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God’s Message to Cush

18 ·How terrible it will be for [Woe to; or Listen,] the land beyond the rivers of ·Cush [or Ethiopia; C the upper Nile region].
    ·It is filled with the sound of wings [L …the land of buzzing wings; or …the land of flapping sails].
That land sends ·messengers [envoys; ambassadors] across the sea;
    they go on the water in boats made of ·reeds [papyrus; C light and speedy].

Go, ·quick [swiftly] messengers,
    to a people who are tall and smooth-skinned,
    who are feared ·everywhere [far and wide].
They are a powerful nation ·that defeats other nations [or who speak a strange language].
    Their land is divided by rivers.

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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)

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Footnotes

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

18 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!

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