Tonight we look especially at the oracle concerning Damascus. Some commentators divide this into two oracles – with chapter 18 being a separate oracle – but as we go through, we will see that Isaiah sets this up as one.
Now it's true that this one oracle includes both Damascus and Cush.
Damascus was the capital city of Syria, once the main enemy of the northern kingdom of Israel. But after the rise of Assyria, Damascus and Samaria unite against the menace of the east.
Cush is the region below Egypt – probably as far south as Ethiopia and Eritrea. Moses had married a Cushite, and the Queen of Sheba came from that area and to this day there is a small Jewish population in Eritrea of African Jews.
In the 8th century the Cushites had conquered Egypt, so Piye, the King of Cush (modern Sudan), was now the ruler of Egypt, and in 715 (the year that King Ahaz died) he promised all the Palestinian states his aid against Assyria.
So even though you might think that Cush and Damascus are far apart, they were a lot a closer together, due to their common hostility to Assyria!
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