{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ISA","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Isaiah","commonName":"Isaiah","introduction":"ISAIAH, son of Amoz (not Amos); contemporary of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, in Israel, but younger than they; and of Micah, in Judah. His call to a higher degree of the prophetic office (Isa 6:1-13) is assigned to the last year of Uzziah, that is, 754 B.C. The first through fifth chapters belong to the closing years of that reign; not, as some think, to Jotham's reign: in the reign of the latter he seems to have exercised his office only orally, and not to have left any record of his prophecies because they were not intended for all ages. The first through fifth and sixth chapters are all that was designed for the Church universal of the prophecies of the first twenty years of his office. New historical epochs, such as occurred in the reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah, when the affairs of Israel became interwoven with those of the Asiatic empires, are marked by prophetic writings. The prophets had now to interpret the judgments of the Lord, so as to make the people conscious of His punitive justice, as also of His mercy. Isa. 7:1-10:4 belong to the reign of Ahaz. The thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters are historical, reaching to the fifteenth year of Hezekiah; probably the tenth through twelfth chapters and all from the thirteenth through twenty-sixth chapters, inclusive, belong to the same reign; the historical section being appended to facilitate the right understanding of these prophecies; thus we have Isaiah's office extending from about 760 to 713 B.C., forty-seven years. Tradition (Talmud) represents him as having been sawn asunder by Manasseh with a wooden saw, for having said that he had seen Jehovah (Exo 33:20; Kg2 21:16; Heb 11:37). Ch2 32:32 seems to imply that Isaiah survived Hezekiah; but \"first and last\" is not added, as in Ch2 26:22, which makes it possible that his history of Hezekiah was only carried up to a certain point. The second part, the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, containing complaints of gross idolatry, needs not to be restricted to Manasseh's reign, but is applicable to previous reigns. At the accession of Manasseh, Isaiah would be eighty-four; and if he prophesied for eight years afterwards, he must have endured martyrdom at ninety-two; so Hosea prophesied for sixty years. And Eastern tradition reports that he lived to one hundred and twenty. The conclusive argument against the tradition is that, according to the inscription, all Isaiah's prophecies are included in the time from Uzziah to Hezekiah; and the internal evidence accords with this.\n\nHis WIFE is called the prophetess [Isa 8:3], that is, endowed, as Miriam, with a prophetic gift.\n\nHis CHILDREN were considered by him as not belonging merely to himself; in their names, Shearjashub, \"the remnant shall return\" [Isa 7:3, Margin], and Maher-shalal-hash-baz, \"speeding to the spoil, he hasteth to the prey\" [Isa 8:1, Margin], the two chief points of his prophecies are intimated to the people, the judgments of the Lord on the people and the world, and yet His mercy to the elect.\n\nHis GARMENT of sackcloth (Isa 20:2), too, was a silent preaching by fact; he appears as the embodiment of that repentance which he taught.\n\nHis HISTORICAL WORKS.--History, as written by the prophets, is retroverted prophecy. As the past and future alike proceed from the essence of God, an inspired insight into the past implies an insight into the future, and vice versa. Hence most of the Old Testament histories are written by prophets and are classed with their writings; the Chronicles being not so classed, cannot have been written by them, but are taken from historical monographs of theirs; for example, Isaiah's life of Uzziah, Ch2 26:22; also of Hezekiah, Ch2 32:32; of these latter all that was important for all ages has been preserved to us, while the rest, which was local and temporary, has been lost.