Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen on thee.
Isaiah 60 opens by telling a city — Zion, that is Jerusalem — to get up and shine. This second verse gives the reason, and it is startling: the world sinks into its blackest night at the very hour Jerusalem's morning breaks. Commentators read the verse as a deliberate contrast. Two things happen at once: darkness spreading over the earth, glory settling on one place.
The call to shine in verse 1 rests on the close of chapter 59, where a Redeemer comes to Zion. So the light is not Zion's own. It is a Person who has arrived.
At the end of the previous chapter it says the Redeemer will come to Zion, and on that basis comes the call: "Arise, shine, for your light" (the Redeemer) "has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you." The light she now has in the person of the Redeemer, who dwells in Zion, is to be displayed. Notice too that this stands in contrast to the state of the whole earth. Jerusalem, lit up with the light of the glory of the Lord, shines in the middle of the dense moral darkness around.
The "but" in the middle of the verse is the hinge. Kelly rules out one reading first: this is not glory shining inside the heart, but a display on the earth. And since darkness and glory share one moment, he rejects the idea of a world growing steadily brighter until glory comes.
There is no thought here of God's glory revealed in the face of Christ on high and made known by the Spirit to the heart (2 Cor. 4:6); the earth itself is the stage of this divine display. Notice another point. Just before that time arrives, darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples. So it is a false reading of prophecy to say that light will spread everywhere then — at the time when earthly glory for Israel, and heavenly glory for the church, dawns on the world.
Where the ESV says "thick darkness," older translations read "gross darkness." Grant treats that thickness as a clue to timing.
As a nation, Israel is an enemy of the gospel, and Israel will not come to salvation until the gospel stops going out. The prophet bears witness to this. It is when "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, that the Lord shall arise upon" Israel, "and His glory shall be seen upon" her (Isa. 60:2). The light of the gospel must have gone from the earth for such gross darkness to exist.
This verse is not a stray promise. It sits in a chain that runs back through chapters 58 and 59, and the chain has a fixed order. "Jacob" below is a name for Israel.
The reader will notice how everything is connected with chapters 58-59. First comes the call to repentance. Then Jacob's sin is uncovered, then their confession, then Jehovah's answer: He appears in person. He deals with His adversaries and appears as Redeemer in Zion. Then the glory light breaks forth. It is the dawn of the morning. Gross darkness came before that morning — a worldwide turning away from God, and corruption. After the glory has broken forth the kingdom age begins.
The verse ends with glory seen upon Zion, and the next verse has nations walking toward it. Kelly reads that direction of travel as the reverse of how blessing flows today.
Again, in verse 3 there is a point of striking contrast to God's present dealings. Right now the fall of the Jews has meant riches for the world, and their loss riches for the Gentiles (Rom. 11:12). Here everything runs the other way. The Gentiles are blessed after Jehovah restores Israel to His favour. Indeed Rom. 11:15 teaches us that their reception will bring life from the dead to the world. So when Jehovah's glory shall be seen on Zion, the nations shall come to that light and kings to the brightness of its rising.
Commentators differ on how far the verse reaches. The writers above apply it to a future day for Israel. Boyd also holds it out for believers now, since a glory has already risen for those who belong to Christ.
Once we were darkness, but now we are light in the Lord, and if we walk as children of light we prove what is pleasing to the Lord... To Israel it will one day be said, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you" (Isa. 60:1). We anticipate that day; the glory of the exalted Saviour has risen upon us, and in the light of that glory His people shine throughout this world's dark night.
- Borrowed light — Zion has no shine of her own. The light is the Redeemer who comes to her, and shining means displaying Him.
- Deepest dark — that "thick" or "gross" darkness cannot exist while the gospel is still going out. It marks a world after that light has gone.
- Same hour — the earth's worst night and Zion's morning share one date. So the world does not simply grow brighter until glory comes.
- Fixed order — repentance, confession, the Redeemer appearing, then the glory, then the kingdom. The dawn follows the darkness; it does not clear it away first.
- Outward reach — once the glory rests on Zion, nations and kings walk toward it. That is the reverse of how blessing travels now.