Isaiah 18
International Children’s Bible
God’s Message to Cush
18 How terrible it will be for the land beyond the rivers of Cush.
It is filled with the sound of wings.
2 That land sends people across the sea.
They go on the water in boats made of reeds.
Quick messengers, go
to the people who are tall and smooth-skinned.
They are feared everywhere.
They are a powerful nation with strange speech.
They defeat the other nations.
Their land is divided by rivers.
3 All you people of the world, look!
Everyone who lives in the world, look!
You will see a banner raised on a mountain.
You will hear a trumpet sound.
4 The Lord said to me,
“I will quietly watch from where I live.
I will be like heat in the sunshine.
I will be like the dew in the heat of harvest time.”
5 The time will be after the flowers have bloomed and before the harvest.
The new grapes will be budding and growing.
Then the enemy will cut the plants with knives.
He will cut down the vines and take them away.
6 They will be left for the birds of the mountains to eat.
They will be left for the wild animals to eat.
Birds will feed on them all summer.
And that winter wild animals will eat them.
7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord of heaven’s armies.
They will come from the people who are tall and smooth-skinned.
They are feared everywhere.
They are a powerful nation with strange speech.
Their land is divided by rivers.
These gifts will be brought to the place of the Lord of heaven’s armies.
They will be brought to Mount Zion.
Isaiah 18
New King James Version
Proclamation Against Ethiopia
18 Woe (A)to the land shadowed with buzzing wings,
Which is beyond the rivers of [a]Ethiopia,
2 Which sends ambassadors by sea,
Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying,
“Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin,
To a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide.”
3 All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth:
(B)When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it;
And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.
4 For so the Lord said to me,
“I will take My rest,
And I will [b]look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect
And the sour grape is ripening in the flower,
He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks
And take away and cut down the branches.
6 They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey
And for the beasts of the earth;
The birds of prey will summer on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.
7 In that time (C)a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts
[c]From a people tall and smooth of skin,
And from a people terrible from their beginning onward,
A nation powerful and treading down,
Whose land the rivers divide—
To the place of the name of the Lord of hosts,
To Mount Zion.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 18:1 Heb. Cush
- Isaiah 18:4 watch
- Isaiah 18:7 So with DSS, LXX, Vg.; MT omits From; Tg. To
Isaiah 18
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 18
Ethiopia
1 Woe to the land of buzzing locusts
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,[a]
2 sending ambassadors by sea
in papyrus vessels across the waters.
Go forth, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and bronzed,
to a people dreaded near and far,
a mighty and conquering nation
whose land is crossed by many rivers.
3 All you who inhabit the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
you will see when the signal is raised on the mountains
and hear when the trumpet is sounded.
4 For this is what the Lord said to me:
I will quietly look down from my dwelling
like the shimmering heat of the summer sun,
like a cloud of dew during the harvest heat.
5 For prior to the harvest, when the flowering is over
and the blooms become ripening grapes
the shoots will be cut off with pruning hooks,
and the branches will be cut away and discarded.
6 They will all be left
to the birds of prey on the mountains
and to the wild beasts of the earth.
In summer the birds of prey will dwell there,
while the wild animals will winter on them.
7 At that time offerings will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a tall and bronzed people dreaded near and far, a mighty and conquering nation whose land is crisscrossed by rivers, to Mount Zion, the place where the name of the Lord of hosts dwells.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 18:1 Rivers of Ethiopia: the reference is to the Upper Nile and its tributaries.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
