And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: He will - hiss "He will hist" - "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees, who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, συρισμασι, by a hiss or a whistle." - Cyril, on this place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ib. In Isaiah 7:18, the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther, where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee: -
"Jehovah shall hist the fly That is in the utmost parts of Egypt; And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria."
On which place see Deuteronomy 1:44; Psalms 118:12; and God calls the locusts his great army, Joel 2:25; Exodus 23:28. See Huet, Quest. Alnet. 2:12. שרק sharak or shrak, he shall whistle for them, call loud and shrill; he shall shriek, and they (their enemies) shall come at his call.
With speed - This refers to the Isaiah 5:19. As the scoffers had challenged God to make speed, and to hasten his work of vengeance, so now God assures them that with speed and swiftly it shall come.