Our reading plan has us going through judgments on various nations:

• Babylon (Isaiah 13 and 14)
• Moab (Isaiah 15 and 16)
• Damascus (Isaiah 17)
• “Cush” (Isaiah 18)

Where is Cush? My online ESV bible’s note says that it’s “the region of the Upper Nile, south of Egypt, corresponding roughly to modern Ethiopia.” On this map, it appears that such a region would more closely correspond to modern Sudan, not Ethiopia. The yellow arrow points to the extreme southern tip of modern Israel, a town called Eilat. I’ve been there.

In Eilat live the most marvelous people, John and Judy Pex, who run a hostel. Some day I’ll tell you more about them, but today, let’s focus on Isaiah 18:

Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (Isaiah 18.1, 2, ESV)

Judy has written a book A People Tall and Smooth. Here is the book’s summary on Amazon – it’s about Isaiah 18!

Illustrated with photos and a map, here are the very real stories of how and why five refugees escaped from genocide in southern Sudan and Darfur, made their way through Egypt and smuggled into Israel, the only country their Islamic government prohibited them from entering. In desperation they fled across the border anyway, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No food. No money. No papers. No possessions. Just thankful to be alive.

When hundreds of these tall, dark Africans showed up in the popular beach town of Eilat, at the southern tip of Israel, and a group of them entered the Shelter Hostel run by John and Judy Pex, curiosities were piqued. As the Pexes learned the almost-unbelievable stories of mostly-Christian Sudanese refugees, Judy began to interview and write the stories. She shares the first-hand accounts of Gabriel, Muna Maria, Yien and Rose from South Sudan, as well as Muna from Darfur. Chapter subtitles such as, “Bullets like Rain,” “God Knows our Suffering,” “No One Will Know When We Kill You,” Tea and Torture in Khartoum,” and “A Miraculous Reunion” express the extremes of these true stories, which represent many thousands of others. Many are still happening.

And why were they overjoyed to be in Israel? The Sudanese refugees in Israel believe that a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 18 speaks of them: “At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty (to Mount Zion) from a people tall and smooth-skinned.” – Amazon description of A People Tall and Smooth by Judy Pex

Here’s the text from Isaiah:

At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 18.7, ESV)