1Ah , the land of the rustling of wings , which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia ; 2that sendeth ambassadors by the sea , even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters , saying , Go , ye swift messengers , to a nation tall and smooth, to a people terrible from their beginning onward , a nation that meteth out and treadeth down , whose land the rivers divide!
The Message of Judgment and Hope
3All ye inhabitants of the world , and ye dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains , see ye ; and when the trumpet is blown , hear ye . 4For thus hath Jehovah said unto me , I will be still , and I will behold in my dwelling-place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest . 5For before the harvest , when the blossom is over , and the flower becometh a ripening grape , he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away and cut down . 6They shall be left together unto the ravenous birds of the mountains , and to the beasts of the earth; and the ravenous birds shall summer upon them , and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them .
The Response of the Nations
7In that time shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts from a people tall and smooth, even from a people terrible from their beginning onward , a nation that meteth out and treadeth down , whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts , the mount Zion .