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.
In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts,.... Not exactly at the time when this destruction should be, but some time after, even in Gospel times; for to them this part of the prophecy refers:
of a people scattered and peeled; this explains what the present is, that shall be brought to the Lord; it is a people, and therefore not the spoils of Sennacherib's army, as some interpret it; nor yet the people of the Jews, that shall be brought by the Gentiles out of all nations in the latter day, as an offering to the Lord, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; see Isaiah 11:11 {p}; but the Ethiopians or Egyptians, described Isaiah 18:2 as here, who, being converted, shall stretch out their hands to God, submit unto him, and present themselves soul and body as an acceptable sacrifice unto him; when these prophecies in
Psalms 68:31 shall be fulfilled, and which began to be in the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, Acts 8:27 and of which there were other instances in the times of the apostles, and in following ages:
and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; that is, some of the people, not all of them; the same people are designed as before, only this Hebraism is used, to show a distinction among them:
a nation meted out, and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled; these descriptive characters, with those in the preceding clauses, are retained, to show that the same people are here meant as in
Isaiah 18:2 and to magnify the riches of God's grace, in the conversion of a people to whom such characters belonged; which show that it was not owing to themselves, or any deserts of theirs, but to the free favour and good will of God:
to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion; hither the present was to be brought, and here the persons to present themselves to the Lord, even in the mount Zion, the church of God; where the name of the Lord is named and called upon, his word is preached, his ordinances are administered, and where he dwells, and grants his presence.
{p} So Manasseh ben Israel, Spes. Israelis, sect. 17. p. 57.