Isaiah 18:4-6
New English Translation
4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait[a] and watch from my place,
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight,[b]
like a cloud of mist[c] in the heat[d] of harvest.”[e]
5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,
and the ripening fruit appears,[f]
he will cut off the unproductive shoots[g] with pruning knives;
he will prune the tendrils.[h]
6 They will all be left[i] for the birds of the hills
and the wild animals;[j]
the birds will eat them during the summer,
and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 18:4 tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”
- Isaiah 18:4 tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.
- Isaiah 18:4 tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”
- Isaiah 18:4 tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”
- Isaiah 18:4 sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.
- Isaiah 18:5 tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”
- Isaiah 18:5 tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.
- Isaiah 18:5 tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”
- Isaiah 18:6 tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).
- Isaiah 18:6 tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).
Isaiah 18:4-6
American Standard Version
4 For thus hath Jehovah said unto me, I will be still, and I will behold in my dwelling-place, [a]like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. 5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becometh a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches will he take away and cut down. 6 They 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.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Isaiah 18:4 Or, when there is
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