A Message to Cush

1Woe to the land of whirring wings,†

which is beyond the rivers of Cush,†

2that is sending envoys by sea,

and in vessels of papyrus over the face of the waters!

Go, swift messengers,

to a nation tall and smooth,

to a people feared from that and onward,

a nation of strength and trampling,

whose land the rivers divide.

3All you dwellers of the world

and dwellers of the earth—

at the lifting of a banner in the mountains,

you⁺ will see it,

and at the blowing of a shofar,

you⁺ will hear it.

4For thus has said YHWH to me:

“I will take My rest, and I will look on from My settled place,

shimmering like heat upon the light,

like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

5For before the face of the harvest of the bud at the filling

and the blossom is a ripening grape,

then He will cut off the tendrils with pruning hooks,

and the branches He will turn aside and strike off.

6They will be left behind together for the birds of prey of the mountains

and for the beasts of the earth;

and the bird of prey will feed in summer on them,

and all the beasts of the earth will feed in winter on them.

7At that time a gift will be brought to YHWH of Hosts

from a people tall and smooth,

and from a people feared from afar,

a nation of strength and treading down,

for whom its land the rivers divides;

to the place of the name of YHWH of Hosts, to Mount Zion.