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This is the portion of them that spoil us,

And the lot of them that rob us.

 

18Ah, land of the buzzing of wings,

Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;

²That sendeth ambassadors by the sea,

Even in vessels of papyrus upon the waters!

Go, ye swift messengers,

To a nation tall and of glossy skin,

To a people terrible from their beginning onward;

A nation that is sturdy and treadeth down,

Whose land the rivers divide!

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 horn is blown, hear ye.

 

⁴For thus hath the Lord said unto me:

I will hold Me still, and I will look on 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 bud becometh a ripening grape,

He will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks,

And the shoots will He take away and lop off.

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.

⁷In that time shall a present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people tall and of glossy skin, and from a people terrible from their beginning onward; a nation that is sturdy and treadeth down, whose land the rivers divide, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.

19The burden of Egypt.

Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud,

And cometh unto Egypt;

And the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence,

And the heart of Egypt shall melt within it.

²And I will spur Egypt against Egypt;

And they shall fight every one against his brother,

And everyone against his neighbour;

City against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

³And the spirit of Egypt shall be made empty within it;

And I will make void the counsel thereof;

And they shall seek unto the idols, and to the whisperers,

And to the ghosts, and to the familiar spirits.

⁴And I will give over the Egyptians

Into the hand of a cruel lord;

And a fierce king shall rule over them,

Saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

 

⁵And the waters shall fail from the sea,

And the river shall be drained dry,

⁶And the rivers shall become foul;

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