Isaias 18:2
That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters. Go, ye swift angels, to a nation rent and torn in pieces: to a terrible people, after which there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- qui mittit in mare legatos, et in vasis papyri super aquas. Ite, angeli veloces, ad gentem convulsam et dilaceratam ; ad populum terribilem, post quem non est alius ; ad gentem exspectantem et conculcatam, cujus diripuerunt flumina terram ejus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὁ ἀποστέλλων ἐν θαλάσσῃ ὅμηρα καὶ ἐπιστολὰς βυβλίνας ἐπάνω τοῦ ὕδατος. πορεύσονται γὰρ ἄγγελοι κοῦφοι πρὸς ἔθνος μετέωρον, καὶ ξένον λαὸν καὶ χαλεπόν· τίς αὐτοῦ ἐπέκεινα; ἔθνος ἀνέλπιστον καὶ καταπεπατημένον. νῦν οἱ ποταμοὶ τῆς γῆς
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הַשֹּׁלֵ֨חַ בַּיָּ֜ם צִירִ֗ים וּבִכְלֵי גֹמֶא֮ עַל פְּנֵי מַיִם֒ לְכ֣וּ מַלְאָכִ֣ים קַלִּ֗ים אֶל גּוֹי֙ מְמֻשָּׁ֣ךְ וּמוֹרָ֔ט אֶל עַ֥ם נוֹרָ֖א מִן ה֣וּא וָהָ֑לְאָה גּ֚וֹי קַו קָ֣ו וּמְבוּסָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר בָּזְא֥וּ נְהָרִ֖ים אַרְצֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Ambassadors. Hebrew, "images," (Bochart) in honour of Adonis; (St. Cyril) or rather Ezechias, or Tharaca send to demand troops. (Calmet)
Bulrushes. Literally, "paper." (Haydock)
Formed of rushes which grow on the banks of the Nile. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vii. 56., and xiii. 11.)
Angels. Or messengers.
Pieces. With factions after the death of Sabacon, or by the inroads of Sennacherib.
Other. He derides the vanity of the Egyptians. (Calmet)
Expecting the overflowing of the Nile. (Haydock)
Hebrew, "of line," (Calmet) with which they marked out each person's property, after the waters had subsided. (Strabo 17.)
Foot. They worked their dough with their feet, and sent swine to trample on the seed, which required no more cultivation. (Herodotus ii. 14., and 36.)
Spoiled. The Nile made considerable alterations.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Hippolytus Treatise on Christ and Antichrist
58. And in like manner Moses, knowing beforehand that the people would reject and disown the true Saviour of the world, and take part with error, and choose an earthly king, and set the heavenly King at nought, says: “Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? In the day of vengeance I will recompense (them), and in the time when their foot shall slide.” They did slide, therefore, in all things, as they were found to be in harmony with the truth in nothing: neither as concerns the law, because they became transgressors; nor as concerns the prophets, because they cut off even the prophets themselves; nor as concerns the voice of the Gospels, because they crucified the Saviour Himself; nor in believing the apostles, because they persecuted them. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem
1. It surely becomes us, dearly beloved, not to abuse our rank as clergy, so as to make it an occasion of pride, but by diligently keeping and observing God’s commandments, to be in reality what in name we profess to be. For, if the Holy Scriptures say, “Their lots shall not profit them,” what pride in our clerical position will be able to avail us who sin not only in thought and feeling, but in speech? I have heard, of course, that you are incensed against me, that you are angry, and that you threaten to write about me, not merely to particular places and provinces, but to the uttermost ends of the earth. Where is that fear of God which should make us tremble with the trembling spoken of by the Lord, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment”? Not that I greatly care for your writing what you please. …