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.
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. 11
The tribute 12 will be brought to the place where the Lord who commands armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion. 13
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.”
9 tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).
10 tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).
11 tn On the interpretive difficulties of this verse, see the notes at v. 2, where the same terminology is used.
12 tn The words “the tribute” are repeated here in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “to the place of the name of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], Mount Zion.”