Isaiah 60:8

60:8 Who are these who float along ¹  like a cloud,

who fly like doves to their shelters? ² 

Isaiah 44:22

44:22 I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,

the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ³ 

Come back to me, for I protect ⁴  you.”

Isaiah 18:4

18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:

“I will wait ⁵  and watch from my place,

like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ⁶ 

like a cloud of mist ⁷  in the heat ⁸  of harvest.” ⁹ 

[60:8]  ¹ tn Heb “fly” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “fly along.”

[60:8]  ² tn Heb “to their windows,” i.e., to the openings in their coops. See HALOT 83 s.v. אֲרֻבָּה.

[44:22]  ³ tn Heb “I blot out like a cloud your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud your sins.” “Rebellious deeds” and “sins” stand by metonymy for the guilt they produce. Both עָב (’av) and עָנָן (’anan) refer to the clouds in the sky. It is tempting for stylistic purposes to translate the second with “fog” or “mist” (cf. NAB, NRSV “cloud…mist”; NIV “cloud…morning mist”; NLT “morning mists…clouds”), but this distinction between the synonyms is unwarranted here. The point of the simile seems to be this: The Lord forgives their sins, causing them to vanish just as clouds disappear from the sky (see Job 7:9; 30:15).

[44:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.

[18:4]  ⁵ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

[18:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

[18:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

[18:4]  ⁸ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

[18:4]  ⁹ 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.