Isaiah 18:1–7

An Oracle Concerning Cush

18Ah, land of ^owhirring wings

that is beyond the rivers of ^pCush,¹

²which ^qsends ambassadors by the sea,

in vessels of papyrus on the waters!

Go, you swift messengers,

to a nation ^rtall and smooth,

to a people feared near and far,

a nation ^smighty and conquering,

whose land the rivers divide.

³All you inhabitants of the world,

you who dwell on the earth,

when ^ta signal is raised on the mountains, look!

When a trumpet is blown, hear!

⁴For thus the Lord said to me:

“I will quietly look ^ufrom my dwelling

like clear heat in sunshine,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

^5vFor before the harvest, when the blossom is over,

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,

and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.

^6vThey shall all of them be left

to the birds of prey of the mountains

and to the beasts of the earth.

And the birds of prey will summer on them,

and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

^7wAt that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts

from a people ^xtall and smooth,

from a people feared near and far,

a nation mighty and conquering,

whose land the rivers divide,

to ^yMount Zion, the place of the ^zname of the Lord of hosts.