translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: NAM

label: NET study note

text: Cush is the Hebrew name for the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia (also known as Nubia) along the Nile valley south of Aswan in Egypt. Many modern English versions render this “Ethiopia,” but this area is not to be confused with modern Ethiopia (i.e., Abyssinia).


text: Ironically, Sennacherib had recently planted fig trees along all the major avenues in Nineveh to help beautify the city, and had encouraged the citizens of Nineveh to eat from these fruit trees. How appropriate that Nineveh’s defenses would now be compared to fig trees whose fruit would be eaten by its enemies.


text: This extended simile compares the siege of Nineveh with reapers shaking a tree to harvest the “first-ripe fruit.” Fruit that matured quickly and ripened early in the season dropped from the trees more easily than the later crop which developed more slowly ( Isa 28:4 ). To harvest the later crop the worker had to climb the tree (sixteen to twenty feet tall) and pick the figs by hand from each branch. On the other hand, the fruit from the early harvest could be gathered quickly and with a minimum of effort by simply shaking the trunk of the tree (G. Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte in Palestina , 1:378-80). The point of this simile is that Nineveh would fall easily and quickly.


text: This is appropriate imagery and highly ironic. After defeating their enemies, the Assyrian kings often encouraged their troops to consume the fruit of the conquered city’s fruit trees.


text: The expression the fire will consume you is an example of personification. Fire is often portrayed consuming an object like a person might consume food ( Lev 6:3; 10:2; 16:25 ; Num 16:35 ; Deut 4:24; 5:22 ; Judg 9:15 ; 1 Kgs 18:38 ; 2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14 ; 2 Chr 7:1 ; Isa 5:24; 10:17; 30:27, 30; 33:14 ; Amos 1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5; 5:6 ).


text: The term shepherd was frequently used in the ancient Near East in reference to kings and other leaders (royal, political, military). Here, the expression your shepherds is an implied comparison (hypocatastasis) referring to the royal/military leadership of Assyria.