Who are these that fly like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?: In this question the demonstrative pronoun these points forward to the next verse rather than back to the previous ones. It refers to the sailing ships of Tarshish that bring other exiles and treasures to Jerusalem. The prophet uses a very imaginative picture, comparing the sails of these ships to two objects: a cloud and doves. Good News Translation makes the connection clear by adding the noun “ships” to the demonstrative pronoun “these,” and using “What” as the interrogative pronoun instead of Who. In this way it anticipates verse 9. Even though Good News Translation loses some of the poetry here, its way of making the sense clear may appeal to some translators. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is also explicit, but it retains more of the poetry: “What is coming, flying like clouds over the sea, like doves that return to their homes? Ships with shining sails!”

Who are these…? asks about the identity of the ships. Fly like a cloud is a highly poetic picture of sailing ships making their way to harbor. Like doves to their windows is the second comparison. For doves see the comments on 38.14. Windows is literally “openings.” New International Version has “nests,” while New Jerusalem Bible uses the technical term “dovecote,” which is a little structure for housing doves. For this simile Good News Translation says simply “Like doves returning home” to give the picture of the people returning to where they belong. If doves are unknown in a culture, translators may say “like birds returning to their nests.”

Translation examples for this verse are:

• Who are these that fly like a cloud,
who fly like doves returning to their dovecotes?

• What are these that move like a cloud?
What are these that move like doves returning to their nests?

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 .