Concerning Cush
18 Doom to the land of winged ships,
beyond the rivers of Cush
2 that sends messengers by sea,
reed vessels on the water.
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and clean-shaven,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation barbaric and oppressive,
whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you who inhabit the world,
who live on earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, you will see!
When the trumpet blasts, you will hear!
4 The Lord said to me:
I will quietly watch from my own place,
like the shimmering heat of sunshine,
like a cloud’s shade in the harvest heat.
5 Before the harvest, when the bloom is finished, when the blossom is becoming
a ripening fruit,
God will cut the shoots with a pruning knife,
and lop off the spreading branches.
6 They will all be left to the mountain birds
and to the beasts of the land.
The birds will eat them in summer,
all the beasts of the land in winter.
7 At that time, gifts will be brought to the Lord of heavenly forces
from a tall and clean-shaven people
and from a people feared near and far,
a nation barbaric and oppressive,
whose land the rivers divide,
to the place of the name of the Lord of heavenly forces,
to Mount Zion.