Isaiah 18
1 Woe to the land with spreading wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush,
Terrible things will happen to [you people] of Ethiopia! In your land there are many sailboats at the upper part of the Nile River.
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!
Your rulers send ambassadors that sail [quickly] down the river in papyrus boats. You messengers to Ethiopia, go quickly! Go [up the river] to people who are tall and who have smooth skin. People everywhere are afraid of those people, because they conquer and destroy [other nations]; they live in a land that is divided by branches of one large river.
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.
[You messengers] must tell people everywhere, to people everywhere, “Look when I lift up my battle flag on top of the mountain, and listen when I blow the ram’s horn [to signal that the battle is about to begin].”
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.
[Listen] because Yahweh has told me this: “I will watch quietly from where I live. I will watch as quietly as [SIM] the heat waves shimmer as they rises on a hot summer day, as quietly as the dew forms [on the ground] during harvest time.”
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.
But [even] before the army of Ethiopia starts to attack, while their plans are [slowly forming] like [SIM] grapes that are ripening, Yahweh will [get rid of them like a farmer who] [MET] cuts off the new shoots of the grapevines with his shears, and prunes the branches that have become very long.
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.
All [the soldiers in the army of Ethiopia] will be killed, and their corpses will lie in the fields for vultures to eat their flesh in the (summer/hot season). Then wild animals will [chew on their bones] all during the (winter/cold season).
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.
At that time, the people of that land that is divided by the branches of that one big river will take gifts to Yahweh in Jerusalem. Those tall people who have smooth/dark skin, whom people everywhere are afraid of, because they conquer and destroy many countries, will take gifts to Jerusalem, the city where the Commander of the armies of angels lives.
