1Woe to the land shadowed with whirring wings, which is beyond the rivers of Kush,

2which sends envoys by sea, even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying, “Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-skinned, to a people dreaded from their beginning onward, a nation mighty and trampling, whose land the rivers divide.”

3All inhabitants of the world, and you that dwell on the earth: When a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! And when a ram’s horn is blown, hear!

4For thus יהוה said to me, “I am still, and I watch in My dwelling place like dazzling heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

5For before harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, then He shall cut off the twigs with pruning hooks, and shall cut down and take away the spreading branches.

6They are left together for the mountain birds of prey and for the beasts of the earth. And the birds of prey shall summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth winter on them.

7In that time a present shall be brought to יהוה of hosts from a people tall and smooth-skinned, and from a people awesome from their beginning onward – a nation mighty and trampling, whose land the rivers have divided – to the place of the Name of יהוה of hosts, to Mount Tsiyon.