Isaiah 18 — Dead Sea Scrolls
7 verses • 1 variants • Column XV of 1QIsaiah-a
Scroll Overview
Summary
Chapter 18 is a brief oracle concerning Cush (Ethiopia/Nubia), describing envoys sent by papyrus boats. Only 7 verses, with very few variants. The vivid geography and diplomatic imagery are preserved identically in both traditions.
Notable Variants
Verse 2 has a minor spelling variant. Verse 7 is identical in both traditions. This chapter has the fewest variants of any in the 12–39 range.
Scroll Condition
Well preserved; fully legible.
Woe, O land of buzzing wings, which lies beyond the rivers of Cush —
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 8
That sends envoys by sea, in vessels of papyrus upon the waters! Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and near, a nation of strength and conquest, whose land the rivers divide.
Masoretic (WLC)
מְמֻשָּׁךְ
tall/drawn out
Dead Sea Scroll
ממושך
tall/drawn out
1QIsaiah-a writes ממושך with plene spelling (added vav). The description of the Cushites as a people 'tall and smooth-skinned' is identical in both traditions. No impact on meaning.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 9
All you inhabitants of the world and you who dwell on the earth — when a banner is raised on the mountains, look! When the shofar is blown, listen!
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 10
For this is what the LORD said to me: "I will be still and watch from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunlight, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 11
For before the harvest, when the blossom has finished and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks and tear away the spreading branches — He will hack them down.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 12
They will all be abandoned to the birds of prey of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth. The birds of prey will summer on them, and every beast of the earth will winter on them.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 13
At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and near, a nation of strength and conquest, whose land the rivers divide — to the place of the name of the LORD of Hosts: Mount Zion.
No significant variant. The scroll reads identically to the MT here.
1QIsaᵃ col. XV, line 14