to reign · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
righteousness
לְצֶ֖דֶקle.Tze.dek
H6664
the right (natural · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
princes
וּלְשָׂרִ֖יםu.le.sa.Rim
H8269
a head person (of any rank or class) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
rule
יָשֹֽׂרוּya.So.ru
H8323
to have (transitively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
judgment
לְמִשְׁפָּ֥טle.mish.Pat
H4941
properly · preposition + 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
Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,…
Jeremiah 33:15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteous…
Hebrews 1:8-9 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Revelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge…
2 Samuel 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
Psalms 45:1 My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Psalms 45:6-7 Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
Psalms 72:1-4 Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 32:1-8
We have here the description of a flourishing kingdom. "Blessed art thou, O land! when it is thus with thee, when kings, princes, and people, are in their places such as they should be." It may be taken as a directory both to magistrates and subjects, what both ought to do, or as a panegyric to Hezekiah, who ruled well and saw something of the happy effects of his good government, and it was designed to make the people sensible how happy they were under his administration and how careful they should be to improve the advantages of it, and withal to direct them to look for the kingdom of Christ, and the times of reformation which that kingdom should introduce. It is here promised and prescrib…
Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness,.... Not Hezekiah, as the Jewish writers; at least only as a type, as some writers interpret it; rather Christ himself, who is "King" not only of the whole world, and of the kings of it in general, but in particular is King of saints; and who "reigns" now in and over his church and people, being set as King by his Father over his holy hill of Zion, and, being exalted at his right hand, is made and declared Lord and Christ; and where he does and will reign until all enemies are put under his feet, and ere long will reign gloriously before his ancients in Jerusalem, Isaiah 24:23 and his reign is "in righteousness"; in a righteous manner, according to…
Behold, a King shall reign. He means that God will still be gracious to his Church, so as to restore her entirely; and the best method of restoring her is, when good government is maintained, and when the whole administration of it is conducted with propriety, and with good order. This prediction undoubtedly relates to Hezekiah and his reign, under which the Church was reformed and restored to its former splendor; for formerly it was in a wretched and ruinous condition. Ahaz, who was a wicked and disgraceful hypocrite, had corrupted everything according to his own wicked dispositions, and had overturned the whole condition of civil government and of religion. (2 Kings 16:2, 3.) He therefore…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 32, Verses 1 onwards) Behold, the king shall reign with justice, and princes shall rule with judgment. And a man shall be like one who hides from the wind, and conceals himself from the storm: like streams of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a towering rock in a barren land. The eyes of those who see shall not be dim, and the ears of those who hear shall listen carefully. And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of stammerers shall speak quickly and clearly. He who is foolish shall no longer be called a ruler, nor shall the deceitful be called great. For the foolish shall speak foolishness, and his heart shall work iniquity, to accomplish deceit and speak deceitfully to the Lord, to empty the soul of the hungry and take away the drink of the thirsty. The vessels of the deceitful are the worst, for he has devised plans to destroy the meek with lies when he speaks in judgment of the poor. The prince will consider those things that are worthy of a prince, and he himself will stand above the leaders. LXX: Behold, a righteous king will reign, and princes will rule with justice. And there will be a man who conceals his words, and he will be hidden like water that is carried away: and he will appear in Zion, like a flowing river, illustrious in a thirsty land, and they will not place their confidence in men: but they will open their ears to hear, and the heart of the weak will attend to their hearing: and the tongues of the stammerers will quickly learn to speak peace: and they will no longer say to the fool, 'Be a prince,' nor will your ministers say, 'Be silent.' For a fool will speak foolishly, and his heart will understand in vain to accomplish wickedness, and to speak error towards the Lord, so as to scatter the souls of the hungry and to make the souls of the thirsty empty. For the counsel of the wicked will think iniquity: to kill the humble with wicked words, and to dissipate the words of the lowly in judgment. But the pious have thought wisdom, and this counsel remains. According to the Septuagint interpreters who said: Behold, for a just king will reign, and princes will preside with judgment, what follows must be joined with the previous, namely, the chapter that has ended: Blessed is the one who has offspring in Zion, and domestics in Jerusalem. According to the completion of the prior prophecy in Hebrew,…
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
Christ, The King · Has a righteous kingdom — Has a righteous kingdom
Righteousness · Christ: Shall reign in — Christ: Shall reign in
Salvation · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
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).
a righteous king: The Messiah (11:1); the emphasis now is on righteous and wise leadership (Prov 8:20). • In Isaiah’s day, honest princes were few and far between (see Isa 3:1-6; 28:7-19).
Rashi on Isaiah 32:1
Behold, for righteousness shall a king reign Behold a king has no right to reign except to execute righteous judgment.
and over princes who rule with justice And over whom should he reign? Over princes who rule with justice. The prophet says this concerning Ahaz, who was a wicked man, but Hezekiah his son shall rule, and he is worthy. ([Manuscripts read:] And he is worthy of reigning.)
