Isaiah 18:1-7
18 Ha for the land of the whirring insects with wings,* which is in the region of the rivers of E·thi·oʹpi·a!*+
2 It is the one sending forth envoys+ by means of the sea, and by means of vessels of papyrus upon the surface of the waters, [saying:] “Go, YOU swift messengers, to a nation drawn out and scoured,* to a people fear-inspiring everywhere, a nation of tensile strength* and of treading down, whose land the rivers have washed away.”+
3 All YOU inhabitants of the productive land*+ and YOU residents of the earth, YOU will see a sight just as when there is the raising up of a signal* upon the mountains,+ and YOU will hear a sound just as when there is the blowing of a horn.*+
4 For this is what Jehovah has said to me: “I will keep undisturbed and look upon my established place,+ like the dazzling heat along with the light,+ like the cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.+
5 For before the harvest, when the blossom comes to perfection and the bloom becomes a ripening grape, one must also cut off the sprigs with pruning shears and must remove the tendrils, must lop [them] off.+
6 They will be left all together for the bird of prey of the mountains and for the beast of the earth.+ And upon it the bird of prey will certainly pass the summer, and upon it even every beast of the earth will pass the harvesttime.+
7 “In that time a gift will be brought to Jehovah of armies,+ [from] a people drawn out and scoured,+ even from a people fear-inspiring everywhere, a nation of tensile strength* and of treading down, whose land the rivers have washed away, to the place of the name of Jehovah of armies, Mount Zion.”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “the whirring of [insect] wings.”
^ “Ethiopia,” LXXVg; MSy, “Cush.”
^ Or, “a nation long and smooth,” that is, a tall and smooth-faced people.
^ “Of elasticity,” by reading two Heb. words as one word of two syllables, as in 1QIsa; M, “of measuring line, of measuring line.”
^ “Signal.” Heb., nes.
^ Or, “shofar.”
^ See vs 2 ftn, “Strength.”
