Isaiah 18

1 Oh, the lande shadowing with winges, which is beyond the riuers of Ethiopia,

Woe to you, you wings of the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

2 Sending ambassadours by the Sea, euen in vessels of reedes vpon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation that is scattered abroade, and spoyled, vnto a terrible people from their beginning euen hitherto: a nation by litle and litle, euen troden vnder foote, whose land the floods haue spoyled.

He sends messengers by the sea, and paper letters on the water: for swift messengers shall go to a lofty nation, and to a strange and harsh people. Who is beyond it? a nation not looked for, and trodden down.

3 Al ye the inhabitants of ye world and dwellers in the earth, shall see when he setteth vp a signe in the mountaines, and when he bloweth the trumpet, ye shall heare.

Now all the rivers of the land shall be inhabited as an inhabited country; their land shall be as when a signal is raised from a mountain; it shall be audible as the sound of a trumpet.

4 For so the Lord saide vnto me, I will rest and beholde in my tabernacle, as the heate drying vp the rayne, and as a cloude of dewe in the heate of haruest.

For thus said the Lord to me, There shall be security in my city, as the light of noonday heat, and it shall be as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.

5 For afore the haruest when the floure is finished, and the fruite is riping in the floure, then he shall cut downe the branches with hookes, and shall take away, and cut off the boughes:

Before the reaping time, when the flower has been completely formed, and the unripe grape has put forth its flower and blossomed, then shall he take away the little clusters with pruning-hooks, and shall take away the small branches, and cut them off;

6 They shall be left together vnto the foules of the mountaines, and to the beastes of the earth: for the foule shall sommer vpon it, and euery beast of the earth shall winter vpon it.

And he shall leave [them] together to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth: and the fowls of the sky shall be gathered upon them, and all the beasts of the land shall come upon him.

7 At that time shall a present be brought vnto the Lord of hostes, (a people that is scattered abroade, and spoyled, and of a terrible people from their beginning hitherto, a nation, by litle and litle euen troden vnder foote, whose land the riuers haue spoyled) to the place of the Name of the Lord of hostes, euen the mount Zion.

In that time shall presents be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people afflicted and peeled, and from a people great from henceforth and for ever; a nation hoping and [yet] trodden down, which is in a part of a river of his land, to the place where is the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Sion.