Isaiah 18:6

They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the land. The birds will feed on them in summer, and all the wild animals in winter.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses a powerful, river-crossed nation, describing the fate of its crops just before the harvest, then shifts to a future moment when tribute will be brought to Mount Zion.

The words — יֵעָזְב֤וּ (ye'azevu) translates literally as "they will be abandoned," and יַחְדָּו֙ (yachdav) means "alike," indicating that birds and beasts will share the same fate without distinction.

The thread — This pattern of abandoned corpses becoming scavenger food appears in Jeremiah 7:33, Ezekiel 32:4, and Ezekiel 39:17, consistently marking complete national judgment.

Why it lands — It requires the reader to acknowledge that agricultural prosperity and human strength are subject to divine removal, and that desolation precedes any future gathering of tribute.

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

יֵעָזְב֤וּye.'a.ze.Vuthey will be abandoned יַחְדָּו֙yach.Davalike לְעֵ֣יטle./'Eitto/ bird[s] of prey of הָרִ֔יםha.Rim[the] mountains וּֽלְבֶהֱמַ֖תu./le./ve.he.Matand/ to/ [the] animal[s] of הָאָ֑רֶץha./'A.retzthe/ earth וְקָ֤ץve./Katzand/ it will pass [the] summer עָלָיו֙'a.La/von/ it הָעַ֔יִטha./'A.yitthe/ bird[s] of prey וְכָל־ve./kholand/ every בֶּהֱמַ֥תbe.he.Mat<the> animal of הָאָ֖רֶץha./'A.retzthe/ earth עָלָ֥יו'a.La/von/ it תֶּחֱרָֽף׃te.che.Rafit will pass [the] winter

King James Version

They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 7:33 The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
Ezekiel 32:4 I will abandon you on the land and hurl you into the open field. I will cause all the birds of the air to settle upon you, and all the beasts of the earth to eat their fill of you.
Ezekiel 39:17 And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.
Isaiah 14:19 But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.
Isaiah 34:1 Come near, O nations, to listen; pay attention, O peoples. Let the earth hear, and all that fills it, the world and all that springs from it.
Isaiah 56:9 Come, all you beasts of the field; eat greedily, all you beasts of the forest.
Jeremiah 15:3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
Revelation 19:17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,