\n\nThe INSCRIPTION (Isa 1:1) applies to the whole book and implies that Isaiah is the author of the second part (the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters), as well as of the first. Nor do the words, \"concerning Judah and Jerusalem\" [Isa 1:1], oppose the idea that the inscription applies to the whole; for whatever he says against other nations, he says on account of their relation to Judah. So the inscription of Amos, \"concerning Israel\" [Amo 1:1], though several prophecies follow against foreign nations. EWALD maintains that the fortieth through sixty-sixth chapters, though spurious, were subjoined to the previous portion, in order to preserve the former. But it is untrue that the first portion is unconnected with those chapters. The former ends with the Babylonian exile (Isa 39:6), the latter begins with the coming redemption from it. The portion, the fortieth through forty-sixth chapters, has no heading of its own, a proof that it is closely connected with what precedes, and falls under the general heading in Isa 1:1. JOSEPHUS (The Antiquities of the Jews, 11. 1, sec. 1, 2) says that Cyrus was induced by the prophecies of Isaiah (Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, Isa 45:13) to aid the Jews in returning and rebuilding the temple Ezr 1:1-11 confirms this; Cyrus in his edict there plainly refers to the prophecies in the second portion, which assign the kingdoms to him from Jehovah, and the duty of rebuilding the temple. Probably he took from them his historical name Cyrus (Coresh). Moreover, subsequent prophets imitate this second portion, which EWALD assigns to later times; for example, compare Jer. 50:1-51:64 with Isaiah's predictions against Babylon [Isa. 13:1-14:23]. \"The Holy One of Israel,\" occurring but three times elsewhere in the Old Testament [Kg2 19:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 50:29; Jer 51:5], is a favorite expression in the second, as in the first portion of Isaiah: it expresses God's covenant faithfulness in fulfilling the promises therein: Jeremiah borrows the expression from him. Also Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25 (\"comforted\"), quotes Isa 40:1 as Isaiah's. Luk 4:17 quotes Isa 61:1-2 as Isaiah's, and as read as such by Jesus Christ in the synagogue.\n\nThe DEFINITENESS of the prophecies is striking: As in the second portion of isaiah, so in Mic 4:8-10, the Babylonian exile, and the deliverance from it, are foretold a hundred fifty years before any hostilities had arisen between Babylon and Judah. On the other hand, all the prophets who foretell the Assyrian invasion coincide in stating, that Judah should be delivered from it, not by Egyptian aid, but directly by the Lord. Again Jeremiah, in the height of the Chaldean prosperity, foretold its conquest by the Medes, who should enter Babylon through the dry bed of the Euphrates on a night of general revelry. No human calculation could have discovered these facts. EICHORN terms these prophecies \"veiled historical descriptions,\" recognizing in spite of himself that they are more than general poetical fancies. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah was certainly written ages before the Messiah, yet it minutely portrays His sufferings: these cannot be Jewish inventions, for the Jews looked for a reigning, not a suffering, Messiah.\n\nRationalists are so far right that THE PROPHECIES ARE ON A GENERAL BASIS whereby they are distinguished from soothsaying. They rest on the essential idea of God. The prophets, penetrated by this inner knowledge of His character, became conscious of the eternal laws by which the world is governed: that sin is man's ruin, and must be followed by judgment, but that God's covenant mercy to His elect is unchangeable. Without prophetism, the elect remnant would have decreased, and even God's judgments would have missed their end, by not being recognized as such: they would have been unmeaning, isolated facts. Babylon was in Isaiah's days under Assyria; it had tried a revolt unsuccessfully: but the elements of its subsequent success and greatness were then existing. The Holy Ghost enlightened his natural powers to discern this its rise; and his spiritual faculties, to foresee its fall, the sure consequence, in God's eternal law, of the pride which pagan success generates--and also Judah's restoration, as the covenant-people, with whom God, according to His essential character, would not be wroth for ever. True conversion is the prophet's grand remedy against all evils: in this alone consists his politics. Rebuke, threatening, and promise, regularly succeed one another. The idea at the basis of all is in Isa 26:7-9; Lev 10:3; Amo 3:2.\n\nThe USE OF THE PRESENT AND PRETERITE in prophecy is no proof that the author is later than Isaiah. For seers view the future as present, and indicate what is ideally past, not really past; seeing things in the light of God, who \"calls the things that are not as though they were.