Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He predicts the disaster of the Ethiopians imminent through Sennacherib, and future through Nebuchadnezzar: for what Sennacherib began, Nebuchadnezzar completed. Then, in verse 7, he predicts that they will be converted to the Lord.
Vulgate Text: Isaiah 18:1-7
1. Woe to the land of the cymbal of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, 2. which sends ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of papyrus upon the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a nation torn and plucked apart; to a terrible people, after whom there is no other; to a nation expecting and trampled down, whose land the rivers have plundered. 3. All you inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when a sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall hear the blast of the trumpet: 4. for thus says the Lord to me: I will be quiet, and I will consider in My place, as the noonday light is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest. 5. For before the harvest the whole thing has blossomed, and an unripe fruit shall bud, and its little branches shall be cut off with pruning hooks: and what is left shall be cut away and shaken off. 6. And they shall be left together to the birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth: and the birds shall be upon him all the summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon him. 7. At that time, a gift shall be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people torn and plucked apart; from a terrible people, after whom there has been no other; from a nation expecting and expecting and trampled down, whose land the rivers have plundered, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Sion.
Verse 1: Woe to the Land of the Cymbal of Wings
1. WOE TO THE LAND OF THE CYMBAL OF WINGS. — First, Luis de Leon and Montanus in their commentary on Obadiah think that here, as also at the end of Obadiah, there is a prophecy about the Indies and the New World to be conquered and converted; for in Hebrew instead of Woe there is הוי hoi, which can be translated Come, Ho, as Forerius translates: as though God here encourages the Spaniards, equipped with the cymbal of wings, that is, with fleets, to approach and help those nations that are torn apart and awaiting aid for salvation. Hence Vatablus (with whom Forerius agrees) translates and explains it thus: "Ho, land of the shadow of wings, which are beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that is, which abounds in ships, which receives the shadow of the sails of many ships. The calling of the Gentiles is described, and the liberation from the hands of the world and Satan accomplished through Christ. Ho, he says, land which is situated beyond Ethiopia; which teems with rivers, that is, land placed at the farthest end of the world: understanding synecdochically also the other most remote regions — into all the earth their sound has gone forth, as if to say: The Gospel will be preached everywhere. He invites the most remote peoples to Christ." So far Vatablus. Bosius confirms this, volume II On the Marks of the Church, book XX, sign LXXXIV: first, because when he says: "Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, and after whom there is no other," he designates the peoples at the farthest ends of the Indies; second, because the Indians from "vessels of papyrus," that is from bark and tree rinds, hollowed out canoes with which they sailed along the shores: for they lacked large ships, the compass, and the art of navigating the high seas; third, because he says: "Whose land the rivers have plundered," to show that those peoples are separated from us and our continent, or that their land was swallowed by the intervening Ocean. For Plato in the Timaeus and Critias reports that the great island of Atlantis, which surpassed Europe and Asia in size, was once joined to the Spains, but was submerged by the whirlpools of the Ocean; or because of the very many floods to which that land was subject; and the memory and fame of which still remain in the minds of the Indians, as Francisco Gomez writes, Historia Indica, part II, chapter CXXII. Thus Arias Montanus, Joseph Acosta, Frederick Lumnius, and John Fernandes, whom Delrio cites and follows in adage 723, understand this passage as referring to the Indies.
But it is clear from verses 5 and 6 that this prophecy, like the others in these chapters, contains a burden, that is, a threatening prophecy against Ethiopia or Egypt, and pronounces woe upon it.
Secondly, Justin, Against Trypho; Oecumenius, in the Prologue to the Epistle to the Romans, and Leo Castrius think the subject here is Judaea. For thus in Apocalypse XI, 8, Jerusalem is called "Egypt," as if to say: Woe to Judaea, which sends letters everywhere to blaspheme and destroy the name and faith of Christ! This is mystical, not literal, as will be clear from what follows.
Such also is the interpretation of St. Gregory, XIII Moralia VII, in the Roman edition 5: Woe to the land, etc., he says, that is, woe to the proud Antichrist, who sends his heralds throughout the whole world!
