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Isaiah 18 Summary

Ethiopia and the LORD's Rest

Woe to the land shadowing with wings beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, which sends ambassadors by the sea in vessels of bulrushes to a nation scattered and peeled, terrible from the beginning. The LORD lifts up an ensign on the mountains and blows a trumpet; all inhabitants of the earth shall see and hear. The LORD says He will take His rest and consider in His dwelling place, and afore the harvest He shall cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away the branches. The fowls and beasts shall feed upon the cut branches. In that time, the scattered and peeled people shall bring a present unto the LORD of hosts at Mount Zion.

Key themes

Judgment on distant nationsGod's rest and considerationPruning and cutting offOffering brought to Zion

Key verses

Isaiah 18:1

Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

Isaiah 18:4

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.

Isaiah 18:5

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.

Isaiah 18:7

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.

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