Concerning Cush

¹Doom to the land of winged ships,

²that sends messengers by sea,

Go, swift messengers,

to a nation tall and clean-shaven,

to a people feared near and far,

a nation barbaric and oppressive,

whose land the rivers divide.

³All you who inhabit the world,

when a signal is raised on the mountains, you will see!

⁴The LORD said to me:

I will quietly watch from my own place,

like the shimmering heat of sunshine,

like a cloud’s shade in the harvest heat.

⁵Before the harvest, when the bloom is finished, when the blossom is becoming

a ripening fruit,

God will cut the shoots with a pruning knife,

and lop off the spreading branches.

⁶They will all be left to the mountain birds

The birds will eat them in summer,

all the beasts of the land in winter.

⁷At that time, gifts will be brought to the LORD of heavenly forces

from a tall and clean-shaven people

and from a people feared near and far,

a nation barbaric and oppressive,

whose land the rivers divide,