Isaiah 18
A Message to Cush
2which sends couriers by sea,
in papyrus vessels on the waters.
Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people widely feared,
to a powerful nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers.
2that is sending envoys by sea, and in vessels of papyrus over the face of the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared from that and onward, a nation of strength and trampling, whose land the rivers divide.
3All you people of the world
and dwellers of the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you will see it;
when a ram’s horn sounds,
you will hear it.
3All you dwellers of the world and dwellers of the earth—at the lifting of a banner in the mountains, you will see it, and at the blowing of a shofar, you will hear it.
4For this is what the LORD has told me:
“I will quietly look on from My dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
4For thus has said YHWH to me: “I will take My rest, and I will look on from My settled place, shimmering like heat upon the light, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife
and remove and discard the branches.
5For before the face of the harvest of the bud at the filling and the blossom is a ripening grape, then He will cut off the tendrils with pruning hooks, and the branches He will turn aside and strike off.
6They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey,
and to the beasts of the land.
The birds will feed on them in summer,
and all the wild animals in winter.
6They will be left behind together for the birds of prey of the mountains and for the beasts of the earth; and the bird of prey will feed in summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will feed in winter on them.
7At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—
from a people tall and smooth-skinned,
from a people widely feared,
from a powerful nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers—
to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
7At that time a gift will be brought to YHWH of Hosts from a people tall and smooth, and from a people feared from afar, a nation of strength and treading down, for whom its land the rivers divides; to the place of the name of YHWH of Hosts, to Mount Zion.