Discovery BoxIsaiah 4:5 
Context4:5 Then the Lord will create
over all of Mount Zion 1
and over its convocations
a cloud and smoke by day
and a bright flame of fire by night; 2
indeed a canopy will accompany the Lord’s glorious presence. 3
Isaiah 14:31
Context14:31 Wail, O city gate!
Cry out, O city!
Melt with fear, 4 all you Philistines!
For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,
and there are no stragglers in its ranks. 5
Isaiah 18:4
Context18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait 6 and watch from my place,
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, 7
like a cloud of mist 8 in the heat 9 of harvest.” 10
Isaiah 19:1
Context19:1 Here is a message about Egypt:
Look, the Lord rides on a swift-moving cloud
and approaches Egypt.
The idols of Egypt tremble before him;
the Egyptians lose their courage. 11
Isaiah 25:5
Context25:5 like heat 12 in a dry land,
you humble the boasting foreigners. 13
Just as the shadow of a cloud causes the heat to subside, 14
so he causes the song of tyrants to cease. 15
1 tn Heb “over all the place, Mount Zion.” Cf. NLT “Jerusalem”; CEV “the whole city.”
2 tn Heb “a cloud by day, and smoke, and brightness of fire, a flame by night.” Though the accents in the Hebrew text suggest otherwise, it might be preferable to take “smoke” with what follows, since one would expect smoke to accompany fire.
sn The imagery of the cloud by day and fire by night recalls the days of Moses, when a cloud and fire were tangible reminders that the Lord was guiding and protecting his people (Exod 13:21-22; 14:19, 24). In the future age envisioned in Isa 4, the Lord’s protective presence will be a reality.
3 tn Heb “indeed (or “for”) over all the glory, a canopy.” This may allude to Exod 40:34-35, where a cloud overshadows the meeting tent as it is filled with God’s glory.
4 tn Or “despair” (see HALOT 555 s.v. מוג). The form נָמוֹג (namog) should be taken here as an infinitive absolute functioning as an imperative. See GKC 199-200 §72.v.
5 tn Heb “and there is no one going alone in his appointed places.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. בּוֹדֵד (boded) appears to be a participle from בָּדַד (badad, “be separate”; see BDB 94 s.v. בָּדַד). מוֹעָד (mo’ad) may mean “assembly” or, by extension, “multitude” (see HALOT 558 s.v. *מוֹעָד), but the referent of the third masculine pronominal suffix attached to the noun is unclear. It probably refers to the “nation” mentioned in the next line.
6 tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”
7 tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.
8 tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”
9 tc Some medieval Hebrew
10 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.
11 tn Heb “and the heart of Egypt melts within it.”
12 tn Or “drought” (TEV).
13 tn Heb “the tumult of foreigners.”
14 tn Heb “[like] heat in the shadow of a cloud.”
15 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.
