18
1 Ah,
the land of
the rustling of
wings, which is
beyond the rivers
of Ethiopia;
2 that
sends ambassadors
by the sea,
even in vessels
of papyrus on
the waters, saying, “Go, you swift
messengers, to a
nation tall
and smooth, to a
people awesome
from their beginning
onward, a nation
that measures out
and treads down,
whose land the
rivers divide!”
3 All
you inhabitants of
the world, and
you dwellers on
the earth, when a
banner is lifted
up on the
mountains, look!
When the trumpet
is blown, listen!
4 For
the LORD said to
me, “I will
be still, and
I will see
in my dwelling
place, like clear
heat in sunshine,
like a cloud
of dew 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 he will
cut down and
take away the
spreading branches.
6 They
will be left
together for the
ravenous birds of
the mountains, and
for the animals of
the earth. The
ravenous birds
will eat them in
the summer, and
all the animals of
the earth will eat
them in the
winter.
7 In
that time, a
present will be
brought to the
LORD of Armies
from a people
tall and smooth,
even from a
people awesome
from their beginning
onward, a nation
that measures out
and treads down,
whose land the
rivers divide, to
the place of
the name of
the LORD of
Armies, Mount Zion.