Isaiah 26:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 26:9
With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
properly · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
judgments
מִשְׁפָּטֶ֙יךָ֙mish.pa.Tei.kha
H4941
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
earth
לָאָ֔רֶץla.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
inhabitants
יֹשְׁבֵ֥יyo.she.Vei
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
world
תֵבֵֽלte.Vel
H8398
the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
learn
לָמְד֖וּla.me.Du
H3925
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
righteousness
צֶ֥דֶקTze.dek
H6664
the right (natural · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Psalms 63:1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no wa…
Psalms 119:62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
Song of Solomon 3:1-4 By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
Psalms 63:6-7 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Psalms 58:11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.
Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 26:5-11
Here the prophet further encourages us to trust in the Lord for ever, and to continue waiting on him; for,
I. He will make humble souls that trust in him to triumph over their proud enemies, Isa 26:5, Isa 26:6. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased: For he brings down those that dwell on high; and wherein they deal proudly he is, and will be, above them. Even the lofty city Babylon itself, or Nineveh, he lays it low, Isa 25:12. He can do it, be it ever so well fortified. He has often done it. He will do it, for he resists the proud. It is his glory to do it, for he proves himself to be God by looking on the proud and abasing them, Job 40:12. But, on the contrary, those that humble them…
With, . . . soul . . . I--literally, "I . . . my soul," in apposition; the faithful Jews here speak individually. The overthrow of the foe and the restoration of the Jews are to follow upon prayer on the part of the latter and of all God's people (Isa 62:1-4, Isa 62:6-7; Psa 102:13-17).
in the night-- (Psa 63:6; Sol 3:1).
world . . . learn . . . righteousness--the remnant left after judgments (Psa 58:10-11; Zac 14:16).
John Gill on Isaiah 26:9
With my soul have I desired thee in the night,.... Either literally, when others were asleep: or figuratively, in the captivity; which, as Jarchi says, was like unto the night; or in the time of Jewish and Gentile darkness, preceding the coming of Christ; or rather in the time of latter day darkness, when the church is represented as heartily desirous of, and importunately praying for, the latter day glory, the rising of the sun of righteousness, the spiritual reign of Christ, the spread of his Gospel, and the setting up of his kingdom and glory in the world; so the Targum,
"my soul desireth to pray before thee in the night;''
her desires were expressed by prayer:
yea, with my spirit with…
And now, beloved, I ought to say a word about the antiquity of the tradition and the utility of vigils. It is easier to begin a work if we keep before our eyes how useful it is. The devotion to vigils is very old. It has been a household tradition among the saints. It was the prophet Isaiah who cried out to the Lord: "My soul has yearned for you in the night. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks you early in the morning."
For "night" is this present life, and as long as we are in it, we are covered with a mist of uncertain imaginations as far as the sight of inward objects is concerned. For the prophet was sensible that he was held by a certain mist in his sight of the Lord, when he says, "My soul longed for you in the night." As if he were to say, I long to behold you in the obscurity of this present life, but I am still surrounded by the mist of infirmity.
But, as I said, at the crowing of the cock their President comes, and gently touching the sleeper with his foot, rouses them all. For there are none sleeping naked. Then as soon as they have arisen they stand up, and sing the prophetic hymns with much harmony, and well composed tunes. And neither harp nor pipe nor other musical instrument utters such sweet melodies, as you hear from the singing of these saints in their deep and quiet solitudes. And the songs themselves too are suitable, and full of the love of God. "In the night," they say, "lift up your hands unto God. With my soul have I desired Thee in the night, yea with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions Made Beneficial · In teaching us the will of God — In teaching us the will of God
Desire · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Early Rising · Requisite for: Devotion — Requisite for: Devotion
Holiness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Judgments · Should lead to: Learning righteousness — Should lead to: Learning righteousness
Man · SPIRIT — SPIRIT
Righteousness · Judgments designed to lead to — Judgments designed to lead to
Rising · .For — .For
Seekers · 5:8;8:5,6; — 5:8;8:5,6;
Seeking God · Saints: Early in — Saints: Early in
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
My soul hath desired thee. This is a stronger expression of the former statement; for, having previously spoken in the person of believers, he had said that the desire of their soul was towards God. He now adds, with regard to himself, My soul hath desired; as if he had said, "I have all the faculties of my soul directed towards seeking thy name." The word nphs (nephEsh) frequently denotes the vital Soul; but as the Prophet here employs two words, I distinguish them so as to make nphs (nephesh) mean the desire or will, and rvch (ruach) the intellectual parts; for we know that these are the chief parts of the human soul, namely, the Understanding and the Will, both of which God justly claims…
It then commences again in a lyrical tone in Isa 26:8 and Isa 26:9 : "We have also waited for Thee, that Thou shouldest come in the path of Thy judgments; the desire of the soul went after Thy name, and after Thy remembrance. With my soul I desired Thee in the night; yea, with my spirit deep within me, I longed to have Thee here: for when Thy judgments strike the earth, the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness." In the opinion of Hitzig, Knobel, Drechsler, and others, the prophet here comes back from the ideal to the actual present. But this is not the case. The church of the last days, looking back to the past, declares with what longing it has waited for that manifestation of the r…
[With] my soul I longed for You in my exile, which resembles night, to perform these.
even [with] my spirit within me I beseeched you I beseeched You for all this. Why? Because, when Your judgments come to the earth, when you execute justice upon the wicked.
the inhabitants of the world learn justification They learn to justify Your judgment and to acknowledge Your standards for they see the sinner punished and the righteous receiving a good reward.
