Whereas 17:12 began with the Hebrew word for “woe” to introduce a general prophecy to the nations, this chapter begins with “woe” in verse 1 and focuses its prophecy on a more specific geographic region. As far as the time reference is concerned, it may be that the prophecy against Cush (Ethiopia) came some twenty years after the prophecy against Damascus (ca. 734 BC). In chapters 29–30 the prophet charges the people of Judah with independence from God and reliance on Ethiopia. In 705 BC Hezekiah sought an alliance with Ethiopia. This was because the Ethiopian king Shabaka controlled Upper Egypt as far as the Nile Delta. Apparently the Ethiopians had taken Egypt (715 BC) and negotiated an alliance with Hezekiah. From Isaiah’s description of the Ethiopians, it would seem that the Judeans s…