Isaiah 18
1 Terrible things will happen to [you people] of Ethiopia! In your land there are many sailboats at the upper part of the Nile River.
| הוי ארץ צלצל כנפים אשר מעבר לנהרי כוש׃ |
2 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.
| השלח בים צירים ובכלי גמא על פני מים לכו מלאכים קלים אל גוי ממשך ומורט אל עם נורא מן הוא והלאה גוי קו קו ומבוסה אשר בזאו נהרים ארצו׃ |
3 [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].”
| כל ישבי תבל ושכני ארץ כנשא נס הרים תראו וכתקע שופר תשמעו׃ |
4 [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.”
| כי כה אמר יהוה אלי אשקוטה ואביטה במכוני כחם צח עלי אור כעב טל בחם קציר׃ |
5 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.
| כי לפני קציר כתם פרח ובסר גמל יהיה נצה וכרת הזלזלים במזמרות ואת הנטישות הסיר התז׃ |
6 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).
| יעזבו יחדו לעיט הרים ולבהמת הארץ וקץ עליו העיט וכל בהמת הארץ עליו תחרף׃ |
7 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.
| בעת ההיא יובל שי ליהוה צבאות עם ממשך ומורט ומעם נורא מן הוא והלאה גוי קו קו ומבוסה אשר בזאו נהרים ארצו אל מקום שם יהוה צבאות הר ציון׃ |
