Isaiah 58:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Isaiah 58:8
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
illumination or (concrete) luminary (in every sense · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
forth
יִבָּקַ֤עyi.ba.Ka'
H1234
to cleave · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
morning
כַּשַּׁ֙חַר֙ka.Sha.char
H7837
dawn (literal · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
health
וַאֲרֻכָתְךָ֖va.'a.ru.kha.te.Kha
H724
wholeness (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
forth
תִצְמָ֑חtitz.Mach
H6779
to sprout (transitive or intransitive · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
speedily
מְהֵרָ֣הme.he.Rah
H4120
properly · adverb
righteousness
צִדְקֶ֔ךָtzid.Ke.cha
H6664
the right (natural · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
go
וְהָלַ֤ךְve.ha.Lakh
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
before
לְפָנֶ֙יךָ֙le.fa.Nei.kha
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
glory
כְּב֥וֹדke.Vod
H3519
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֖הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
rereward
יַאַסְפֶֽךָya.'as.Fe.kha
H622
to gather for any purpose · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
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 52:12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
Jeremiah 33:6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Psalms 37:6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
Jeremiah 30:17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This i…
Psalms 85:13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.
Malachi 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves…
Isaiah 58:10-11 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as…
Acts 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 58:8-12
Here are precious promises for those to feast freely and cheerfully upon by faith who keep the fast that God has chosen; let them know that God will make it up to them. Here is,
I. A further account of the duty to be done in order to our interest in these promises (Isa 58:9, Isa 58:10); and here, as before, it is required that we both do justly and love mercy, that we cease to do evil and learn to do well. 1. We must abstain from all acts of violence and fraud. "Those must be taken away from the midst of thee, from the midst of thy person, out of thy heart" (so some); "thou must not only refrain from the practice of injury, but mortify in thee all inclination and disposition towards it." Or…
light--emblem of prosperity (Isa 58:10; Job 11:17).
health--literally, a long bandage, applied by surgeons to heal a wound (compare Isa 1:6). Hence restoration from all past calamities.
go before thee--Thy conformity to the divine covenant acts as a leader, conducting thee to peace and prosperity.
glory . . . reward--like the pillar of cloud and fire, the symbol of God's "glory," which went behind Israel, separating them from their Egyptian pursuers (Isa 52:12; Exo 14:19-20).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 58:8
And thine health shall spring forth speedily "And thy wounds shall speedily be healed over" - Et cicatrix vulneris tui cito obducetur "And the scar of thy wounds shall be speedily removed." Aquila's Version, as reported by Jerome, with which agrees that of the Chaldee.
The glory "And the glory" - Sixteen MSS. (five ancient) of Dr. Kennicott's, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate add the conjunction ו vau, וכבוד vechabod.
John Gill on Isaiah 58:8
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning,.... Through thick clouds, or the darkness of the night, suddenly, swiftly, irresistibly, and increase more and more, till it is perfect day. This is to be understood best of temporal and spiritual prosperity, especially the latter, which will attend the churches of the Reformation, when a spirit of persecution is laid aside, and a spirit of love commences, which will be in the Philadelphian church state; and it particularly respects the glorious light of the Gospel, which will break forth very clearly, and shine out in all the world; and the light of joy, peace, and comfort, which will attend it, in the hearts of the Lord's people; see Isaiah…
The Church Fathers
The light is desirable, but more desirable still is the dawn that appears after the night. This he has called "the morning light." … Aquila has, "Then your light will break through like the dawn." For just as the dawn tears away the curtain of the night, so, he says, the night of your misfortunes, your life lived under the law, will disperse, and the light of my providence will be supplied to you.… "Your righteousness will go out before you, and the glory of the Lord will surround you." He makes it clear that the divine works follow our works. For with our righteousness in the vanguard, the glory of the Lord of the universe is given access, shining on us as we look for it.
