Isaiah 18
18
1 WOE TO the land whirring with wings which is beyond the rivers of Cush or Ethiopia,
2 That sends ambassadors by the Nile, even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and polished, to a people terrible from their beginning [feared and dreaded near and far], a nation strong and victorious, whose land the rivers divide!
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 thus the Lord has said to me: I will be still and I will look on from My dwelling place, like clear and glowing heat in sunshine, like a fine cloud of mist in the heat of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and the spreading branches He will remove and cut away.
6 They [the dead bodies of the slain warriors] shall be left together to the ravenous birds of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds will summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth will winter upon them.
7 At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and polished, from a people terrible from their beginning and feared and dreaded near and far, a nation strong and victorious, whose land the rivers or great channels divide–to the place [of worship] of the Name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem]. [Deut. 12:5; II Chron. 32:23; Isa. 16:1; 45:14; Zeph. 3:10.]
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Isaiah 18: AMPC
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1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
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.