This verse warns those whose lives are presently very comfortable that their crops will fail. It does not imply that their behavior causes the crop failure.

The Hebrew phrase rendered In little more than a year is literally “Days upon a year,” and this is the only place in the Old Testament where it occurs. For Revised Standard Version it refers to a period of about one year. Good News Translation is similar with “this time next year,” and so is New Jerusalem Bible, which says “Within one year and a few days.” Revised English Bible has “at the turn of the year,” which is less than a year. King James Version indicates a much longer period of time with “Many days and years.” Since the phrase is linked to the failure of the harvest mentioned at the end of the verse, it probably refers to the time just before the harvest. So we recommend saying “In less than a year” even though this is not the choice of most translations. A footnote may be added to indicate that the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain, as in New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh.

You will shudder, you complacent women: The Hebrew verb rendered shudder can also be translated “tremble/quake.” It implies shaking with dread and fear. For complacent see the previous verse.

For the vintage will fail, the fruit harvest will not come: These two lines give the reason for the trembling. The Hebrew word for vintage refers to the grape harvest (see 24.13). Fruit harvest is literally “ingathering” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). It is a generic expression referring to any kind of harvest, so it may be rendered simply as “harvest.” Good News Translation restricts it to the grape harvest by combining these two lines, but this should not be done.

Translation examples for this verse are:

• In less than a year those of you who are self-confident will tremble,
because the grape harvest will fail,
and there will be nothing else to harvest.

• In a year’s time you self-confident ones will be quaking with fear,
for the grape harvest will fail,
and there will be no other harvest to gather in.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .