Isaiah, chapter 18

Ethiopia Will Be Punished

C Downstream from Ethiopia* lies the country of Egypt,

swarming with insects.*

²Egypt sends messengers up the Nile RiverG

on ships made of reedsO.

Send them fast to Ethiopia, whose people are tall

and have smooth skin.

Their land is divided by rivers;

they are strong and brutal, feared all over the world.*

³Everyone on this earth, listen with care!

A signal will be given on the mountains,

and you will hear a trumpet.

⁴The Lord said to me,

“I will calmly look down from my home above—

as calmly as the sun at noon

or clouds in the heat of harvest season.”

⁵Before the blossoms can turnI into grapes,

God will cut off the sprouts and hack off the branches.

⁶Ethiopians will be food for mountain vultures

during the summer

and for wild animals during the winter.

⁷Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount ZionH.