Isaiah 18 · a question people ask
"I will be still, and I will see" (18:4). Is the LORD doing nothing?
The verse doesn't say he does nothing. It says he will be still, and he will see: "I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place" (18:4) (tap still, see). The chapter doesn't end there. The next verse begins with For: "For before the harvest … he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks" (18:5), at a time the verse ties to the harvest, not to a date. The verse says only he, and the next question looks at who cuts. A psalm has two of 18:4's words in two verses side by side: "The LORD looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men" (Psalm 33:13), where looks is the verb of 18:4's see, and "From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth" (Psalm 33:14), where the place is the noun of 18:4's dwelling place (tap dwelling place). Later in Isaiah the verb for being still stands with not: "for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest" (62:1).
The verses
“For the LORD said to me, “I will be still, and I will see in my dwelling place, like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” For before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and he will cut down and take away the spreading branches.”
“The LORD looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,”
“For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning lamp.”