Commentaria in Isaiam
1. WOE TO THE LAND WINGED WITH THE CLASHING OF CYMBALS.—It is an apposition, as if to say: Woe to the land of Ethiopia, which is the cymbal of wings, that is, a cymbal in its wings, or having wings sounding like a cymbal, because the Ethiopians, with great noise, proclaiming and boasting, like bees and flies, as I said, with the clapping of wings, that is, with ostentation and bragging of their strength and forces, sounding like a cymbal, promised their aid to the Jews. So Tiberius Caesar called Apion the grammarian, who boasted that he made immortal those whom he had praised in his writings, “the cymbal of the world,” as Pliny testifies in his preface to Vespasian; and the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 13, calls one who has knowledge and eloquence without charity a tinkling cymbal.
Secondly, because like a cymbal they uttered only a din, that is, an empty and futile sound, promising help which in fact they were not going to furnish; that is, as is commonly said, they were a reed staff, on which no one can safely lean because of its emptiness. The Hebrew can also be rendered thus: “O land of the shadow of wings,” he compares the sails of ships to wings, as if to say: O maritime region, which abounds in ships driven by sails, which receives the shadow of the sails of many ships! or which is covered by the shade of sails, etc. For on account of the multitude of ships on which shading sails are stretched when they go, it was like birds flying with their wings, say the Hebrew doctors, who also say that by this figurative expression is signified the multitude of businesses and the various kinds of goods which went out from it to other lands. So Vatablus. The Chaldee paraphrase: Woe to the land to which they will come with ships from a far land, and extend their sails like an eagle flying with its wings; all of which suit the Ethiopians best. See Ezechiel 29:6. This staff, therefore, like the cymbal, signifies vain and deceitful help.
Thirdly, Sanchez: Ethiopia, he says, abounding in ships on the Nile and the sea, is called the cymbal of wings, because a cymbal in its hollowness is like a ship. Hence others for “cymbal” translate “boat,” and, as Vatablus, “basket,” in which the sails are as wings; hence the Septuagint translates “of the wings of ships.” From this wing-like rowing ships are called sail-flyers, says Delrio, adage 174. Again, Ethiopian ships are called cymbal-ships, because the Ethiopians, and after them the Egyptians, were wont during navigation to clash with trumpets and sistra; hence Plutarch in the Life of Antony describes the ship of Cleopatra, in which the oars were moved and sounded to the measures of pipes and flutes. Fourthly, some think that Ethiopia is called the cymbal of wings on account of the Nile, which at the Catadupa rushes headlong with a noise like birds (hence Theodotion for “cymbal” translates “birds”). Hence the Catadupi are peoples of the Ethiopians at the last cataract of the Nile, where among the rocks in its way the waters of the Nile rush with such a roar that by the excessive violence of the sound they make the inhabitants deaf, of which Pliny, book 5,
For “cymbal of wings” the Hebrew is tsiltsal, which can be translated “overshadowing”; Aquila, with other points, reads by a division tseltsel, so that it is a doubled noun signifying shadow, shadow, that is, a very great shadow. Hence the Syriac translates: Woe to the land of the shadow of wings! For as a mother protects her chicks with the covering and shadow of her wings, so Ethiopia promised that she would protect the Jews with her forces and military wings. So also Vatablus and Forerius: “The doubled noun tsel,” he says, “denotes a multitude of shadows, that is, a multitude and abundance of sails, which are like wings, as if to say: Ho, land which with the frequent sails of ships overshadowest the sea and the rivers!” Such indeed was Ethiopia, and thence Egypt. See Pliny, book 12, and Strabo, book 17.
WHICH IS BEYOND THE RIVERS OF ETHIOPIA,—that is, beyond the Nile, which flows from Ethiopia into Egypt; no one doubts it, says St. Jerome. Moreover, Ethiopia lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that is, its own; for the Hebrews are wont, instead of the pronoun my, thy, his, etc., to put and repeat the antecedent noun itself. So Psalm 121 says: “Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem: Jerusalem, which is built as a city. Pray ye for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem.” Where the antecedent noun, namely Jerusalem, is repeated a second time, and put for the pronoun “which” and “its.”
