Text -- Isaiah 18:4-7 (NET)

18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me: “I will wait and watch from my place, like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, like a cloud of mist in the heat of harvest.” 18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted, and the ripening fruit appears, he will cut off the unproductive shoots with pruning knives; he will prune the tendrils. 18:6 They will all be left for the birds of the hills and the wild animals; the birds will eat them during the summer, and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter. 18:7 At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord who commands armies, by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned, a people that are feared far and wide, a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers divide. The tribute will be brought to the place where the Lord who commands armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 18:4

¹ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

² tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

³ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

⁴ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

⁵ 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.

NET Notes: Isa 18:5

¹ tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”

² tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.

³ tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”

NET Notes: Isa 18:6

¹ tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).

² tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).

NET Notes: Isa 18:7

¹ tn On the interpretive difficulties of this verse, see the notes at v. 2, where the same terminology is used.

² tn The words “the tribute” are repeated here in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “to the place of the name of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], Mount Zion.”