Thirdly, St. Jerome, Cyril, Haymo, Procopius, St. Thomas, Lyranus, Adam, and Ribera on Sophonias III, think the subject here is Egypt, as if to say: Woe to Egypt, which under the shadow of its wings, and as the Septuagint says, with winged ships, promises aid to the Jews! For it is well known that the Jews, afflicted by the Assyrians and others, were accustomed to flee to the help of the Egyptians, just as the Israelites used to flee to the help of the Syrians or Damascenes, as he said in the preceding chapter. Thus at this time the king of Egypt had promised help to Hezekiah against Sennacherib, as is clear from IV Kings XVIII. Just as therefore in the preceding chapter he announced the punishment and disaster of the Syrians, so here he announces that of the Egyptians, which was accomplished by the Chaldeans. For Nebuchadnezzar in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem devastated Egypt, as Josephus testifies, book X of the Antiquities, chapter XI.
Our Carpenteius, following this interpretation concerning the Egyptians, expressed it learnedly in heroic verse:
Woe to you, who celebrate the returning Apis with rattling sistra, Beating castanets and hollow cymbals, O land proud of your sacred river, which the Ethiopians send As a noble gift, sprung from unknown sources.
But I say that the subject here is not the disaster of Egypt, but of Ethiopia, which lies below Egypt, namely Abyssinia where the Prester John reigns, who has his empire along the Nile, and rules widely as far as the Red Sea. This is proved:
First, because in the following chapter the burden of Egypt begins; therefore not in this one.
Second, because the Ethiopians are neighbors of the Egyptians; hence equally with the Egyptians they harassed the Jews, as is clear from the Ethiopians who conspired with Shishak king of Egypt against them, II Paralipomenon XII, 2, and from Zerah the Ethiopian, who came with innumerable forces against Asa king of Judah, II Paralipomenon XIV, 9: therefore just as the Egyptians, Edomites, Syrians, and other enemies of the Jews are here punished by God and receive their burden, so also are the Ethiopians. Hence Sophonias, chapter II, 12, and Jeremiah, chapter XLIX, threaten them with the sword and destruction.
Third, because what is said in this chapter about the Ethiopians is the same as what is said about the Egyptians in the following chapter; for if he were speaking about the Egyptians in both places, he would be repeating the same thing pointlessly in the next chapter.
Fourth, because it is probable that the Ethiopians, equally with the Egyptians, promised aid to the Jews through ambassadors against the Assyrians; for Tirhakah king of the Ethiopians seems to have come against Sennacherib precisely to drive him from Judaea and Egypt, because he did not want to have so powerful an enemy so near.
Fifth, because Egypt properly is not beyond, but within the branches of the Nile; but Ethiopia is beyond them. Again, papyrus and ships made from papyrus are found in Ethiopia, where the Nile begins, as well as in Egypt; hence papyrus boats are called Ethiopian; indeed Ethiopia almost exclusively has the Nile, and descends through it into Egypt.
Sixth, because the description "woe to the cymbal of wings" applies to the Ethiopians — that is, bees and flies with their wings, that is, their forces, making cymbal-like noise, that is, raising a din like a cymbal. Just as therefore he compared the Assyrians to bees and flies in chapter VII, verse 18, so here too he compares the Ethiopians to the same: first, because of their dark color; second, because of their great numbers, which even now are innumerable; third, because of their crowd and noise; likewise because of their vain boasting in their forces and weapons; for they buzzed like bees and flies, which beyond their buzzing and the sound of their wings have no real strength; hence fifth, it is signified here that in arms they are unwarlike and weak.
Seventh, because the same fitting qualities can be applied to the Ethiopians as to the Egyptians, indeed some even more so, such as: "After whom there is no other." Thus Pineda in his Preliminary Work on Solomon, book IV, chapter XIV, verse 3, Sanchez, and Forerius explain these words of the Ethiopians. Moreover, Ethiopia, after Egypt to which it is adjacent, was devastated first by Sennacherib, as I shall show in chapter XX, 1. Then by Nebuchadnezzar, as Sophonias teaches, chapter II, 12, when he says: "And you, Ethiopians, shall be slain by My sword;" and Megasthenes in Josephus, book I Against Apion. That the subject here is rather the first devastation will be clear from chapter XX. Finally, the Arabic Alexandrian version clearly teaches this, which reads: Woe to the land whose extremities are shadowy borders by which it is enclosed, in which the journey is prolonged, namely the land of Ethiopia, of which the children of Israel thought that they would be protected by it!
