CHAPTER 18

1 Alas! the land shadowing with wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.

2 Sending ambassadors by the sea,
In ships of reeds on the waters.
Go, ye swift messengers,
To a nation scattered and plundered,
To a people terrible from that time and till now,
To a nation trodden down on every side,
Whose land the rivers have plundered.

3 All ye inhabitants of the world,
And dwellers on the earth,
When he shall set up a standard on the mountains, you shall see it;
When he shall sound a trumpet, you shall hear it.

4 Thus also hath Jehovah said to me,
I will rest, and will look in my tabernacle,
As the heat that drieth up the rain,
And as a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5 For when the harvest shall be at hand,
The bud shall be perfect,
And the ripening fruit shall go out of the flower;
Then will he prune the twigs with pruning-hooks,
And cut down and take away the branches.

6 They shall be left together to the fowls of the mountains,
And to the beasts of the earth.
The fowls shall spend the summer upon them,
And all the beasts of the earth shall spend the winter upon them.

7 At that time shall a present be brought to Jehovah of hosts,
A people torn and plundered,
And from a people terrible from the beginning hitherto;
From a nation trodden down on every side,
Whose land the rivers have plundered,
To the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts,
To Mount Zion.