18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait 1 and watch from my place,
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, 2
like a cloud of mist 3 in the heat 4 of harvest.” 5
18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,
and the ripening fruit appears, 6
he will cut off the unproductive shoots 7 with pruning knives;
he will prune the tendrils. 8
18:6 They will all be left 9 for the birds of the hills
and the wild animals; 10
the birds will eat them during the summer,
and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.
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
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.
6 tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”
7 tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.
8 tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”
11 tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).
12 tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).