WOE TO THE LAND OF THE CYMBAL OF WINGS! — This is an apposition, as if to say: Woe to the land of Ethiopia, which is a cymbal of wings, that is, making cymbal sounds with its wings, or having wings sounding like a cymbal! Because the Ethiopians, with great noise, boasting and glorying, like bees and flies, as I said, with the clapping of wings, that is, the display and boasting of their forces and troops, resounding like a cymbal, were promising their aid to the Jews. Thus Tiberius Caesar called the grammarian Apion, who boasted that he made immortal those whom he praised in his writings, the cymbal of the world, as Pliny testifies in his preface to Vespasian; and the Apostle, I Corinthians XIII, calls knowledge lacking charity and eloquence a "tinkling cymbal."
Secondly, because like a cymbal they produced only a tinkling, that is, an empty and futile sound, promising help which they were not actually going to provide; that is, as the common saying goes, they were a reed staff, on which no one can safely lean because of its hollowness, Isaiah XXXVII, 6: here therefore the staff, as also the cymbal, signifies vain and deceptive help.
Thirdly, Sanchez says: Ethiopia, abounding in ships on the Nile and the sea, is called the cymbal of wings, because a cymbal in its concavity is like a ship; hence others translate cymbal as skiff, and, as Vatablus says, a basket-boat, in which the sails are like wings; hence the Septuagint translates, with the wings of ships. From this wing-like rowing, ships are called "sail-flying," says Delrio, adage 171. Again, Ethiopian ships are called cymbal or cymbal-boats, because the Ethiopians, and after them the Egyptians, being soft, were accustomed to make noise with trumpets and sistra while sailing; hence Plutarch in his Life of Antony describes the ship of Cleopatra, in which the oars were moved and resounded to the measures of pipes and flutes.
Fourthly, some think Ethiopia is called the cymbal of wings because of the Nile, which at the Cataracts rushes headlong with a roar like birds (hence Theodotion translates cymbal as birds). Hence the Catadupians are peoples of Ethiopia at the last cataract of the Nile, where the waters of the Nile rush between opposing rocks with such a roar that the excessive force of the sound makes the inhabitants deaf, about which see Pliny, book V, chapter IX.
For "cymbal of wings" the Hebrew is צלצל tsiltsel, which can be translated as overshadowing; Aquila with different vowel points reads by diastole צל צל tseltsel, so that it is a doubled noun signifying shadow, shadow, that is, the deepest shadow. Hence the Syriac also translates: Woe to the land of the shadow of wings! For just as a mother protects her chicks with the covering and shadow of her wings, so Ethiopia was promising to protect the Jews with its forces and military wings.
So also Vatablus and Forerius: "The name tsel doubled," he says, "denotes a frequency of shadows, that is, a multitude and abundance of sails, which are like wings, as if to say: Ho, land which with the frequent sails of ships overshadows the sea and rivers!" For such was Ethiopia, and from it Egypt. See Pliny, book XII, chapter XI, and Strabo, book XVII.
WHICH IS BEYOND THE RIVERS OF ETHIOPIA, — that is, beyond the Nile, which no one doubts flows from Ethiopia into Egypt, says St. Jerome. Moreover he calls the Nile "rivers," because the Nile has seven branches like seven rivers, by which it empties into the sea through seven mouths. Hence Ezekiel also calls these branches rivers, chapter XXIX, 3. Ethiopia is said to be beyond the rivers, that is, beyond the seven branches of the Nile, in relation to Jerusalem; for it is in relation to Jerusalem that Scripture designates the regions of the world. But why does the Prophet use this circumlocution? Why does he not clearly say: Woe to Ethiopia? I answer: first, because the Prophets delight in obscurity; second, he mentions rivers because what follows is: "Who sends ambassadors by the sea," etc.; third, by the very fact that he names the rivers of Ethiopia, he signifies that he is speaking of Ethiopia; for Scripture is accustomed to designate provinces and kingdoms by their rivers, as I showed in chapter VIII, verse 6. Hence "Ethiopia" can be referred both to "beyond the rivers" (for it is clear from the Hebrew construction that it pertains to this) and to "woe to the land," as if to say: Woe to the land of Ethiopia, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, that is, its own; for the Hebrews are accustomed to place and repeat the antecedent noun instead of the pronoun my, your, his, etc. Thus in Psalm CXXI it is said: "Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem: Jerusalem, which is built as a city. Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem." Where the antecedent noun, namely Jerusalem, is repeated a second time and is placed for the pronoun "which" and "its."
