People Mighty and Merciless

18 1-2 Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes
    beyond the Ethiopian rivers,
Shipping emissaries all over the world,
    down rivers and across seas.

Go, swift messengers,
    go to this people tall and handsome,
This people held in respect everywhere,
    this people mighty and merciless,
    from the land crisscrossed with rivers.

Everybody everywhere,
    all earth-dwellers:
When you see a flag flying on the mountain, look!
    When you hear the trumpet blown, listen!

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A Prophecy Against Cush

18 Woe(A) to the land of whirring wings[a]
    along the rivers of Cush,[b](B)
which sends envoys(C) by sea
    in papyrus(D) boats over the water.

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)

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.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 18:1 Or of locusts
  2. Isaiah 18:1 That is, the upper Nile region