Judgment of the Nations: Cush

1Woe to the land of the rustling of wings, beyond the rivers of Cush. 2which sends ambassadors by the sea in papyrus vessels on the waters, saying, “Y’all go, 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 inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, y’all must look! When the trumpet is blown, y’all must listen!

4For YHWH 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 YHWH Almighty 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 YHWH Almighty, Mount Zion.