Verse 2: Who sends ambassadors by the sea
2. Who sends ambassadors by the sea. — "Who," namely "the king." It is a change of person; for he passes from the land and kingdom to the king. See Canon XVI, as if to say: The king of Ethiopia, for example Tirhakah, sends ambassadors by sea in vessels, that is, in ships of papyrus, both to other nations and to the Jews, promising them aid against the Assyrians.
AND IN VESSELS OF PAPYRUS UPON THE WATERS, — as if to say: He sends ambassadors and auxiliary soldiers in ships, which in Ethiopia, as also in Egypt, are made from the papyrus plant. See what was said on Exodus II, 5.
He notes again in the light and fragile papyrus, though decorated, the pretended and fragile help and strength of the Ethiopians. For these things apply to Ethiopia, not to Egypt: for the Egyptians sent their troops to Judaea by land, not by river; but the Ethiopians by river; for they descended on the Nile downstream into Egypt, and from there proceeded on foot to Judaea.
The Septuagint translates, who sends letters of papyrus (for these, like ships, were made of papyrus), namely to the Jews, by which he promises them assistance. St. Cyril refers these words to the superstition of the Egyptians, who used to send letters into the sea, as if rejoicing over the finding of Adonis, the lover of Venus, about which see Ezekiel VIII, 14.
Sanchez understands the papyrus letters as papyrus ships; for epistola in Greek means something sent and dispatched, or rather, he says, he calls the ships carrying ambassadors with letters "epistles," by metonymy; for such ships are called courier ships by Seneca, book XI, chapter LXXVIII. The Arabic translates, he sends writings or books of papyrus, or of paper.
GO, SWIFT MESSENGERS, TO A NATION TORN APART. — St. Jerome and others think this is a mimesis, or imitation of the voice of the king of Egypt, as if to say: Go, O ambassadors, O my messengers! by the Nile to the Jews, who are a nation torn apart by war; although formerly under David and Solomon it was terrible, and no other was like it (for instead of "after whom," others read "compared to whom there is no other"), now however it is afflicted and awaiting help: because rivers, that is, the kings of Israel, with an army of Assyrians like rivers, overwhelm it.
Secondly, others with Vatablus think that here nations, especially the most remote and Indian, are called to the faith of Christ, and that Angels, that is, Apostles, are sent to them, because they have been torn apart by the devil, unbelief, and sins, so that through the grace of Christ they may be restored and saved, and taught to bear the cross and desire death for Christ; and therefore these angels are contrasted with the angels or ambassadors of the Jews, of which they understand verse 1, as I have said. So Oecumenius, Procopius, Castrius, as if to say: Go, O Angels, O Apostles! Go, O Xavier! O Caspar! Go, O zealous Religious! to the Barbarians, to the Indians torn apart by vices, and rushing to hell, and awaiting your help — bring them faith, grace, salvation.
Thirdly and genuinely, Sanchez thinks that in contrast to the weak and papyrus ambassadors of the Ethiopians, about which verse 1 speaks, are set the angels, that is, the ambassadors of God, namely Sennacherib and the Assyrians, whom God sent against Tirhakah and the other Ethiopians, who consequently are a nation torn apart, trampled, and plucked asunder by them, that is, about to be shortly torn and plucked apart by God's decree, although previously it seemed to be terrible; these also are properly "a people after whom there is no other": for they are at the end of the world toward the South. For they extend through the kingdom of the Congo and Monomotapa to the Cape of Good Hope, at which the land or continent ends toward the South: for beyond it there is nothing but the Ocean, as is clear from the cosmographical maps of Ortelius and others.
TO A NATION EXPECTING (some read, expecting expecting, that is, fully and entirely expecting; for the Hebrew doubles קו kav kav) AND TRAMPLED DOWN, — that is, about to be certainly torn apart soon, and already torn apart in God's foreknowledge and decree.