\" Moreover, as in looking from a height on a landscape, hills seem close together which are really wide apart, so, in events foretold, the order, succession, and grouping are presented, but the intervals of time are overlooked. The time, however, is sometimes marked (Jer 25:12; Dan 9:26). Thus the deliverance from Babylon, and that effected by Messiah, are in rapid transition grouped together by THE LAW OF PROPHETIC SUGGESTION; yet no prophet so confounds the two as to make Messiah the leader of Israel from Babylon. To the prophet there was probably no double sense; but to his spiritual eye the two events, though distinct, lay so near, and were so analogous, that he could not separate them in description without unfaithfulness to the picture presented before him. The more remote and antitypical event, however, namely, Messiah's coming, is that to which he always hastens, and which he describes with far more minuteness than he does the nearer type; for example, Cyrus (compare Isa 45:1 with Isa 53:1-12). In some cases he takes his stand in the midst of events between, for example, the humiliation of Jesus Christ, which he views as past, and His glorification, as yet to come, using the future tense as to the latter (compare Isa 53:4-9 with Isa 53:10-12). Marks of the time of events are given sparingly in the prophets: yet, as to Messiah, definitely enough to create the general expectation of Him at the time that He was in fact born.\n\nThe CHALDÆISMS alleged against the genuineness of the second portion of Isaiah, are found more in the first and undoubted portion. They occur in all the Old Testament, especially in the poetical parts, which prefer unusual expressions, and are due to the fact that the patriarchs were surrounded by Chaldee-speaking people; and in Isaiah's time a few Chaldee words had crept in from abroad.\n\nHis SYMBOLS are few and simple, and his poetical images correct; in the prophets, during and after the exile, the reverse holds good; Haggai and Malachi are not exceptions; for, though void of bold images, their style, unlike Isaiah's, rises little above prose: a clear proof that our Isaiah was long before the exile.\n\nOf VISIONS, strictly so called, he has but one, that in the sixth chapter; even it is more simple than those in later prophets. But he often gives SIGNS, that is, a present fact as pledge of the more distant future; God condescending to the feebleness of man (Isa 7:14; Isa 37:30; Isa 38:7).\n\nThe VARIETIES IN HIS STYLE do not prove spuriousness, but that he varied his style with his subject. The second portion is not so much addressed to his contemporaries, as to the future people of the Lord, the elect remnant, purified by the previous judgments. Hence its tenderness of style, and frequent repetitions (Isa 40:1): for comforting exhortation uses many words; so also the many epithets added to the name of God, intended as stays whereon faith may rest for comfort, so as not to despair. In both portions alike there are peculiarities characteristic of Isaiah; for example, \"to be called\" equivalent to to be: the repetition of the same words, instead of synonyms, in the parallel members of verses; the interspersing of his prophecies with hymns: \"the remnant of olive trees,\" &c., for the remnant of people who have escaped God's judgments. Also compare Isa 65:25 with Isa 11:6.\n\nThe CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT favors the opinion that Isaiah himself collected his prophecies into the volume; not Hezekiah's men, as the Talmud guesses from Pro 25:1. All the portions, the dates of which can be ascertained, stand in the right place, except a few instances, where prophecies of similar contents are placed together: with the termination of the Assyrian invasion (the thirty-sixth through thirty-ninth chapters) terminated the public life of Isaiah. The second part is his prophetic legacy to the small band of the faithful, analogous to the last speeches of Moses and of Jesus Christ to His chosen disciples.\n\nThe EXPECTATION OF MESSIAH is so strong in Isaiah, that JEROME To Paulinus calls his book not a prophecy, but the gospel: \"He is not so much a prophet as an evangelist.