Isaiah 45:8

8 “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.

Isaiah 45:8 in Other Translations

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.

8 "Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it.

8 “Open up, O heavens, and pour out your righteousness. Let the earth open wide so salvation and righteousness can sprout up together. I, the LORD, created them.

8 "Open up, heavens, and rain. Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living. I, God, generate all this.

8 "Heavens, sprinkle from above, and let the skies shower righteousness. Let the earth open up that salvation sprout and righteousness spring up with it. I, the Lord, have created it.

Isaiah 45:8 Meaning and Commentary

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 righteousness, who was to bring in an everlasting one; and whose coming was to be, and was, as the rain, as the former and latter rain to the earth, ( Hosea 6:3 ) , and who came from heaven to earth to fulfil all righteousness; and with him came an abundance of blessings of rich grace, even all spiritual blessings, peace, pardon, righteousness, salvation, and eternal life, which were poured down from above upon the sons of men; thus the Holy Ghost, the spirit of prophecy, proceeds at once from Cyrus to Christ, from the type to the antitype, from the temporal redemption of the Jews to the spiritual redemption of the Lord's people; and these words are to be considered, not as a petition of the prophet, or of the church, for the coming of Christ, and salvation by him; but a promise and prophecy of it. Aben Ezra and Kimchi take them to be an address to the angels of heaven to assist in the affair of the salvation of Israel; these did drop down or descend, even a great multitude of them, at the incarnation of Christ, and published the good tidings of good things that came by him: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation;
or the "Saviour", as the Vulgate Latin version; Christ the author of salvation, who was appointed to be the salvation or Saviour of his people, who came to effect it, and has obtained it; heaven and earth were both concerned in bringing forth this "fruit" of righteousness and salvation, as the word ^F15 rendered "bring forth" signifies; see ( Isaiah 4:2 ) . Christ was the Lord from heaven, and yet made of a woman in the lowest parts of the earth: Christ, who is the "truth", sprung "out of the earth"; and he, who is the author of "righteousness", looked down from heaven, ( Psalms 85:11 ) and it follows: "let righteousness spring up together"; or "bud forth" ^F16 as a branch; one of the names of the Messiah, frequent in prophecy: I the Lord have created it;
or that, both righteousness and salvation; or Christ as man, the author of both, whom God appointed, and raised up, and sent to be the Redeemer and Saviour of his people. The Targum interprets this of the resurrection of the dead, paraphrasing the whole thus;

``let the heavens from above minister, and the clouds flow with good; let the earth open, and the dead revive; and let righteousness be revealed together; I the Lord have created them.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (evy wrpy) "fructificent", Vatablus; "edant fractum salutis"; Junius & Tremellius.
F16 (xymut) "germinare faciet", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, "progerminet germen", Vitringa

Isaiah 45:8 In-Context

6 so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.

7 I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

8 “You heavens above, rain down my righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness flourish with it; I, the LORD, have created it.

9 “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’?

10 Woe to the one who says to a father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 72:6; S Psalms 133:3; Joel 3:18
• 2. ver 24; Psalms 85:11; S Isaiah 41:2; Isaiah 46:13; Isaiah 48:18; Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 61:10,11; Isaiah 62:1; Hosea 10:12; Joel 2:23; Amos 5:24; Malachi 4:2
• 3. S Psalms 85:9; Isaiah 12:3