Against Ethiopia
1 ① Woe to the land of whirring wings
beyond the rivers of Cush,
2which sends ambassadors by sea in papyrus boats over the waters! Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and bronzed,
to a nation feared far and wide,
a nation conquering and strong,
whose land the rivers divide.
3All you inhabitants of the world, all you who dwell on earth,
when a banner on the mountain is raised, look!
When a horn on the hill is sounded, listen!
4For thus Yahweh spoke to me:
“From where I dwell, I gaze untroubled,
like heat shimmering in the sunshine,
like a dewy mist in the heat of harvest.”
5For before the vintage,
when the flowers fall,
and the blooms become ripened grapes, I will cut shoots and prune
and hew away spreading branches. 6They will be left to the birds of prey and to the beasts of the earth.
The birds will feed on them all summer, and the beasts all winter.
7At that time the tall, bronzed people from a country traversed by rivers – a conquering and strong nation feared far and wide – will bring offerings to Yahweh Sabaoth, to Mount Zion. For this is the place where the name of Yahweh dwells.
- Is 18,1 See commentary on 13:1. However, in 18:7 and 19:16-24, note two additions placed there much later. The first mentions a cult which was celebrated in a Jewish temple built in Heliopolis (which means: City of the Sun). The second is one of the most extraordinary paragraphs of the Old Testament, for it affirms that the day will come in which foreign nations will share all the privileges of Israel.
