of the Nile River.

3You messengers must tell people everywhere, to people everywhere, “Look when I lift up my battle flag on top of the mountain, and listen when I blow the ram’s horn to signal that the battle is about to begin.”

Read all of Isaiah 18

Cross References

Genesis 10:8Another one of Cush’s descendants was Nimrod. Nimrod was the first person on earth who became a mighty warrior.

2 Chronicles 12:2As a result, after Rehoboam had been king for almost five years, Yahweh sent Shishak, the king of Egypt, with his army to attack Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 16:8The huge armies from Ethiopia and Libya with all their chariots and soldiers riding on horses were certainly very powerful. But when you relied on Yahweh, he enabled your army to defeat them.

Isaiah 19:5Some day the water in the Nile River will dry up, and the riverbed will become very dry [DOU].

Ezekiel 30:9At that time, I will send messengers to go swiftly up the Nile River in boats to cause the people of Ethiopia who ◄are complacent/confident/think that nothing terrible will happen to them► to become afraid. They will be terrified [PRS] when Egypt is destroyed; and it will soon be that time!”

Matthew Henry on Isaiah 18:2-7

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… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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