A Prophecy Against Cush

Woe to the land of whirring wings

         along the rivers of Cush,

     2             which sends envoys by sea

         in papyrus boats over the water.

                  Go, swift messengers,

                  to a people tall and smooth-skinned,

         to a people feared far and wide,

                  an aggressive nation of strange speech,

         whose land is divided by rivers.

     3             All you people of the world,

         you who live on the earth,

                  when a banner is raised on the mountains,

         you will see it,

                  and when a trumpet sounds,

         you will hear it.

     4             This is what the Lord says to me:

         “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,

                  like shimmering heat in the sunshine,

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

     5             For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone

         and the flower becomes a ripening grape,

                  he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives,

         and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

     6             They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey

         and to the wild animals;

                  the birds will feed on them all summer,

         the wild animals all winter.

7 At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty

                  from a people tall and smooth-skinned,

         from a people feared far and wide,

                  an aggressive nation of strange speech,

         whose land is divided by rivers — ​

the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the Lord Almighty.