Note: The Hebrew kav first signifies something extended, namely a line: hence second, hope and expectation; for hope extends the soul of the one who hopes, like a line, toward the thing hoped for. Literally, therefore, you would translate the Hebrew thus with Vatablus, Pagninus, Forerius, and others: to a nation of line, line, and of trampling. The nation of the line is called one for which punishment and vengeance from God has been measured out and allotted to the line, as if by rule, according to its demerits, that is, decreed. It is a metaphor from craftsmen and architects: for they build and construct to the line, that is, to the standard, the plumb-line, the rule, and the guide. So too God, to the line of merits or demerits, assigns, forges, and fashions for each one a reward or punishment. Thus in chapter XXXIV, verse 11, it is said: "The measuring line shall be stretched over it, to reduce it to nothing, and the plumb-line to desolation;" that is, as the Chaldean translates, the line of desolation shall be stretched over it, and the plumb-line of destruction. And, as the Septuagint has, σχοινίον γεωμετρίας ἐρήμου, that is, the geometrical cord of the desert, so that it may be destroyed by just measure and reduced to a desert. Thus in IV Kings XXI, 13, it is said: "I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria," that is, with the same line, or standard and measure of punishment and devastation, I will demolish Jerusalem with which I demolished Samaria. Again, just as craftsmen mark the material to be cut or hewn with a string or line, which the Greeks call γραμμή: so God marks out, as it were, the nations which He destines for destruction and determines to hew down. That this is the sense is clear, first, from the fact that shortly before he called this nation "torn apart and plucked asunder," and adds "plundered." For emaciated, drained, and wasted men are called μονόγραμμοι, as if of a single line, says Delrio, adage 724. Second, because the Chaldean translates: a people oppressed and plundered; the Septuagint: a nation without hope (that is, desperate, hopeless) and trampled; the Syriac: a plucked nation, whose feathers have been stripped, and uprooted; the Arabic: a nation without strength, ugly, despised (or worthless, absurd). Third, because our translator renders it: a nation expecting. For the Ethiopians are called an expecting nation, namely expecting the coming of the Assyrians, because they fear them and anxiously await the outcome of their expedition. Again, they expect, that is, they will experience the certain disaster which the Assyrians will inflict upon them. Thus of the ambassadors of Hezekiah to Sennacherib it is said in chapter XXXIII, verse 7: "The angels of peace shall weep bitterly."
Sanchez interprets otherwise: They expect, he says, every year the flooding of the Nile, so that through it the fields may be covered with silt and fertilized. Secondly, the same author says that for "expecting nation" the Hebrew is "nation of line, line," as if to say: The Ethiopians, as also the Egyptians, because they live adjacent to the Nile, which when flooding buries the fields, hence use a line, or rule and measuring rod, to measure out the spaces of the fields, so that each person may know what was and is his own. Hence Strabo, book XVII, and Diodorus, book II, teach that from this flooding of the Nile, Geometry arose among them, as if to say: The Ethiopians and Egyptians are a nation that uses lines and other geometric instruments to mark out for each person his fields and boundaries, which the Nile, having overflowed its banks, had overwhelmed, confused, and obliterated. Moreover, just as in papyrus vessels he demonstrated their weakness, so now in the mud and slime of the Nile, and in the measuring line of the fields of the region, he demonstrates its squalor, and its uncertain and unstable fortune. So far Sanchez.
WHOSE LAND THE RIVERS HAVE PLUNDERED. — This signifies the flooding Nile, which overwhelms Ethiopia, as also Egypt, by its inundation. Symbolically it signifies the forces of the Assyrians and Babylonians assembling in troops, which like rivers will overwhelm Ethiopia, to trample and devastate it.
Verse 3: All the Inhabitants of the World
3. ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD. — God continues to speak, as if to say: When I send the Assyrians and Babylonians as My ambassadors, as it were, then all nations will see the fierce war which through them I wage against the Ethiopians.
