Isaiah 18
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Lord’s Message to Cush
18 Ah! The land of buzzing insect wings[a]
beyond the rivers of Cush(A)
2 sends couriers by sea,
in reed vessels on the waters.
Go, swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people feared far and near,
a powerful nation with a strange language,[b]
whose land is divided by rivers.
3 All you inhabitants of the world
and you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet sounds, listen!
4 For, the Lord said to me:
I will quietly look out from My place,
like shimmering heat in sunshine,
like a rain cloud in harvest heat.
5 For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over
and the blossom becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife,
and tear away and remove the branches.
6 They will all be left for the birds of prey on the hills
and for the wild animals of the land.
The birds will spend the summer on them,
and all the animals, the winter on them.
7 At that time a gift will be brought to Yahweh of Hosts from[c] a people tall and smooth-skinned,(B) a people feared far and near, a powerful nation with a strange language, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the name of Yahweh of Hosts.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Isaiah 18:1 Or of sailing ships
- Isaiah 18:2 Hb obscure
- Isaiah 18:7 DSS, LXX, Vg; MT omits from
Isaiah 18
International Standard Version
A Rebuke to Cush
18 Woe to the land of whirring wings
that is beyond the rivers of Cush,[a]
2 which sends envoys by the sea,[b]
in papyrus boats over the water!
Go, swift messengers,
to a tall, smooth-skinned nation,
to a people feared far and wide,
a nation that metes out[c] punishment[d] and oppresses,
whose land the rivers divide.
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
you who live on the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you’ll see it.
When a trumpet sounds,
you’ll hear it!
4 For this is what the Lord told me:
“I will remain quiet and watch in my dwelling place
like dazzling heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat[e] of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the season of[f] budding is over,
and sour grapes ripen into mature grapes,[g]
he cuts off the shoots with pruning knives,
clearing away the spreading branches
as he lops them off.
6 And[h] they will all be left
for birds of prey that live on the mountains[i]
and for wild animals.[j]
Birds of prey will pass the summer feeding on them,
and all the wild animals[k] will pass the winter feeding[l] on them.
7 At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
from[m] a tall and smooth-skinned people,
from a people feared far and wide,
a nation that metes out[n] punishment[o] and oppresses,
whose land the rivers divide,
to Mount Zion,
the place that bears[p] the name of the Lord.[q]
Footnotes
- Isaiah 18:1 I.e. Nubia, south of Egypt (modern northern Sudan)
- Isaiah 18:2 Or Nile
- Isaiah 18:2 Or nation of strange speech; so 1QIsaa MT; LXX reads nation without hope
- Isaiah 18:2 1QIsaa MT LXX lack punishment
- Isaiah 18:4 So 1QIsaa MT; MTmss LXX read on the day
- Isaiah 18:5 1QIsaa MT lack season of
- Isaiah 18:5 Lit. flowers
- Isaiah 18:6 So 1QIsaa MT LXX; 4QIsab lacks And
- Isaiah 18:6 So 4QIsab; 1QIsaa MT read of mountains; LXX reads mountains of heaven
- Isaiah 18:6 Lit. for beasts of the earth; i.e. non-domesticated animals, as opposed to domesticated livestock;
- Isaiah 18:6 Lit. the beasts of the earth; so 1QIsaa; i.e. non-domesticated animals, as opposed to domesticated livestock; MT LXX read every beast of the field
- Isaiah 18:6 1QIsaa MT lack feeding
- Isaiah 18:7 So 1QIsaa LXX; 4QIsab MT lack from
- Isaiah 18:7 Or nation of strange speech; so 1QIsaa MT; LXX reads nation with hope
- Isaiah 18:7 1QIsaa MT LXX lack punishment
- Isaiah 18:7 Lit. place of
- Isaiah 18:7 So 1QIsaa; 4QIsab MT LXX read the Lord of the Heavenly Armies
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