New Living Translation
Isaiah • Chapter 18
1
Listen, Ethiopia — land of fluttering sails<br>that lies at the headwaters of the Nile,<br>
2
that sends ambassadors<br>in swift boats down the river.<br> Go, swift messengers!<br>Take a message to a tall, smooth-skinned people,<br>who are feared far and wide<br>for their conquests and destruction,<br>and whose land is divided by rivers.<br>
3
All you people of the world,<br>everyone who lives on the earth —<br>when I raise my battle flag on the mountain, look!<br>When I blow the ram’s horn, listen!<br>
4
For the LORD has told me this:<br>“I will watch quietly from my dwelling place —<br>as quietly as the heat rises on a summer day,<br>or as the morning dew forms during the harvest.”<br>
5
Even before you begin your attack,<br>while your plans are ripening like grapes,<br>the LORD will cut off your new growth with pruning shears.<br>He will snip off and discard your spreading branches.<br>
6
Your mighty army will be left dead in the fields<br>for the mountain vultures and wild animals.<br>The vultures will tear at the corpses all summer.<br>The wild animals will gnaw at the bones all winter.<br>
7
At that time the LORD of Heaven’s Armies will receive gifts<br>from this land divided by rivers,<br>from this tall, smooth-skinned people,<br>who are feared far and wide for their conquests and destruction.<br>They will bring the gifts to Jerusalem,<br>where the LORD of Heaven’s Armies dwells.<br>