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,[a]
whose land is divided by rivers.
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!

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.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 18:2 Hb obscure

which sends envoys(A) by sea
    in papyrus(B) boats over the water.

Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,(C)
    to a people feared far and wide,
an aggressive(D) nation of strange speech,
    whose land is divided by rivers.(E)

All you people of the world,(F)
    you who live on the earth,
when a banner(G) is raised on the mountains,
    you will see it,
and when a trumpet(H) sounds,
    you will hear it.
This is what the Lord says to me:
    “I will remain quiet(I) and will look on from my dwelling place,(J)
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,(K)
    like a cloud of dew(L) in the heat of harvest.”

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