Isaiah 18 WEB
Summary: Isaiah addresses "the land shadowing with wings" beyond the rivers of Cush (Ethiopia), a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people whose swift messengers are sent by sea, telling them to watch as the LORD acts. God describes quietly observing from His dwelling place like clear heat or a cloud of dew, while He lets a coming harvest of judgment ripen before He acts like a farmer cutting off shoots and pruning branches, leaving them for birds and beasts to feed on through a summer and winter. The chapter closes with the promise that eventually this same feared, powerful, "meted out" nation will bring a gift to the LORD of hosts at Mount Zion, turning a picture of threat into one of eventual homage. It is one of the shorter, more enigmatic oracles, focused on watching and waiting for God's timing.
1Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
2that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!”
3All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen!
4For Yahweh said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, 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 sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.
6They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter.
7In that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.
Also read this chapter in: KJV, ASV, WYC, GNV, WBT, DBY, YLT