< Isaiah 18 >
1 Oh, the lande shadowing with winges, which is beyond the riuers of Ethiopia,
Ho! thou land of rustling wings, 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.
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 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.
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 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 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 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:
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 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.
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 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.
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.