Isaiah 5:26
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: 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:
Isaiah 5:26 stands in a passage that lays bare the people's terrible backsliding. The chapter pictures Israel and Judah as an unfruitful vineyard and warns Judah not to follow Israel's example in departing from God. It compares Israel to a carefully tended vineyard that yielded only wild grapes, so the Lord would take away its protection, leave it to be trampled down, and withhold rain because of its unfaithfulness.
The hissing to the nations is a master's summons to servants, after the common Palestinian call of "shee!" to bring an attendant to his master's side. The Lord thus calls distant nations from the end of the earth as His agents to carry out His purposes, and they come with speed swiftly. Those distant nations summoned to come swiftly are the Chaldeans or Babylonians, whose rapid coming and conquests are like an eagle hastening to seize its prey. The verse belongs among prophecies of social upheaval and judgment in which God summons distant nations that come swiftly, warning that oppression and unjust conditions will bring calamity.
The lifting up of the ensign shows God raising His standard and sign as He begins to recover the remnant of His people. The Spirit lifts this standard against sin, and after a long period of darkness and error the remnant rallies around it.