18 Ah, the land [a]of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of [b]Ethiopia; 2 that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, [c]even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation [d]tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward, a nation [e]that meteth out and treadeth down, whose land the rivers [f]divide! 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.
4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, [g]like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away and cut down. 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. 7 In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts from a people [h]tall and smooth, even 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 Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 18:1 Or, shadowing with wings
- Isaiah 18:1 Hebrew Cush.
- Isaiah 18:2 Or, and
- Isaiah 18:2 Or, dragged away and peeled
- Isaiah 18:2 Or, meted out and trodden down Hebrew of line, line, and of treading down.
- Isaiah 18:2 Or, have despoiled
- Isaiah 18:4 Or, when there is
- Isaiah 18:7 Or, dragged away and peeled