Isaiah 18

Message to Ethiopia

1 Woe (judgment is coming) to the land of *18:1 Perhaps a reference to the warships of Cush.whirring wings

Which is beyond the rivers of *18:1 Ancient Ethiopia was south of Egypt and included portions of modern Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.Cush (Ethiopia),

2 Which sends ambassadors by the sea,

Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.

Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),

To a people feared far and wide,

A powerful and oppressive nation

Whose land the rivers divide.

3 All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth,

When a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it!

When a trumpet is blown, you will hear it!

4 For this is what the Lord has said to me,

"I will be quiet and I will look on from My dwelling place,

Like shimmering heat above the sunshine,

Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."

5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over

And the flower becomes a ripening grape,

He will cut off the sprigs [without buds] with pruning knives,

And [He will] remove and cut away the spreading branches.

6 They (warriors) will be left together for the mountain birds of prey,

And for the beasts of the earth;

And the birds of prey will [spend the] summer feeding on them,

And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

7 At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Lord of hosts

From a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),

From a people feared far and wide,

A powerful and oppressive nation,

Whose land the rivers divide—

To the place [of worship] of the *18:7 See note Deut 12:5.name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem]. [Deut 12:5; 2 Chr 32:23; Is 16:1; 45:14; Zeph 3:10]