18:1 Woe, land of whirring wings
Which lies beyond the rivers of ①Cush,
▷ ①Or Ethiopia
18:2 Which sends messengers by the sea,
Even in papyrus vessels on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation ①tall and smooth,
To a people feared ②far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
▷ ①Lit drawn out ②Lit from it and beyond
18:3 All you who inhabit the world, and live on earth,
As soon as a flag is raised on the mountains, you will see it,
And as soon as the trumpet is blown, you will hear it.
18:4 For this is what the LORD has told me:
“I will quietly look ①from My dwelling place
Like dazzling heat in the ②sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
▷ ①Lit in ②Lit light
18:5 For before the harvest, as soon as the bud ①blossoms
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,
And remove and tear away the spreading branches.
▷ ①Lit is finished
18:6 They will be left together for mountain birds of prey,
And for the animals of the earth;
And the birds of prey will spend the summer feeding on them,
And all the animals of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
18:7 At that time a gift of tribute will be brought to the LORD of armies
①From a people ②tall and smooth,
From a people feared ③far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the LORD of armies, to Mount Zion.
▷ ①Some ancient versions and DSS; MT implies Consisting of a people ②Lit drawn out ③Lit from it and beyond