International Standard Version
Isaiah 18
1 Woe to the land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush, a
2 which sends envoys by the sea, b in papyrus boats over the water! Go, swift messengers, to a tall, smooth-skinned nation, to a people feared far and wide, a nation that metes out c punishment d and oppresses, whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you’ll see it. When a trumpet sounds, you’ll hear it!
4 For this is what the LORD told me: “I will remain quiet and watch in my dwelling place like dazzling heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat e of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the season of f budding is over, and sour grapes ripen into mature grapes, g he cuts off the shoots with pruning knives, clearing away the spreading branches as he lops them off.
6 And h they will all be left for birds of prey that live on the mountains i and for wild animals. j Birds of prey will pass the summer feeding on them, and all the wild animals k will pass the winter feeding l on them.
7 At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies from m a tall and smooth-skinned people, from a people feared far and wide, a nation that metes out n punishment o and oppresses, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place that bears p the name of the LORD. q