the Fourth Week of Lent
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Read the Bible
Contemporary English Version
Isaiah 18
Ethiopia Will Be Punished
1 Downstream from Ethiopia[a]
lies the country of Egypt,
swarming with insects.[b]
2 Egypt sends messengers
up the Nile River
on ships made of reeds.[c]
Send them fast to Ethiopia,
whose people are tall
and have smooth skin.
Their land is divided by rivers;
they are strong and brutal,
feared all over the world.[d]
3 Everyone on this earth,
listen with care!
A signal will be given
on the mountains,
and you will hear a trumpet.
4 The Lord said to me,
"I will calmly look down
from my home above—
as calmly as the sun at noon
or clouds in the heat
of harvest season."
5 Before the blossoms
can turn into grapes,
God will cut off the sprouts
and hack off the branches.
6 Ethiopians will be food
for mountain buzzards
during the summer
and for wild animals
during the winter.
7 Those Ethiopians are tall and their skin is smooth. They are feared all over the world, because they are strong and brutal. But at that time they will come from their land divided by rivers, and they will bring gifts to the Lord All-Powerful, who is worshiped on Mount Zion.
