Isaiah 18 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Doom to the land of whirring wings, beyond the rivers of Cush —

that sends envoys by sea, in boats of papyrus across the water — Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, a nation of strength and conquest, whose land is cut through by rivers.

All you who live on the earth, you who dwell in the world — when a signal flag rises on the mountains, look! When a ram's horn blasts, listen!

For this is what Yahweh told me: "I will be still and watch from where I dwell, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the warmth of harvest."

For before the harvest, when the blossoming is done and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives and hack away the spreading branches.

They will all be left for the mountain birds of prey and for the wild animals of the earth. The birds will feed on them through the summer, and every wild animal will feed on them through the winter.

At that time, tribute will be brought to Yahweh who commands armies — from a people tall and smooth-skinned, a people feared far and wide, a nation of strength and conquest whose land is cut through by rivers — to the place of the name of Yahweh who commands armies: Mount Zion.