1Woe to the land that is shadowed with wings, which lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
2It sends messengers over the sea, in boats of bulrushes on the waters. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation scattered and stripped bare, to a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation measured out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
3All you people of the world, all who live on the earth, look when a banner is lifted up on the mountains; and when a trumpet is blown, listen.
4For this is what the LORD said to me: "I will rest, and I will watch from my dwelling place, like a clear heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
5For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
6They will be left together for the birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth. The birds will spend the summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will spend the winter on them.
7At that time a gift will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people scattered and stripped bare, from a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation measured out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled. It will be brought to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, to Mount Zion.