That sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin, to a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation powerful and treading down, whose land the rivers divide!
All Commentaries on Isaiah 18:2 Go To Isaiah 18
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
Someone might wonder and say to himself, “Why does the prophetic oracle addressed to Damascus now mention the land that is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia?” At certain times the Israelites foolishly abandoned God the Savior of all and fell into the error of worshiping many gods. Paying no heed whatsoever to the law given by Moses, they were chastised by God, at times through foes who rose up against them and at times by other catastrophes. Although they should have repented and been healed, ceased their wicked way, walked in the commandments and sought help from God, they made alliances with their neighbors, first with the kings in Damascus, then with those in Egypt. Not only this. They also embraced the gods of the nations that had come to their aid and wasted no time in emulating their ways. Hence the prophet now turns his attention to the Egyptians.
The Israelites, in particular those living in Jerusalem, had approached the Egyptians and pleaded with them to become allies. They needed their support because they were being invaded by the Babylonians. As God says in the words of the prophet, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots.” The Egyptians were zealous in their devotion to idols. Therefore he calls them a people desperate and beaten down. Desperate because they did not know the one who is by nature truly God, beaten down because they had allowed their minds to become subject to the deceptions of demons, trodden down under their feet.
