Isaiah 18
18
Chapter 18
A message about Cush #18:1 There were two places called Cush 2,700 years ago. One place was near Ethiopia and the other place was near Iraq. Most Bible students think that here it means the place near Ethiopia.
1It will be very bad for that land beyond the rivers of Cush. Their ships seem to have wings and fly everywhere! 2They send messages over the sea in boats that they make from reeds. Their boats sail quickly on the water.
Go now! Take a message quickly.
Go to a country where the people are tall
and their skin has no hair.
Everyone is afraid of that nation's people.
They are a powerful and strong nation.
Many rivers cross their land.
3All you people who live in the world, listen to this! You will see a battle flag on the mountains. You will hear the sound of a trumpet.
4This is what the Lord said to me: ‘I will watch quietly from my place. I will work quietly, like the heat that comes from the sun. I will be as quiet as the mist that comes at harvest time.’ #18:4 Mist is like a cloud near the ground that comes early in the morning.
5Then, when the grapes on the vines are nearly ready for harvest, the Lord will cut them off! He will use his knife to cut off the branches. #18:5 This is a picture of how the Lord will stop the foreign army before they can attack.
6Like those branches, the dead bodies of the soldiers will lie in the fields. The wild animals and the vultures will come to eat them. The vultures will feed on them all through the summer. The wild animals will eat them all through the winter.
7At that time, the Lord Almighty will receive gifts from the people of that land. Many rivers cross that land. Its people are tall and their skin has no hair. Everyone is afraid of them. Their nation is strong and powerful. Those people will bring their gifts to Mount Zion. That is the place that the Lord Almighty has chosen for people to worship him there.
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MissionAssist 2018
Isaiah 18
18
Ethiopia Will Be Punished
1 #
Zep 2.12. Downstream from Ethiopia#18.1 Ethiopia: See the note at 11.11.
lies the country of Egypt,
swarming with insects.#18.1 insects: Or “sailing ships.”
2Egypt sends messengers
up the Nile River
on ships made of reeds.#18.2 reeds: Ancient Egypt was famous for the papyrus reeds that grew in the Nile Delta.
Send them fast to Ethiopia,
whose people are tall
and have smooth skin.
Their land is divided by rivers;
they are strong and brutal,
feared all over the world.#18.2 world: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 2.
3Everyone on this earth,
listen with care!
A signal will be given
on the mountains,
and you will hear a trumpet.
4The Lord said to me,
“I will calmly look down
from my home above—
as calmly as the sun at noon
or clouds in the heat
of harvest season.”
5Before the blossoms
can turn into grapes,
God will cut off the sprouts
and hack off the branches.
6Ethiopians will be food
for mountain vultures
during the summer
and for wild animals
during the winter.
7Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount Zion.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.