The original Hebrew vocabulary is also revealing. The verb “tread,” which describes the action against the Assyrians, contains the same root (bs) as the word used to describe the Kushite nation in Isaiah 18:7: “a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down.”16 In Isaiah 18.2, the word also describes the Kushites.17 The passage’s vocabulary, in short, fits the Kushite-rescue theory precisely.
