Isaiah, 18
1. Disaster! Land of the whirring locust beyond the rivers of Cush,
1. Ah, land of whirring wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
2. who send ambassadors by sea, in little reed-boats across the waters! Go, swift messengers to a nation tall and bronzed, to a people feared far and near, a mighty and masterful nation whose country is criss-crossed with rivers.
2. which sends ambassadors by the Nile, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation, tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide.
3. All you who inhabit the world, you who people the earth, when the signal is hoisted on the mountains, you will see, when the ram's-horn is sounded, you will hear.
3. All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth, when a signal is raised on the mountains, look! When a trumpet is blown, hear!
4. For this is what Yahweh has told me, 'I shall sit here quietly looking down, like the burning heat in the daytime, like a dewy mist in the heat of harvest.'
4. For thus the LORD said to me: "I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
5. For, before the harvest, once the flowering is over and blossom turns into ripening grape, the branches will be cut off with pruning knives, and the shoots taken off, cut away.
5. For 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 the spreading branches he will hew away.
6. All has been abandoned to the mountain birds of prey and the wild animals: the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the wild animals winter on them.
6. They 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 upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.
7. Then, an offering will be brought to Yahweh Sabaoth on behalf of a people tall and bronzed, on behalf of a people feared far and near, on behalf of a mighty and masterful nation whose country is criss-crossed with rivers: to the place where the name of Yahweh Sabaoth resides, Mount Zion.
7. At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.
