Yesaya 18

Bagian: Nubuat tentang hukuman atas bangsa Etiopia

1 Celaka bagi suatu negeri di seberang sungai-sungai Etiopia,
negeri yang ramai oleh suara denging sayap-sayap serangga. 2 Negeri itu mengirim utusan mengendarai perahu-perahu dari alang-alang air
dengan suruhan “Cepat sampaikan pesan ini!”
Mereka pergi meminta bantuan militer
kepada suatu bangsa penakluk yang kuat.
Orangnya tinggi-tinggi dan berkulit mengkilap.
Di mana-mana bangsa itu ditakuti orang.
Negerinya dilintasi sungai-sungai. 3 Hai seluruh penduduk bumi, perhatikanlah!
Di atas gunung-gunung, bendera perang akan dikibarkan.
Hai semua orang di dunia, dengarkanlah!
Terompet tanda perang akan dibunyikan. 4 Sebab TUHAN telah berkata kepadaku:
Dari tempat-Ku bersemayam,
Aku akan memperhatikan dengan diam,
seperti sinar matahari memancar tanpa suara,
seperti embun diam-diam terbentuk pada malam yang hangat di musim panen. 5 Sebelum rencana perang kalian matang,
tiba-tiba musuh sudah menghantam
sehingga keadaanmu bagaikan ranting-ranting anggur yang dibabat
sebelum buahnya sempat ranum. 6 Mayat-mayat kalian akan dibiarkan bergelimpangan
menjadi makanan burung-burung dan binatang liar sepanjang tahun. 7 Suatu hari nanti, persembahan akan dibawa ke Bukit Sion bagi TUHAN Panglima Semesta,
dari suatu bangsa penakluk yang kuat,
yang orangnya tinggi-tinggi dan berkulit mengkilap,
yang ditakuti orang di mana-mana,
dan yang negerinya dilintasi sungai-sungai.

1 Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; 2 that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, saying, “Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide!” 3 All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when a banner is lifted up on the mountains, look! When the trumpet is blown, listen! 4 For Yahweh said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” 5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches. 6 They will be left together for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the animals of the earth. The ravenous birds will eat them in the summer, and all the animals of the earth will eat them in the winter. 7 In that time, a present will be brought to Yahweh of Armies from a people tall and smooth, even from a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Yahweh of Armies, Mount Zion.