< Isaiah 18 >
1 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
那具有翼艇,位於雇士河對岸的地域,
2 that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, [saying], Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide!
即由海上遣發使者,在海面上乘蘆舟的:「去罷!輕快的使者!到一個高瘦膚褐的民族那裏去,到一個一向可畏的國家那裏去,到一個強大而好勝,河流橫貫其地的民族那裏去!」
3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see ye; and when the trumpet is blown, hear ye.
舉世的居民和住在大地上的人哪!當山上的旗幟一舉,你們要觀望;號聲一響,你們要靜聽!
4 For thus hath the LORD said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling place; like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.
因為上主曾對我這樣說:「我要在我的住處寧靜地觀察,彷彿日光中溫暖的熱氣,彷彿收割時炎熱中的露雲。」
5 For afore the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he shall cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches shall he take away [and] cut down.
因為在收割前,花苞已放;花蒂成熟結為葡萄時,他就要用鐮刀砍去嫩枝,將參差的枝蔓斬除。
6 They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
這些枝蔓都要一律被棄捨給山中的猛禽,和地上的野獸;猛禽要在其上過夏,野獸要在其上過冬。
7 In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people tall and smooth, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.
到那時,那高瘦膚褐的民族,那一向可畏的國家,那強大而好勝,河流橫貫其地的民族,要帶禮品到熙雍山上,萬軍上主的名號的居所,獻給萬軍的上主。