Isaiah 18:4

For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The LORD addresses the prophet Isaiah immediately after announcing a visible banner and sounding ram’s horn to all dwellers of the earth. The declaration occurs in the interval between the fading of blossoms and the onset of the harvest season.

The words — The Hebrew אֶשְׁקֳטָה ('esh.ko.tah) literally means "I will remain quiet," coupled with וְ/אַבִּיטָה (ve./'a.Bi.tah), "and I will pay attention." These verbs define the divine posture as deliberate observation rather than intervention.

The thread — The pattern of God returning to a dwelling place until judgment or repentance is recorded in Hosea 5:15 and Isaiah 26:21. Isaiah 18:4 applies that pattern specifically to the timing of the harvest, linking divine silence to the subsequent pruning described in verse 5.

Why it lands — The passage requires readers to accept that divine patience is a controlled interval preceding decisive action, not an absence of purpose. It demands readiness for the coming judgment while acknowledging the certainty of the promised gathering in verse 7.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

כִּי֩kifor כֹ֨הkhohthus אָמַ֤ר'a.Marhe said יְהוָה֙Yah.wehYahweh אֵלַ֔י'e.La/ito/ me אֶשְׁקֳטָ֖ה'esh.ko.tahI will remain quiet וְאַבִּ֣יטָהve./'a.Bi.tahand/ I will pay attention בִמְכוֹנִ֑יvi/m.kho.N/iin/ place/ my כְּחֹ֥םke./Chomlike/ heat צַח֙tzachdazzling עֲלֵי־'a.lei-with א֔וֹר'orlight כְּעָ֥בke./'Avlike/ a cloud of טַ֖לtaldew בְּחֹ֥םbe./Chomin/ [the] heat of קָצִֽיר׃ka.Tzirharvest

King James Version

For so the Lord said unto me, I will take my rest, and I will consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.

Cross-references

Hosea 5:15 Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Isaiah 26:21 For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.
Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
2 Samuel 23:4 is like the light of the morning at sunrise of a cloudless dawn, the glistening after the rain on the sprouting grass of the earth.’
Psalms 132:13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home:
Isaiah 12:6 Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 14:32 What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”
Psalms 72:6 May he be like rain that falls on freshly cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth.
Isaiah 26:19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
Isaiah 31:9 Their rock will pass away for fear, and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.