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.”
9 tn Heb “they will be left together” (so NASB).
10 tn Heb “the beasts of the earth” (so KJV, NASB).