4. I WILL BE QUIET AND I WILL CONSIDER IN MY PLACE (as if to say: From afar, from My throne, silent, indeed rejoicing, I will watch as if at games, namely these spectacles of My vengeance, that is, the slaughter of the Ethiopians): AS THE NOONDAY LIGHT IS CLEAR, — as if to say: When the Ethiopians are in darkness, that is, in distress, I, dwelling in My clear and serene light, bright, serene, indeed glorious, will contemplate them. Thus Moses and the elders saw the glory of God, "as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven when it is serene," Exodus XXIV, 10. See what was said there. Heraclitus the philosopher is said to have used a similar saying. For when he was suffering from dropsy, he used to ask the physicians: "Did they know how to produce fair weather from rain and clear sky from cloud?" meaning by rain the dropsy, and by fair and clear weather, health. When the physicians did not understand, he buried himself entirely in ox dung, so that by its warm vapor the harmful bodily fluid might sweat out and be dried up: but when he had remained buried thus for too long, he died, if we believe Laertius and Plutarch.
And as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest, — as if to say: The Ethiopians will be in burning heat, both of the sun by which they are scorched (for they are in the Torrid Zone), and of disaster and destruction: but I will be blessed in refreshment, just as if I were in a dewy cloud, which in harvest time is accustomed to refresh the reapers; and from there I will instill some dew upon the devastation of the Ethiopians, that is, I will bring moderation, and temper it with clemency, lest they be utterly destroyed.
Verse 5: For Before the Harvest the Whole Thing has Blossomed
5. FOR BEFORE THE HARVEST THE WHOLE THING HAS BLOSSOMED. — He persists in the metaphor of the harvest, which, while it luxuriates in bloom and pours all its sap and strength into flowers, is deprived of grain and fruit. The same happens with a tree, which, before the fruit ripens, pours itself entirely into blossoms, buds, and shoots: for about it he says that "unripe perfection," that is, unripe shoots and twigs, though perfect in themselves, will sprout, but will not give ripe fruit. He gives the cause of the disaster of the Ethiopians, namely their premature boasting and provocation of enemies, as if to say: The Ethiopians were flourishing and priding themselves, gloriously trusting in their own strength, and promising themselves a great empire: and therefore, hearing that Sennacherib was abroad in Judaea, they hastily took up arms, and directed their battle line against him, and provoked him to battle. But all their flowering was untimely and premature, and did not ripen, but perished in the blade and was cut down: for they were cut down first by Sennacherib, then by Nebuchadnezzar. This is what he says: "And its little branches shall be cut off with pruning hooks," that is, the young and more ardent soldiers of the Ethiopians will be killed by the swords of the Assyrians; "and what is left shall be cut away and shaken off," that is, the Assyrians and Chaldeans will pursue the remnants of the Ethiopians fleeing from the war, and will partly kill them, partly capture, plunder, and scatter them. So when spirited and reckless young men provoke strong soldiers, they reap a fitting harvest of their budding audacity: namely slaughter and disaster.
Note: "the whole" means nearly the whole, the majority; for shortly in verse 7 he excepts some. See Canon XXX.
6. AND THEY SHALL BE LEFT TOGETHER TO THE BIRDS OF THE MOUNTAINS, — as if to say: So great will be the slaughter of the Ethiopians, that the corpses of the slain will suffice for an entire summer and winter to feed the voracious beasts and carnivorous birds.
Verse 7: At that Time (namely in the days of
7. AT THAT TIME (namely in the days of the Messiah, see Canon XII), A GIFT SHALL BE BROUGHT TO THE LORD. — The Prophets are accustomed, after sorrowful things, to add joyful ones to soften them: so it happens here, as if to say: After this disaster of the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians, having abandoned the vain hope which they had in their own strength and idols, will acknowledge the true God and worship Him on Mount Sion, that is, in the Church. This came to pass when the Eunuch of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, converted by Philip, Acts VIII, spread the faith of Christ throughout Ethiopia; and when St. Matthew the Apostle, having gone there, converted the king and the kingdom: hence in Ethiopia Christianity flourished wonderfully. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm LXVII: "Before Him the Ethiopians shall fall down," and Psalm LXVII: "Ethiopia shall hasten to stretch out her hands to God." See our Father Cotignio and others who have written about the Church and history of Ethiopia.
FROM A NATION EXPECTING. — So it should be read with the Roman editions, that is, expecting very much. It is an auxesis [rhetorical intensification].