Ancient Cush corresponds to modern-day Ethiopia, although the territory belonging to ancient Cush encompassed much more land than that which currently makes up the country of Ethiopia. In Isaiah's day the nation was one of the most powerful and advanced in the world and it had taken control of Egypt. Egypt's king at the time was not an Egyptian but an Ethiopian, or Cushite as they were referred to in the Bible.
At this time Assyria is on the rise and is becoming enough of a major world power to threaten all the nations around it. It would have made sense, from a human point of view, for the people of Judah to ally themselves with the people of Cush against the Assyrian Empire. But Judah is to place all of her trust in the Lord. The people of Judah are not to even consider an alliance with the Cushite king of Egypt, for Egypt will be conquered by Assyria. Cush itself will not fall to Assyria, from what I was able to gather from my background study, but since Cush could not protect Egypt (which it occupied), it could not help Judah either.
"Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water." (Isaiah 18:1-2a) King Piankhi, the Ethiopian who was reigning over Egypt during Isaiah's lifetime when King Hezekiah was on the throne of Judah, sent an envoy to the king of Judah to propose an alliance with him against Assyria. But as we will see as we move on through the book of Isaiah, Isaiah will warn Hezekiah against making alliances with other nations.
"Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers." (Isaiah 18:2b) This text is interpreted by many well-respected scholars to be the Lord's instructions to King Hezekiah to quickly send word back to the Cushite king that he must turn down the offer of an alliance.
The people "tall and smooth-skinned" of "strange (foreign) speech" is a description of how the Ethiopians and also the Egyptians. There was a custom in Egypt where the men (or at least men of prominence) would shave their faces and even their entire bodies; they did not wear beards like the Israelites. The Cushite king over Egypt may have adopted Egyptian customs, deciding to make himself "smooth-skinned". You may recall from our study of Genesis that Joseph, the son of Jacob, shaved himself before going to meet with Pharaoh and I believe he continued to keep himself clean shaven during the remainder of his life as a top official in Egypt. When his family traveled to Egypt during the famine they did not recognize Joseph because his appearance was like that of an Egyptian. I believe the Cushite king would have made himself look like an Egyptian pharaoh to show respect for the people's customs and to aid their acceptance of him.
Chapter 18 is not a long chapter but is somewhat complicated and detailed from a historical point of view. We are going to need to break it down into two or three separate sessions. But as we continue on in our next study segment, there is no doubt that the Lord is warning the people of Judah not to enter an alliance with the Cushites, no matter how attractive this option may appear, especially after Assyria invades and conquers the northern kingdom of Israel.
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