< Esias 18 >

1 Woe to you, you wings of the land of ships, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
那具有翼艇,位於雇士河對岸的地域,
2 He sends messengers by the sea, and paper letters on the water: for swift messengers shall go to a lofty nation, and to a strange and harsh people. Who is beyond it? a nation not looked for, and trodden down.
即由海上遣發使者,在海面上乘蘆舟的:「去罷!輕快的使者!到一個高瘦膚褐的民族那裏去,到一個一向可畏的國家那裏去,到一個強大而好勝,河流橫貫其地的民族那裏去!」
3 Now all the rivers of the land shall be inhabited as an inhabited country; their land shall be as when a signal is raised from a mountain; it shall be audible as the sound of a trumpet.
舉世的居民和住在大地上的人哪!當山上的旗幟一舉,你們要觀望;號聲一響,你們要靜聽!
4 For thus said the Lord to me, There shall be security in my city, as the light of noonday heat, and it shall be as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.
因為上主曾對我這樣說:「我要在我的住處寧靜地觀察,彷彿日光中溫暖的熱氣,彷彿收割時炎熱中的露雲。」
5 Before the reaping time, when the flower has been completely formed, and the unripe grape has put forth its flower and blossomed, then shall he take away the little clusters with pruning-hooks, and shall take away the small branches, and cut them off;
因為在收割前,花苞已放;花蒂成熟結為葡萄時,他就要用鐮刀砍去嫩枝,將參差的枝蔓斬除。
6 And he shall leave [them] together to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth: and the fowls of the sky shall be gathered upon them, and all the beasts of the land shall come upon him.
這些枝蔓都要一律被棄捨給山中的猛禽,和地上的野獸;猛禽要在其上過夏,野獸要在其上過冬。
7 In that time shall presents be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people afflicted and peeled, and from a people great from henceforth and for ever; a nation hoping and [yet] trodden down, which is in a part of a river of his land, to the place where is the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Sion.
到那時,那高瘦膚褐的民族,那一向可畏的國家,那強大而好勝,河流橫貫其地的民族,要帶禮品到熙雍山上,萬軍上主的名號的居所,獻給萬軍的上主。

< Esias 18 >