1 Woe to the land with whirring wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
2 That sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin, to a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation powerful and treading down, whose land the rivers divide!
3 All you inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see, when he lifts up a banner on the mountains; and when he blows a trumpet, hear.
4 For so the LORD said unto me,
5 For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
6 They shall be left together for the fowls of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin, and from a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation powerful and treading under foot, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, to mount Zion.