Isaiah 18

1 Woe to the land of whirring wings, which [is] beyond the rivers of Cush,

2 that 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.

3 All [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].

4 For 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.”

5 For 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.

6 They 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.

7 At 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.