1 ¶ Woe to the land whirring with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:

2 That sends ambassadors by the sea, over the water in vessels of bulrushes, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far; a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers cut through!

3 All you inhabitants of the world, and you who dwell on the earth, look, when he raises a banner on the mountains; listen, when he sounds a trumpet.

4 For the LORD has said to me, I will be still, and I will look on from my dwelling place like the sun shining on a meadow, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

5 For before the harvest, when the blossoming is over, and the flowers are producing young grapes, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and chop away the spreading branches.

6 They will all be left for the ravenous birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth: and the birds will feed all summer upon them, and all the animals will winter upon them.