Isaiah 18

1 Ho! land of the sounding of wings, on the other side of the rivers of Ethiopia:

Ho! thou land of rustling wings, Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia!

2 Which sends its representatives by the sea, even in ships of papyrus on the waters. Go back quickly, O representatives, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people causing fear through all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters, whose land is cut through by rivers.

That sendest thy messengers upon the sea, In reed-boats upon the face of the waters: Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and fair, To a people terrible from the first and onward, To a mighty, victorious people, Whose land is divided by rivers!

3 All you peoples of the world, and you who are living on the earth, when a flag is lifted up on the mountains, give attention; and when the horn is sounded, give ear.

All ye inhabitants of the world, ye that dwell on the earth, When the standard is lifted up on the mountains, behold! When the trumpet is sounded, hear!

4 For this is what the Lord has said to me: I will be quiet, watching from my place; like the clear heat when the sun is shining, like a mist of dew in the heat of summer.

For thus hath Jehovah said to me: “I will sit still, and look on from my dwelling-place, Like a serene heat when the sun shineth, Like a dewy cloud in the heat of harvest.”

5 For before the time of getting in the grapes, after the opening of the bud, when the flower has become a grape ready for crushing, he will take away the small branches with knives, cutting down and taking away the wide-stretching branches.

But before the vintage, when the bud is gone, And the blossom is ripening into a swelling grape, He shall cut off the shoots with pruning-hooks, And the branches he shall take away and cut down.

6 They will be for the birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth: the birds will come down on them in the summer, and the beasts of the earth in the winter.

They shall be left together to the ravenous birds of the mountains, And to the wild beasts of the earth. The ravenous birds shall summer upon it, And every wild beast of the earth shall winter upon it.

7 In that time an offering will be made to the Lord of armies from a people tall and smooth, causing fear through all their history; a strong nation, crushing down its haters, whose land is cut through by rivers, an offering taken to the place of the name of the Lord of armies, even Mount Zion.

At that time shall gifts be brought to Jehovah of hosts From a nation tall and fair, From a people terrible from the first and onward, A mighty, victorious people, Whose land is divided by rivers, To the dwelling-place of Jehovah of hosts, to mount Zion.