And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.
Set a sign among them - a banner on a high place, to indicate the place of meeting for the dispersed Jewish exiles, preparatory to their return to their land (Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 62:10).
Those that escape of them - the Gentile survivors spared by God (note, Isaiah 66:18; Zechariah 14:16 ) shall act as missionaries to their several nations. Isaiah 2:2-3; Micah 5:7; and Zechariah 14:16-19, represent it, not that the Jews go as missionaries to the Gentiles, but that the Gentiles come up to Jerusalem to learn the Lord's ways there. However, the latter fact may presuppose the former, the Gentile homage to Zion's King at Jerusalem resulting from the conversion of the Gentiles through Jewish agents, as well as through missionaries of their own several Gentile countrymen. Indeed, only deputy-representatives of the many Gentile nations could in person attend at Jerusalem.
To Tarshish - Tartessus in Spain, in the West. Another Tarshish in the Indian Ocean, accessible from the Red Sea, must be meant in 1 Kings 9:26 ; 1 Kings 22:48 ; 2 Chronicles 9:21 ; 2 Chronicles 20:36. Sir Emerson Tennent thinks it was Point de Galle in Ceylon, the emporium of those seas for three centuries past.
Pul - east and north of Africa; probably the same as Philoe, an island in the Nile, called by the Egyptians Pilak - i:e., the border country, being between Egypt and Ethiopia (Bochart). The Septuagint read Phud: and this, or Phut, is probably the true reading here, as Pul occurs nowhere else. Compare Nahum 3:9, "Ethiopia and Egypt ... Put and Lubim." From the connection it is plain that an African people near Egypt is meant (cf. Ezekiel 27:10; Ezekiel 30:5; Ezekiel 38:5 ) - perhaps Libya. The people described in the monuments as the Nine Bows (Petu, or Napetu) may answer to Phut; or else Topet or Nubia, the region of the bow.
Lud - the Ludian of Africa: a Mizraite tribe west of Egypt ( Genesis 10:13; 1 Chronicles 1:11); Ludim being son of Mizraim (Egypt): an Ethiopian people famous as bowmen (Jeremiah 46:9); employed as mercenaries by Tyre and Egypt (Ezekiel 27:10; Ezekiel 30:5). There was also a Shemite or Semitic Lud (Genesis 10:22; 1 Chronicles 1:17 ), whence came the Lydians of Asia Minor. The Egyptian monuments show us, in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries B.C. a people, the 'Ruten,' or 'Luden,' near Mesopotamia; whence they passed on into Asia Minor.
Tubal - Tibarenians, in Asia Minor, south of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and Araxes. Or, the Iberians-namely, those between the Caspian and Euxine seas, the modern Georgia (Josephus). Italy (Jerome). The Vulgate and Chaldaic: who also translate for "Pul," Africa. The Moschi are associated with them in the Bible: so also in the Assyrian inscriptions they were a widespread Turanian people. Javan - the Greeks; called Ionians, including all the descendants of Javan both in Greece and in Asia Minor (Genesis 10:2-4 ). Tubal and Javan were sons of Japhet.
And they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles - ( Malachi 1:11.)