Commentary for Isaiah 18:2

Go swift messengers to see whether it is true that the Israelites have returned to their place, a nation which is pulled and torn, to a people that is awesome from its inception.

That sendeth, etc. That is accustomed to send messengers over the sea.

from their beginning and onward From the day it was chosen as a people and onward.

Go, ye swift messengers, and bring good tidings to the Israelites, that are fled or are driven into exile, and are now beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

a nation punished in kind Heb. קַו-קָו [lit. a line for a line, i.e.,] when he is punished for his sin, he is punished in kind and given to be trampled. Alternatively, קַו-קָו is an expression of vomit (קִיא) (Lam. 3:45): “Loathsome and rejected.”

And in vessels of bulrushes. This phrase is added because of the rivers mentioned before,

river [figurative for] kings.

גוי ממשך ומורט A nation dragged and peeled.⁴A. V., Scattered and peeled. The Israelites are meant, that have been dragged from their homes like sheep, until they were flayed from the dragging.

To a terrible people. To the Ethiopians.

מן הוא From thence.⁵A. V., From their beginning. From that people, or from those rivers.⁶ממֶּנּוּ ═ מן הוּא. The pronoun is sometimes written in full, instead of a suffix. That I. E., who is always very particular about the gender and number should have found in the singular הוא a reference to the plural נהרי rivers, is very strange. Instead of נהרי we have perhaps to read עֵבֶר נהרי

גוי קו קו A nation of line by line.⁷A. V., A nation meted out. A nation whose intellect is like that of a child, who is taught gradually, line by line. ומבוסה And therefore it is trodden down.

בזאו They have spoiled. א is to replace the second ז of the root which is omitted; comp. דליו they are thin⁸Root דלל to be poor. דללו ═ דליו as בזזו ═ בואו.
8a I. E. himself is of opinion that בָּזוּ ═ בזאו. See Moznaim, sub voce, המתחלפים, and Zahoth, On the Numerals, sub voce עשרים. (Prov. 26:7). This is the explanation of R. Moses Hakkohen.

Rivers. This is a figure for kings; comp. The water of the river⁹To this phrase Isaiah adds the explanation: The king of Assyria. (8:7)