< Isaiah 18 >
1 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
那具有翼艇,位於雇士河對岸的地域,
2 that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!”
即由海上遣發使者,在海面上乘蘆舟的:「去罷!輕快的使者!到一個高瘦膚褐的民族那裏去,到一個一向可畏的國家那裏去,到一個強大而好勝,河流橫貫其地的民族那裏去!」
3 All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!
舉世的居民和住在大地上的人哪!當山上的旗幟一舉,你們要觀望;號聲一響,你們要靜聽!
4 For the LORD said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
因為上主曾對我這樣說:「我要在我的住處寧靜地觀察,彷彿日光中溫暖的熱氣,彷彿收割時炎熱中的露雲。」
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.
因為在收割前,花苞已放;花蒂成熟結為葡萄時,他就要用鐮刀砍去嫩枝,將參差的枝蔓斬除。
6 They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter.
這些枝蔓都要一律被棄捨給山中的猛禽,和地上的野獸;猛禽要在其上過夏,野獸要在其上過冬。
7 In that time, a present will be brought to the LORD of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of Armies, Mount Zion.
到那時,那高瘦膚褐的民族,那一向可畏的國家,那強大而好勝,河流橫貫其地的民族,要帶禮品到熙雍山上,萬軍上主的名號的居所,獻給萬軍的上主。