diff --git a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
index 47c727ea1..1e4042957 100755
--- a/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
+++ b/salt/manager/tools/sbin/soup
@@ -456,7 +456,7 @@ get_soup_script_hashes() {
 
 highstate() {
   # Run a highstate with a retry attempt.
-  local highstate_cmd=("salt-call state.highstate -l info queue=True")
+  local highstate_cmd=(salt-call state.highstate -l info queue=True)
   if [[ "$es_version" != "$target_es_version" ]]; then
     echo "Elasticsearch upgrade is scheduled. While the upgrade is in progress, skip health checks for services expected to be temporarily unavailable."
     highstate_cmd+=('pillar={"soup":{"skip_health_checks":true}}')