Isaiah 18:4-7

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 

[18:4]  ¹ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

[18:4]  ² tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

[18:4]  ³ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

[18:4]  ⁴ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

[18:4]  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.

[18:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the unripe, ripening fruit is maturing.”

[18:5]  ⁷ tn On the meaning of זַלְזַל (zalzal, “shoot [of the vine] without fruit buds”) see HALOT 272 s.v. *זַלְזַל.

[18:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “the tendrils he will remove, he will cut off.”

[18:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).

[18:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).

[18:7]  ¹¹ tn On the interpretive difficulties of this verse, see the notes at v. 2, where the same terminology is used.

[18:7]  ¹² tn The words “the tribute” are repeated here in the translation for clarity.

[18:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “to the place of the name of the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts], Mount Zion.”