Isaiah 18

New Catholic Bible

¹ Woe to the land of buzzing locusts
    beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,^[a]
2 sending ambassadors by sea
    in papyrus vessels across the waters.
Go forth, you swift messengers,
    to a nation tall and bronzed,
to a people dreaded near and far,
    a mighty and conquering nation
    whose land is crossed by many rivers.
³ All you who inhabit the world,
    you who dwell on the earth,
you will see when the signal is raised on the mountains
    and hear when the trumpet is sounded.
⁴ For this is what the Lord said to me:
    I will quietly look down from my dwelling
like the shimmering heat of the summer sun,
    like a cloud of dew during the harvest heat.
⁵ For prior to the harvest, when the flowering is over
    and the blooms become ripening grapes
the shoots will be cut off with pruning hooks,
    and the branches will be cut away and discarded.
⁶ They will all be left
    to the birds of prey on the mountains
    and to the wild beasts of the earth.
In summer the birds of prey will dwell there,
    while the wild animals will winter on them.