An Oracle concerning Ethiopia

1Ah, land of whirring wings

beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,18.1 Or Nubia; Heb Cush

2sending ambassadors by the Nile

in vessels of papyrus on the waters!

Go, you swift messengers,

to a nation tall and smooth,

to a people feared near and far,

a nation mighty and conquering,

whose land the rivers divide.

3All you inhabitants of the world,

you who live on the earth,

when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!

When a trumpet is blown, listen!

4For thus the LORD said to me:

I will quietly look from my dwelling

like clear heat in sunshine,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5For before the harvest, when the blossom is over

and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

he will cut off the shoots with pruning-hooks,

and the spreading branches he will hew away.

6They shall all be left

to the birds of prey of the mountains

and to the animals of the earth.

And the birds of prey will summer on them,

and all the animals of the earth will winter on them.

7At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of hosts from18.7 Q Ms Gk Vg: MT of a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts.