Isaiah 18

1Ah, land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush,

2which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is divided by rivers.

3All you inhabitants of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, look! When a ram’s horn is blown, listen!

4For this is what Yahweh said to me: I will be quiet and look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5For before the harvest, when the blossom is over and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and cut away and remove the spreading branches.

6They will all be left to the birds of prey on the mountains and to the wild animals of the earth. The birds of prey will spend the summer on them, and all the wild animals of the earth will spend the winter on them.

7At that time gifts will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is divided by rivers—to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.