Isaiah 5:26. 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.
Some commentators have supposed an allusion here, and in Isaiah 7:18, to the custom of calling bees from their hives to the fields and back again by means of a hiss or whistle. Others, however, deny that any such custom existed, and claim that the allusion is to another custom prevalent in the East: that of calling the attention of any one in the street by a significant hiss. In the prophecy of Zechariah the Lord says concerning the children of Ephraim, “I will hiss for them, and gather them” (Zech. 10:8). Here there is doubtless a reference to the same custom of calling attention by a hiss.