Chapter 18
Ethiopia
1 Ah! Land of buzzing insects,
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,(A)
2 Sending ambassadors by sea,
in papyrus boats on the waters!
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and bronzed,
To a people dreaded near and far,
a nation strong and conquering,
whose land is washed by rivers.(B)
3 All you who inhabit the world,
who dwell on earth,
When the signal is raised on the mountain, look!
When the trumpet blows, listen!
4 For thus says the Lord to me:
I will be quiet, looking on from where I dwell,(C)
Like the shimmering heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew at harvest time.
5 Before the vintage, when the flowering has ended,
and the blooms are succeeded by ripening grapes,
Then comes the cutting of branches with pruning hooks,
and the discarding of the lopped-off shoots.
6 They shall all be left to the mountain vultures
and to the beasts of the earth;
The vultures shall summer on them,
all the beasts of the earth shall winter on them.
7 Then will gifts be brought to the Lord of hosts—to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, Mount Zion—from a people tall and bronzed, from a people dreaded near and far, a nation strong and conquering, whose land is washed by rivers.(D)
Footnotes
- 18:1–2
- 18:3–6
Cross references
- 18:1 : Zep 3:10.
- 18:2 : Is 18:7.
- 18:4 : Is 8:18; 18:7; 2 Chr 6:30; Ps 33:14.
- 18:7 : Is 45:14; Ps 68:30; Zep 3:10; Mal 1:11.
