Isaiah 18:1-5

New International Version

Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,^(E)
    to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive^(F) nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers.^(G)

³ All you people of the world,^(H)
    you who live on the earth,
when a banner^(I) is raised on the mountains,
    you will see it,
and when a trumpet^(J) sounds,
    you will hear it.
⁴ This is what the Lord says to me:
    “I will remain quiet^(K) and will look on from my dwelling place,^(L)
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,^(M)
    like a cloud of dew^(N) in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
    and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off^(O) the shoots with pruning knives,
    and cut down and take away the spreading branches.^(P)