Isaiah 18
18
The Lord’s Message to Cush
1Ah! The land of buzzing insect wings # Or of sailing ships
beyond the rivers of Cush # 2Kg 19:9; Is 20:3-5; Ezk 30:4-5,9; Zph 2:12; 3:10
2sends couriers by sea,
in reed vessels on the waters.
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people feared far and near,
a powerful nation with a strange language, # Hb obscure
whose land is divided by rivers.
3All you inhabitants of the world
and you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet sounds, listen!
4For, the Lord said to me:
I will quietly look out from My place,
like shimmering heat in sunshine,
like a rain cloud in harvest heat.
5For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over
and the blossom becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife,
and tear away and remove the branches.
6They will all be left for the birds of prey on the hills
and for the wild animals of the land.
The birds will spend the summer on them,
and all the animals, the winter on them.
7At that time a gift will be brought to Yahweh of Hosts from # DSS, LXX, Vg; MT omits from a people tall and smooth-skinned, # Ps 68:31; Is 45:14; Zph 3:10; Ac 8:27-38 a people feared far and near, a powerful nation with a strange language, whose land is divided by rivers — to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Yahweh of Hosts.
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Isaiah 18: HCSB
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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.