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Land that sends ambassadors in fast boats down the Nile! Let swift messengers return to you, O strong and supple nation feared far and wide, a conquering, destroying nation whose land the upper Nile divides.[a] And this is the message sent to you:

When I raise my battle flag upon the mountain, let all the world take notice! When I blow the trumpet, listen! For the Lord has told me this: Let your mighty army now advance against the land of Israel.[b] God will watch quietly from his Temple in Jerusalem—serene as on a pleasant summer day or a lovely autumn morning during harvesttime.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 18:2 whose land the upper Nile divides, literally, “whose land the rivers divide.”
  2. Isaiah 18:4 of Israel, implied.

which sends envoys(A) by sea
    in papyrus(B) boats over the water.

Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,(C)
    to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive(D) nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers.(E)

All you people of the world,(F)
    you who live on the earth,
when a banner(G) is raised on the mountains,
    you will see it,
and when a trumpet(H) sounds,
    you will hear it.
This is what the Lord says to me:
    “I will remain quiet(I) and will look on from my dwelling place,(J)
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,(K)
    like a cloud of dew(L) in the heat of harvest.”

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