Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we continue with more oracles to the pagan nations in the areas surrounding Judah,

and some very surprising stuff happens in today's prophecies.

We start out with a mystery nation that is beyond the rivers of Kush.

Kush is another name for ancient Ethiopia,

though it's a bit further south now than it was in ancient times,

so it's possible that this points to the location of modern Ethiopia.

They're sending for help to avoid disaster,

and then Isaiah calls for all the

people of the world to do the same thing. He prophesized that eventually the Gentile nations

will bring tribute to Yahweh and acknowledge his supremacy. Next, we move on to Egypt. Just a quick

refresher. Egypt enslaved the people of Israel for 400 years and only let them go after God brought a string of plagues and death their way.

They're racist toward the Israelites, they're renowned for their knowledge, and they're a major world power.

So what does God have to say to this long-standing, powerful enemy of his people?

He's going to confuse their wisdom. He's going to

oppress them the way they've oppressed others, and he's even going to turn them against each other.

Good riddance, right? You'd think, but Yahweh often has grace tucked up his sleeve. We start to see it in

1918. It says, in that day, there will be five cities in the

land of Egypt that speak the land of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. What?

It gets better. Verse 21 says, and the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians. But that's not all.

Verse 23 says, in that day there will be a

highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria,

...