\" Messiah was already shadowed forth in Gen 49:10, as the Shiloh, or tranquillizer; also in Psalms 2, 45, 72, 110. Isaiah brings it out more definitely; and, whereas they dwelt on His kingly office, Isaiah develops most His priestly and prophetic office; the hundred tenth Psalm also had set forth His priesthood, but His kingly rather than, as Isaiah, His suffering, priesthood. The latter is especially dwelt on in the second part, addressed to the faithful elect; whereas the first part, addressed to the whole people, dwells on Messiah's glory, the antidote to the fears which then filled the people, and the assurance that the kingdom of God, then represented by Judah, would not be overwhelmed by the surrounding nations.\n\nHis STYLE (HENGSTENBERG, Christology of the Old Testament,) is simple and sublime; in imagery, intermediate between the poverty of Jeremiah and the exuberance of Ezekiel. He shows his command of it in varying it to suit his subject.\n\nThe FORM is mostly that of Hebrew poetical parallelism, with, however, a freedom unshackled by undue restrictions.\n\nJUDAH, the less apostate people, rather than Israel, was the subject of his prophecies: his residence was mostly at Jerusalem. On his praises, see Ecclesiasticus 48:22-25. Christ and the apostles quote no prophet so frequently. \n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 1\n\n","order":23,"numberOfChapters":66,"sha256":"05afbc35163ce25bd06467062226b36d66e6285d8ca85b4815540db57d9466be","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":66,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/66.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":66},"totalNumberOfVerses":1200},"chapter":{"number":18,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["ambassadors--messengers sent to Jerusalem at the time that negotiations passed between Tirhakah and Hezekiah against the expected attack of Sennacherib (Isa 37:9). \n\nby . . . sea--on the Nile (Isa 19:5): as what follows proves. \n\nvessels of bulrushes--light canoes, formed of papyrus, daubed over with pitch: so the \"ark\" in which Moses was exposed (Exo 2:3). \n\nGo--Isaiah tells them to take back the tidings of what God is about to do (Isa 18:4) against the common enemy of both Judah and Ethiopia. \n\nscattered and peeled--rather, \"strong and energetic\" [MAURER]. The Hebrew for \"strong\" is literally, \"drawn out\" (Margin; Psa 36:10; Ecc 2:3). \"Energetic,\" literally, \"sharp\" (Hab 1:8, Margin; the verb means to \"sharpen\" a sword, Eze 21:15-16); also \"polished.\" As HERODOTUS (3:20, 114) characterizes the Ethiopians as \"the tallest and fairest of men,\" G. V. SMITH translates, \"tall and comely\"; literally, \"extended\" (Isa 45:14, \"men of stature\") and polished (the Ethiopians had \"smooth, glossy skins\"). In English Version the reference is to the Jews, scattered outcasts, and loaded with indignity (literally, \"having their hair torn off,\" HORSLEY). \n\nterrible--the Ethiopians famed for warlike prowess [ROSENMULLER]. The Jews who, because of God's plague, made others to fear the like (Deu 28:37). Rather, \"awfully remarkable\" [HORSLEY]. God puts the \"terror\" of His people into the surrounding nations at the first (Exo 23:27; Jos 2:9); so it shall be again in the latter days (Zac 12:2-3). \n\nfrom . . . beginning hitherto--so English Version rightly. But GESENIUS, \"to the terrible nation (of upper Egypt) and further beyond\" (to the Ethiopians, properly so called). \n\nmeted out--Hebrew, \"of line.\" The measuring-line was used in destroying buildings (Isa 34:11; Kg2 21:13; Lam 2:8). Hence, actively, it means here \"a people meting out,--an all-destroying people\"; which suits the context better than \"meted,\" passively [MAURER]. HORSLEY, understanding it of the Jews, translates it, \"Expecting, expecting (in a continual attitude of expectation of Messiah) and trampled under foot\"; a graphic picture of them. Most translate, of strength, strength (from a root, to brace the sinews), that is, a most powerful people. \n\ntrodden down--true of the Jews. But MAURER translates it actively, a people \"treading under foot\" all its enemies, that is, victorious (Isa 14:25), namely, the Ethiopians. \n\nspoiled--\"cut up.\" The Nile is formed by the junction of many streams in Abyssinia, the Atbara, the Astapus or Blue river (between which two rivers Meroe, the \"Ethiopia\" here meant, lies), and the Astaboras or White river; these streams wash down the soil along their banks in the \"land\" of Upper Egypt and deposit it on that of Lower Egypt. G. V. SMITH translates it, \"Divide.