1Ah, the land of the rustling of wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, 2that sends 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 fearful from their beginning onward, a nation that metes out and treads down 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 LORD has said to 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 becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and he will take away [and] cut down the spreading branches. 6They shall be left together to 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. 7In that time a present shall be brought to LORD of hosts [from] a people tall and smooth, even from a people fearful from their beginning onward, a nation that metes out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place o