Verse Lens · Context pointer
Isaiah 18:6 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 6. 6They 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
The oracle concerning Zion and the nations states or reports “They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth” at Isaiah 18:6 as a specific part of “Cush's Envoys Hear of a Harvest Cut and a Gift to Zion.”
Read It With
- Isaiah 18:1–7
Read Isaiah 18:6 with 18:1–7. By itself, “They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, historical horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: Swift messengers, a global signal, divine stillness, pruned shoots, exposed carrion, and a future gift from a formidable people form an enigmatic oracle about Cush.
Why It Needs Context
Keep the line with Isaiah 18:1–7. The oracle concerning Zion and the nations states or reports “They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth” at Isaiah 18:6 as a specific part of “Cush's Envoys Hear of a Harvest Cut and a Gift to Zion.” The literary form and this limit govern it: Cush's Envoys Hear of a Harvest Cut and a Gift to Zion does not authorize mapping ancient names onto modern ethnic enemies, collective punishment, colonial domination, or political demonization.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Isaiah 18:1–7 — Cush's Envoys Hear of a Harvest Cut and a Gift to ZionSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Isaiah 18:1–7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Isaiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology at the exact unit, without treating morphology as apparatus, lexicon, composition history, or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Isa.xml, OSIS 18:1–7 with Hebrew/KJV versification difference checked
Open the fixed Hebrew Isaiah file ↗