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God’s Message to Cush

18 ·How terrible it will be for [Woe to; or Listen,] the land beyond the rivers of ·Cush [or Ethiopia; C the upper Nile region].
    ·It is filled with the sound of wings [L …the land of buzzing wings; or …the land of flapping sails].
That land sends ·messengers [envoys; ambassadors] across the sea;
    they go on the water in boats made of ·reeds [papyrus; C light and speedy].

Go, ·quick [swiftly] messengers,
    to a people who are tall and smooth-skinned,
    who are feared ·everywhere [far and wide].
They are a powerful nation ·that defeats other nations [or who speak a strange language].
    Their land is divided by rivers.

All you ·people [inhabitants] of the world, look!
    Everyone who lives in the world, look!
You will see a ·banner [standard; signal flag] raised on a mountain.
    You will hear a trumpet sound.
The Lord said to me,
    “I will quietly watch from ·where I live [my dwelling place],
like ·heat in the sunshine [L glowing heat upon the light],
    like ·the dew [L a cloud of dew] in the heat of harvest time.”
The time will come, after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest,
    when ·new grapes will be budding and growing [the flower becomes a ripening grape].
·The enemy [or The Lord; L He] will cut the plants with pruning knives;
    he will cut down the ·vines [branches; tendrils] and take them away.
They will be left for the ·birds [or birds of prey] of the mountains
    and for the wild animals.
Birds will feed on them all summer,
    and wild animals will eat them that winter.”

·At that time [L In that day] ·a gift [tribute] will be brought to the Lord ·All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; T of hosts]
    from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned,
    who are feared ·everywhere [far and wide].
They are a powerful nation ·that defeats other nations [or who speak a strange language].
    Their land is divided by rivers.
These gifts will be brought to the place ·of [L of the name of] the Lord ·All-Powerful [Almighty; of Heaven’s Armies; T of hosts],
    to Mount Zion.

18 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.

They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.