\" HORSLEY takes it figuratively of the conquering armies which have often \"spoiled\" Judea.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["see ye . . . hear ye--rather, \"ye shall see . . . shall hear.\" Call to the whole earth to be witnesses of what Jehovah (\"He\") is about to do. He will \"lift up an ensign,\" calling the Assyrian motley hosts together (Isa 5:26) on \"the mountains\" round Jerusalem, to their own destruction. This (the eighteenth chapter) declares the coming overthrow of those armies whose presence is announced in Isa 17:12-13. The same motive, which led Hezekiah to seek aid from Egypt, led him to accept gladly the Ethiopian Tirhakah's aid (Isa 36:6; Isa 37:9). Ethiopia, Egypt, and Judea were probably leagued together against the common enemy, 713 B.C. See notes on the twenty-second chapter, where a difference of tone (as referring to a different period) as to Ethiopia is observable. HORSLEY takes the \"ensign\" to be the cross, and the \"trumpet\" the Gospel trumpet, which shall be sounded more loudly in the last days.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["take . . . rest . . . consider--I will calmly look on and not interpose, while all seems to promise success to the enemy; when figuratively, \"the sun's heat\" and \"the night dews\" ripen their \"harvest\"; but \"before\" it reaches its maturity I will destroy it (Isa 18:5; Ecc 8:11-12). \n\nlike a clear heat--rather, \"at the time of the clear (serene) heat\" [MAURER]. \n\nupon herbs--answering to \"harvest\" in the parallel clause. MAURER translates, \"in the sunlight\" (Job 31:26; Job 37:21; Hab 3:4). \n\nlike . . . dew--rather, \"at the time of the dew cloud.\" God's \"silence\" is mistaken by the ungodly for consent; His delay in taking vengeance for forgetfulness (Psa 50:21); so it shall be before the vengeance which in the last day shall usher in the restoration of the Jews (Isa 34:1-8; Isa 57:11, end of the verse, Pe2 3:3-10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["For--rather, \"But.\" \n\nperfect--perfected. When the enemy's plans are on the verge of completion. \n\nsour grape . . . flower--rather, \"when the flower shall become the ripening grape\" [MAURER]. \n\nsprigs--the shoots with the grapes on them. God will not only disconcert their present plans, but prevent them forming any future ones. HORSLEY takes the \"harvest\" and vintage here as referring to purifying judgments which cause the excision of the ungodly from the earth, and the placing of the faithful in a state of peace on the earth: not the last judgment (Joh 15:2; Rev 14:15-20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["birds . . . beasts--transition from the image \"sprigs,\" \"branches,\" to the thing meant: the Assyrian soldiers and leaders shall be the prey of birds and beasts, the whole year through, \"winter\" and \"summer,\" so numerous shall be their carcasses. HORSLEY translates the Hebrew which is singular: \"upon it,\" not \"upon them\"; the \"it\" refers to God's \"dwelling-place\" (Isa 18:4) in the Holy Land, which Antichrist (\"the bird of prey\" with the \"beasts,\" his rebel hosts) is to possess himself of, and where he is to perish.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["present . . . people scattered and peeled--For the right rendering, see on Isa 18:2. The repetition of epithets enhances the honor paid to Jehovah by so mighty a nation. The Ethiopians, wonder-struck at such an interposition of Jehovah in behalf of His people, shall send gifts to Jerusalem in His honor (Isa 16:1; Psa 68:31; Psa 72:10). Thus translate: \"a present . . . from a people.\" Or translate, as English Version; \"the present\" will mean \"the people\" of Ethiopia converted to God (Rom 15:16). HORSLEY takes the people converted to Jehovah, as the Jews in the latter days. \n\nplace of the name--where Jehovah peculiarly manifests His glory; Act 2:10 and Act 8:27 show how worshippers came up to Jerusalem from Egypt\" and \"Ethiopia.\" Frumentius, an Egyptian, in the fourth century, converted Abyssinia to Christianity; and a Christian church, under an abuna or bishop, still flourishes there. The full accomplishment is probably still future.