Isaiah 18

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

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

2 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!

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.