Isaiah 58:7

Comp. Ezekiel 18:7 f., Ezekiel 18:16 f.; Job 31:13 ff.

the poor that are cast out the vagrant (homeless) poor. The word rendered "vagrant" is peculiar, but is supposed to come from a verb meaning "wander." It occurs with an abstract sense, and along with the abstract noun corresponding to the word here rendered "poor," in Lamentations 1:7; Lamentations 3:19.

hide not thyself(Deuteronomy 22:1; Deuteronomy 22:3-4) from thine own flesh from thy fellow Israelites (as in Nehemiah 5:5).

8 ff. When these conditions are complied with, the glory of the latter days shall break on the regenerated community.

thy light (ch. Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 60:3), the emblem of salvation; cf. ch. Isaiah 9:2.

break forth as the dawn] "Break forth" is the verb used in ch. Isaiah 35:6; Genesis 7:11; Psalms 74:15, of the bursting of waters through a fissure in the earth's surface; by a vivid metaphor the dawn was conceived as "splitting" the heavens and flooding the world with light. The same word occurs on the Moabite Stone (50:15) in the phrase "from the splitting of the dawn."

thine health thy healing (as R.V.), or thy recovery. The word (Heb. "ǎrûkah, Arab, "arîka) seems to mean literally the new flesh which is formed when a wound is healing (see Delitzsch's Commentaryon the verse); it is used three times by Jeremiah with the sense of recovered health or prosperity; in Nehemiah 4:7 (Isaiah 4:1 Heb.) and 2 Chronicles 24:13 the metaphor is applied to the repairing of damages (in the walls or the Temple). Since Isaiah 58:12 shews that the prophet has the restoration of ruins in his mind, the coincidence with Nehemiah 4:7 is certainly suggestive; but the figure here does not go beyond the general idea of recovered prosperity.

shall go before thee … shall be thy rereward Comp. ch. Isaiah 52:12. It is difficult to say whether righteousnessmeans in this case "right vindicated "by outward tokens of Jehovah's favour, or ethical righteousness as described in Isaiah 58:6.

9 a. The immediate answer to prayer, in contrast to the complaint of Isaiah 58:3, is the evidence of harmony re-established between Jehovah and His worshippers; comp. ch. Isaiah 65:24; Isaiah 30:19.

9 b should be joined to Isaiah 58:10. The conditions of acceptance with God are recapitulated in terms differing slightly from those of Isaiah 58:6.

the putting forth of the finger a gesture of contempt (Proverbs 6:13) towards the oppressed mentioned in Isaiah 58:6. Compare (with Gesenius) the infamis digitus(Pers.11. 33).