\n\nThe nineteenth and twentieth chapters are connected, but with an interval between. Egypt had been held by an Ethiopian dynasty, Sabacho, Sevechus, or Sabacho II, and Tirhakah, for forty or fifty years. Sevechus (called So, the ally of Hoshea, Kg2 17:4), retired from Lower Egypt on account of the resistance of the priests; and perhaps also, as the Assyrians threatened Lower Egypt. On his withdrawal, Sethos, one of the priestly caste, became supreme, having Tanis (\"Zoan\") or else Memphis as his capital, 718 B.C.; while the Ethiopians retained Upper Egypt, with Thebes as its capital, under Tirhakah. A third native dynasty was at Sais, in the west of Lower Egypt; to this at a later period belonged Psammetichus, the first who admitted Greeks into Egypt and its armies; he was one of the dodecarchy, a number of petty kings between whom Egypt was divided, and by aid of foreign auxiliaries overcame the rest, 670 B.C. To the divisions at this last time, GESENIUS refers Isa 19:2; and Psammetichus, Isa 19:4, \"a cruel lord.\" The dissensions of the ruling castes are certainly referred to. But the time referred to is much earlier than that of Psammetichus. In Isa 19:1, the invasion of Egypt is represented as caused by \"the Lord\"; and in Isa 19:17, \"Judah\" is spoken of as \"a terror to Egypt,\" which it could hardly have been by itself. Probably, therefore, the Assyrian invasion of Egypt under Sargon, when Judah was the ally of Assyria, and Hezekiah had not yet refused tribute as he did in the beginning of Sennacherib's reign, is meant. That Assyria was in Isaiah's mind appears from the way in which it is joined with Israel and Egypt in the worship of Jehovah (Isa 19:24-25). Thus the dissensions referred to (Isa 19:2) allude to the time of the withdrawal of the Ethiopians from Lower Egypt, probably not without a struggle, especially with the priestly caste; also to the time when Sethos usurped the throne and entered on the contest with the military caste, by the aid of the town populations: when the Saitic dynasty was another cause of division. Sargon's reign was between 722-715 B.C. answering to 718 B.C., when Sethos usurped his throne [G. V. SMITH].\n\n\n\n\nNext: Isaiah Chapter 19\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Isa 18:1-7)\n\nWoe--The heading in English Version, \"God will destroy the Ethiopians,\" is a mistake arising from the wrong rendering \"Woe,\" whereas the Hebrew does not express a threat, but is an appeal calling attention (Isa 55:1; Zac 2:6): \"Ho.\" He is not speaking against but to the Ethiopians, calling on them to hear his prophetical announcement as to the destruction of their enemies. \n\nshadowing with wings--rather, \"land of the winged bark\"; that is, \"barks with wing-like sails, answering to vessels of bulrushes\" in Isa 18:2; the word \"rivers,\" in the parallelism, also favors it; so the Septuagint and Chaldee [EWALD]. \"Land of the clanging sound of wings,\" that is, armies, as in Isa 8:8; the rendering \"bark,\" or \"ship,\" is rather dubious [MAURER]. The armies referred to are those of Tirhakah, advancing to meet the Assyrians (Isa 37:9). In English Version, \"shadowing\" means protecting--stretching out its wings to defend a feeble people, namely, the Hebrews [VITRINGA]. The Hebrew for \"wings\" is the same as for the idol Cneph, which was represented in temple sculptures with wings (Psa 91:4). \n\nbeyond--Meroe, the island between the \"rivers\" Nile and Astaboras is meant, famed for its commerce, and perhaps the seat of the Ethiopian government, hence addressed here as representing the whole empire: remains of temples are still found, and the name of \"Tirhakah\" in the inscriptions. This island region was probably the chief part of Queen Candace's kingdom (Act 8:27). For \"beyond\" others translate less literally \"which borderest on.\" \n\nEthiopia--literally, \"Cush.\" HORSLEY is probably right that the ultimate and fullest reference of the prophecy is to the restoration of the Jews in the Holy Land through the instrumentality of some distant people skilled in navigation (Isa 18:2; Isa 60:9-10; Psa 45:15; Psa 68:31; Zep 3:10). Phœnician voyagers coasting along would speak of all Western remote lands as \"beyond\" the Nile's mouths. \"Cush,\" too, has a wide sense, being applied not only to Ethiopia, but Arabia-Deserta and Felix, and along the Persian Gulf, as far as the Tigris (Gen 2:13).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/18.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":18},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/19.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":19},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ISA/17.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ISA","chapter":17},"numberOfVerses":6}