Isaiah 45:8

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness,.... Or, "the righteous One", as the Vulgate Latin version; the Lord our righteousness, Christ the author of

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Let the skies pour down righteousness; the righteous and gracious acts of God for his people shall be so many and illustrious, as if God rained down showers of righteousness out of heaven. Let the earth open; open itself, either to receive those showers of righteousness to be poured down from heaven, or to bring forth those fruits which might be expected from such showers. Let them, the heavens and the earth conspiring together, bring forth salvation; the redemption of God’ s people. Let righteousness spring up together; together with salvation. Whereas persons or people are sometimes delivered from their troubles by unjust courses, this shall be effected with righteousness, both on God’ s part, who will hereby assert his own justice and faithfulness to his people; and on Cyrus’ s part, who will do a most righteous and worthy action in rescuing a righteous and oppressed nation from cruel tyrants and oppressors. I the Lord have created it; this great work of salvation, and righteousness; whereof, though Cyrus is the instrument, I am the chief author.

Isaiah 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.Ver. 8. Drop down, ye heavens, from above.] A prayer of the poor captives in Babylon, say some, for a speedy performance of their promised deliverance; and this the rather because else Christ could not come of them, teach in their country, work miracles, and fulfil the office of a mediator, as the prophets had foretold. Whereunto God immediately answereth: I, the Lord, have created him, or will create him, that is, send him in due time, doubt ye not. Others make it a description of Cyrus’ s just and happy reign; see the like of Solomon. And indeed Cyrus is famous in heathen histories for his wisdom, justice, temperance, magnanimity, and liberality. It is not the custom of Cyrus to hoard up money, saith Xenophon, for he taketh more delight in giving than in getting or possessing. But it seemeth rather to be a command from God of plenty and prosperity, opposite to that countermand. The Papists apply it to Christ and his mother, and hence their roaring out of Rorate in their solemn service, a month before the feast of the nativity, and then they call for their carousing cups. Cyropaed., lib. viii.

(8) Let the skies pour down righteousness . . .—The vision is that of a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness is at once as the rain that falls from the one, and as the product of the other.

Verse 8. Drop down, ye heavens] The eighty-fifth psalm is a very elegant ode on the same subject with this part of Isaiah's prophecies, the restoration of Judah from captivity; and is, in the most beautiful part of it, a manifest imitation of this passage of the prophet: - "Verily his salvation is nigh unto them that fear him, That glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring from the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven. Even JEHOVAH: will give that which is good, And our land shall yield her produce. Righteousness shall go before him, And shall direct his footsteps in the way." Psalms 85:9-13. See the notes on these verses. These images of the dew and the rain descending from heaven and making the earth fruitful, employed by the prophet, and some of those nearly of the same kind which are used by the psalmist, may perhaps be primarily understood as designed to set forth in a splendid manner the happy state of God's people restored to their country, and flourishing in peace and plenty, in piety and virtue; but justice and salvation, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, and glory dwelling in the land, cannot with any sort of propriety, in the one or the other, be interpreted as the consequences of that event; they must mean the blessings of the great redemption by Messiah. Let the earth open, c.] Jonathan, in his Targum, refers this to the resurrection of the dead the earth shall be opened, ויחון מיתיא veyechon meiteiya, and the dead shall revive. A plain proof that the ancient Jews believed in a future state, and acknowledged the resurrection of the dead. Let them bring forth salvation - "Let salvation produce her fruit"] For ויפרו vaiyiphru, the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac read ויפרה vaiyiphrah; and one MS. has a rasure close after the latter ו vau, which probably was he at first.

8. A lyrical effusion, called forth by the thought of the blessings that will follow the triumph of the true religion. The heavens are represented as showering down gracious influences, which fructify the earth and cause it to bring forth the fruits of salvation. For the figure of the verse, cf. ch. Isaiah 55:10; Hosea 2:21 f.; Psalms 72:6; and esp. Psalms 85:11 (“truth springs out of the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven”). Drop down] is a causative verb, the obj. being “righteousness” in the next line. let them bring forth &c.] Rather: let salvation and […] spring forth; let her (the earth) cause righteousness to spring up. The plural verb causes some difficulty. A.V. (and R.V.) appear to take heavens and earth as subj.; but this is hardly possible, first because they belong to different distichs, and secondly, because the verb is always neuter (Deuteronomy 29:17 is no exception). Perhaps a word has been omitted from the text. Two words are here used for righteousness, that which comes down from heaven is ηedeq, that which springs from the earth is ημdβqβh. The figure might suggest that ηedeq is the cause of which ημdβqβh is the effect; the former being the divine “right” which establishes salvation &c., and the latter the human order which is an element of it. But any such distinction is precarious. Salvation (yesha‘) which ordinarily means “deliverance” appears here to be used in its wider sense of “welfare,” like the kindred noun in Job 30:15 (“my welfare is passed away as a cloud”). See Introduction, p. xxviii [78]. [78] The idea of salvation has an instructive history. In Arabic the root wasi‘a means to be wide, roomy, spacious, &c.; and hence the Hebr. verb “to save” (which is the causative of this) means primarily “to make room for one,” “to give one freedom or space to move in.” Even in this form the word contains the germ of a valuable religious idea, salvation being essentially freedom for the normal expansion of man’s true life. In the O.T., however, it is always used with express reference to some pressure or impediment, the removal of which constitutes the essence of the act called salvation or the state of salvation which results from it (ιֶ ?ωַׁ ?ς, ιְ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?ςָ ?δ, ϊְּ ?ωׁ ?εּ ?ςָ ?δ). In the earlier literature these names have mostly a secular and political application, denoting “succour” in a military sense, or (more frequently) “victory.” The religious sense grew naturally out of this. At all times it was recognised that Jehovah is the source of deliverance or victory; but at least from the time of the Exile the centre of gravity of the idea was shifted from the temporal act of deliverance to the partly spiritual blessings which were secured by it. Salvation becomes (as in this prophecy) a comprehensive term for that decisive vindication of Israel’s cause which was the foundation of all national well-being.

Drop down, ye heavens, from above - That is, as a result of the benefits that shall follow from the rescue of the people from their captivity and exile.

8. Pour down righteousness — The first sign of transition from Cyrus to Messiah’s days.