Isaiah 18

1 Behold, land shadowed [with] wings, That [is] beyond the rivers of Cush,

2 That is sending ambassadors by sea, Even with implements of reed on the face of the waters—Go, swift messengers, To a nation drawn out and peeled, To a people fearful from its beginning and onward, A nation meeting out by line, and treading down, Whose land floods have spoiled.

3 All you inhabitants of the world, And you dwellers of earth, At the lifting up of an ensign on hills you look, And at the blowing of a horn you hear.

4 For thus said YHWH to me: “I rest, and I look on My settled place, As a clear heat on an herb. As a thick cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5 For before harvest, when the flower is perfect, And the blossom is producing unripe fruit, Then [One] has cut the sprigs with pruning hooks, And the branches He has turned aside, cut down.

6 They are left together to the ravenous bird of the mountains, And to the beast of the earth, And the ravenous bird has summered on them, And every beast of the earth winters on them.

7 At that time a present is brought to YHWH of Hosts, A nation drawn out and peeled. Even of a people fearful from the beginning until now, A nation meting out by line, and treading down, Whose land floods have spoiled, To the place of the Name of YHWH of Hosts—Mount Zion!”