18
Message to Ethiopia
Woe (judgment is coming) to the land of *whirring wings
Which is beyond the rivers of Cush (Ethiopia),
Which sends ambassadors by the sea,
Even in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters.
Go, swift messengers, to a nation [of people] tall and smooth (clean shaven),
To a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation
Whose land the rivers divide.
All you inhabitants of the world, you who dwell on the earth,
When a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it!
When a trumpet is blown, you will hear it!
For this is what the Loʀᴅ has said to me,
“I will be quiet and I will look on from My dwelling place,
Like shimmering heat above the sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
For before the harvest, when the blossom is over
And the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the sprigs [without buds] with pruning knives,
And [He will] remove and cut away the spreading branches.
They (warriors) will be left together for the mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will [spend the] summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.
At that time a gift of homage will be brought to the Loʀᴅ of hosts
From a people tall and smooth (clean shaven),
From a people feared far and wide,
A powerful and oppressive nation,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place [of worship] of the name of the Loʀᴅ of hosts, to Mount Zion [in Jerusalem]. [Deut 12:5; 2 Chr 32:23; Is 16:1; 45:14; Zeph 3:10]
* 18:1 Perhaps a reference to the warships of Cush. 18:1 Ancient Ethiopia was south of Egypt and included portions of modern Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia. 18:7 See note Deut 12:5.