This oracle has great force. For it does not simply say, "Light will be given to you by God," but it will be like lightning whose course and progress is sent by God, through which is clearly shown the desire of those who pray. By saying "first light," it instructs us that it will appear before time. For God, the guardian of all things, knew, as the giver of spiritual gifts, the time suited to each person for his blessings. But if anyone is fair and good and also caring and benevolent—to that person a reward will be given as a "first thing," so that in him there will arise just like an ear of corn his health (that is, the departing of all infirmities and the returning of good health). For the one who is free of diseases is fruitful in all ways, with an easy and cheerful production of good things. So the light of the divine understanding and our healthiness both arise within us, as God removes the burden of all sickness and also sets in us in its place the will to do good works and to abound in righteousness.
(Verse 8.) Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your righteousness shall go before you, and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. LXX: Then your light shall break forth like the morning; your healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of God shall surround you. When you have not done those things that the previous conversation narrated, and you have done those things that we are now speaking about, then your fasting will be acceptable, and your morning light will break forth; the sun of righteousness, about which Malachi the prophet speaks in the person of God the Father, saying: For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in its wings (Malachi 4:2). That sun is called the light here. For just as the morning light dispels darkness, so the light of knowledge and truth dispels all errors. And your healings, it is said, will quickly arise. For this reason, Aquila, expressing word for word, put: And the scar of your wound will quickly be covered; so that, namely, the wounds of our sins may be closed with a quickly covered scar at the rising of the sun of righteousness. Because of this, the Seventy translated τὰ ἰάματά σου, that is, your healings, with the similarity of the word ἱμάτια, that is, garments. Therefore, deceived by the falseness of many translations, they use this testimony to prove the resurrection of the body, namely that the garment of the soul will receive a body, which will arise on the day of resurrection. And it says, 'Your righteousness will go before you.' (Genesis 30:33, according to the Septuagint). According to what Jacob says: 'Tomorrow my righteousness will answer me,' and what is written will be fulfilled: 'Behold, the man and his works.' And the glory of the Lord will surround you, like a beautiful garment, so that you may be glorified before God and before men.…
Dictionary and topics
Light — The offspring of the divine command (Gen. 1:3). “All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of the frame, all the happy hours of domestic intercourse were habitually…
Rereward — (Josh. 6:9), the troops in the rear of an army on the march, the rear-guard. This word is a corruption of the French arriere-garde. During the wilderness march the tribe of Dan formed the rear-guard…
Fasting · Promises connected with — Promises connected with
Light · FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLI — FIGURATIVE AND SYMBOLI
Morning · Illustrative: (Breaking forth,) of the glory of the church — Illustrative: (Breaking forth,) of the glory of the church
Philanthropy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Righteousness · FRUITS OF — FRUITS OF
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).
Then shall break forth as the dawn [123] thy light. The Prophet shows that God is not too rigorous, and does not demand from us more than what is proper; and that hypocrites complain of him without cause, when they accuse him of excessive severity. When their works are condemned, they murmur, and reply that God can never be satisfied, that they do not know what they should do, or what course they should follow. He replies that he demands nothing else than a pure and honest heart, that is, an upright conscience; that if they have this, God will graciously receive them, and will bear testimony to their holiness, and will bestow every kind of blessing on those whose faults he justly chastises;…
The prophet now proceeds to point out the reward of divine grace, which would follow such a fast as this, consisting of self-renouncing, self-sacrificing love; and in the midst of the promise he once more reminds of the fact, that this love is the condition of the promise. This divides the promises into two. The middle promise is linked on to the first; the morning dawn giving promise of the "perfect day" (Pro 4:18). The first series of promises we have in Isa 58:8, Isa 58:9. "Then will thy light break forth as the morning dawn, and thy healing will sprout up speedily, and thy righteousness will go before thee, the glory of Jehovah will follow thee. Then wilt thou call and Jehovah will answe…
your salvation (literally your light): The light of the coming age (see 42:6-7; 60:1-3) will dawn on those who turn fully to the Lord. The night of divine judgment and oppression will be over. • your wounds: The nation of Israel was wounded when they were conquered and sent into exile. • protect you from behind: See also 52:12.
Rashi on Isaiah 58:8
as the dawn Like the ray of dawn that breaks through the clouds.
and your healing Heb. וַאֲרֻכָתְךָ, and your healing shall quickly sprout. Comp. (Jer. 30:17) “I will bring up healing (אֲרֻכָה) for you.”