2. THAT SENDETH AMBASSADORS BY SEA.—“He” is by enallage of person; for he passes from the land and kingdom to the king. As if to say: The king of Ethiopia, for example Tharaca, sends ambassadors by sea, that is, in ships of papyrus, both to other nations and to the Jews, promising them help against the Assyrians.
AND IN VESSELS OF BULRUSHES UPON THE WATERS,—as if to say: He sends ambassadors and auxiliary soldiers in ships which in Ethiopia, as in Egypt, are made of the papyrus reed. See what was said on Exodus 2:5.
He notes again, in the light and fragile papyrus, though smeared with pitch, the painted and fragile help and strength of the Ethiopians. For this suits the Ethiopians, not the Egyptians; for the Egyptians sent their forces into Judea by land, not by river; the Ethiopians by river; for they went down the Nile with the stream into Egypt, and thence went on foot into Judea.
The Septuagint translates: who sendeth letters of byblus (for these, like the ships, were made of papyrus), namely to the Jews, to whom they promise help. St. Cyril refers this to the superstition of the Egyptians, by which they sent letters into the sea, as if rejoicing over the finding of Adonis, the lover of Venus, of whom Ezechiel speaks.
Sanchez understands by letters of byblus ships of papyrus; for “epistle” in Greek signifies something sent and thrust out, or rather, he says, by metonymy he calls ships that carry ambassadors with letters “epistles”; for such ships are called by Seneca, Letter 77, dispatch-boats. The Arabic translates: he sends writings or books of papyrus, or paper.
GO, YE SWIFT ANGELS, TO A NATION RENT AND TORN.—St. Jerome and others think that it is a mimesis, or imitation, of the voice of the king of Egypt, as if to say: Go, O ambassadors, O my messengers! by the Nile to the Jews, who are a nation torn by war, although once under David and Solomon it was terrible, and none other was like it.
RIVERS.—He calls them rivers because the Nile has seven streams, or an abundance of rivers, by which it discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. Hence Ezechiel also calls these streams rivers, chapter 29, verse 3. Ethiopia is said to be beyond the rivers, that is, beyond the seven streams of the Nile. But why does the Prophet use this periphrasis? Why does he not say plainly: Woe to Ethiopia? I answer: first, because Prophets delight in obscurity; secondly, because he mentions the rivers, since there follows: “That sendeth ambassadors by sea,” etc.; thirdly, by the very fact of naming the rivers of Ethiopia he signifies that he speaks of Ethiopia; for Scripture is wont to designate provinces and kingdoms by rivers, as I showed in chapter 8, verse 7. Hence the “woe” of Ethiopia can be referred both to “beyond the rivers” (that it pertains there is clear from the Hebrew construction) and to “woe to the land,” as if to say: Woe to the land (for instead of “after which,” others read “compared to which,” there is no other), but now afflicted, expecting help; because the rivers, that is, the kings of Israel, of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, like rivers, overwhelm it. Secondly, others with Vatablus think that here the nations, especially the remote and Indian ones, are called to the faith of Christ, and that Angels, that is, Apostles, are sent to them, because they have been torn by the demon, unbelief and sins, that they may be restored and saved by the grace of Christ, and be taught to bear the cross and to desire death for Christ; and that therefore these angels are set in opposition to the angels or ambassadors of the Jews, of whom the same writers speak at verse 1, as I said. So Oecumenius, Procopius, Castrius: as if to say: Go, O Angels, O Apostles! go, O Xaviers! O Gaspar! go, O zealous Religious! to the Barbarians, to the Indians torn by vices and rushing to hell, and awaiting your help, carry to them faith, grace, salvation.
Thirdly, and genuinely, Sanchez thinks that to the weak and papyrus ambassadors of the Ethiopians, of whom in verse 1, are opposed Angels, that is, ambassadors of God, namely Sennacherib and the Assyrians, whom God sent against Tharaca and the other Ethiopians, who therefore are a nation torn, trodden down and rent by them, that is, by God’s decree soon to be torn and rent, though before it seemed terrible; these also are properly “a people, after which there is no other”; for they are at the end of the world toward the South. For they extend through the kingdom of Congo and Monomotapa to the Cape of Good Hope, in which the land, or continent, ends toward the South; for beyond it there is only the Ocean, as appears from the cosmographical tables of Ortelius and others.