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
25:5 like heat 6 in a dry land,
you humble the boasting foreigners. 7
Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, 8
so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. 9
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 Or “drought” (TEV).
7 tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”
8 tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”
9 tn The translation assumes that the verb יַעֲנֶה (ya’aneh) is a Hiphil imperfect from עָנָה (’anah, “be afflicted, humiliated”). In this context with “song” as object it means to “quiet” (see HALOT 853-54 s.v. II ענה). Some prefer to emend the form to the second person singular, so that it will agree with the second person verb earlier in the verse. BDB 776 s.v. III עָנָה Qal.1 understands the form as Qal, with “song” as subject, in which case one might translate “the song of tyrants will be silent.” An emendation of the form to a Niphal (יֵעָנֶה, ye’aneh) would yield the same translation.