Isaiah 18

1 Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush,

Woe to the land with spreading wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush,

2 which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

That sendeth on the sea ambassadors, and in vessels of bulrushes messengers over the face of the waters. Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation pulled and torn, to a people terrible from their beginning and onward; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

3 All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it.

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, when the ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the cornet is blown, hear ye.

4 For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

For so hath said the Lord unto me, I will take my rest, and I will look down on my dwelling-place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches.

For before the harvest, when the blossom is past, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, will he both cut off the tendrils with pruning-knives, and the sprigs will he remove and cut down.

6 They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the land. The birds will feed on them in summer, and all the wild animals in winter.

They shall be left together unto the birds of prey of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts— from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.

At that time shall be brought as a present unto the Lord of hosts a people pulled and torn, and a people terrible from their beginning and onward; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.