Your sun shall no more go down. Is it because you will be awfully rich?

[atanu]

Below, I reproduce Isaiah 60 followed by notes on the Isaiah passage quoted.

Am I alone to find a mismatch between the profound spirituality of the passage and the crass mundane interpretation of it in the footnotes? Does the promise "Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended." has anything to do with the mineral-laden Dead Sea? Can the supposedly 4 times the wealth of the United States locked in the chemicals bestow on anyone the promise highlighted in blue above (Isaiah 60.20)?

Or, being a dullard, am I not able to piece together the meaning of the verse?

Isaiah 60 (Amplified Bible)

1 ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.

3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes round about you and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in the arms.

5 Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and tremble with joy [at the glorious deliverance] and be enlarged; because the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea shall be turned to you, unto you shall the nations come with their treasures.
----
19 The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory and your beauty.

20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

Footnotes:

• Isaiah 60:5 Prior to well into the twentieth century, scholars could only speculate as to what Isaiah might have meant here by "the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea" that would one day be turned over to Jerusalem. Of course, the Dead Sea, which for ages had been considered only a place of death and desolation, was ruled out as a possible meaning. Then suddenly it was discovered that the waters of the Dead Sea contain important chemicals. In A.D. 1935 G.T.B. Davis wrote, "One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts of its waters is... four times the wealth of the United States!" (G.T.B. Davis, Rebuilding Palestine) Isaiah himself did not know this, but the God who caused the Dead Sea to play a part in His program in the last days knew all about it, and He led the prophet to so prophesy here in this verse.

...

Can anyone explain, please? Thanks in advance.

 

[exchemist]

Below, I reproduce Isaiah 60 followed by notes on the Isaiah passage quoted.

Am I alone to find a mismatch between the profound spirituality of the passage and the crass mundane interpretation of it in the footnotes? Does the promise "Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended." has anything to do with the mineral-laden Dead Sea? Can the supposedly 4 times the wealth of the United States locked in the chemicals can bestow on anyone the promise highlighted in blue above (Isaiah 60.20).

Or, being a dullard, am I not able to piece together the meaning of the verse?

Isaiah 60 (Amplified Bible)

1 ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.

3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes round about you and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in the arms.

5 Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and tremble with joy [at the glorious deliverance] and be enlarged; because the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea shall be turned to you, unto you shall the nations come with their treasures.
----
19 The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory and your beauty.

20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

Footnotes:

• Isaiah 60:5 Prior to well into the twentieth century, scholars could only speculate as to what Isaiah might have meant here by "the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea" that would one day be turned over to Jerusalem. Of course, the Dead Sea, which for ages had been considered only a place of death and desolation, was ruled out as a possible meaning. Then suddenly it was discovered that the waters of the Dead Sea contain important chemicals. In A.D. 1935 G.T.B. Davis wrote, "One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts of its waters is... four times the wealth of the United States!" (G.T.B. Davis, Rebuilding Palestine) Isaiah himself did not know this, but the God who caused the Dead Sea to play a part in His program in the last days knew all about it, and He led the prophet to so prophesy here in this verse.

...

Can anyone explain, please? Thanks in advance.

I think the explanation is simple: it's crap.

It strikes me as quite perverse that the people putting together this bible assume the reference to the sea is the Dead Sea, of all places. The whole passage is about riches flowing from all across the Middle East: Sheba (i.e. Yemen or Oman), Lebanon, from the Gentiles etc. The horizons of the writer are plainly not limited to his particular local patch of the Middle East. So why on earth assume the "sea" being referred to is the Dead Sea? I very much doubt you will find any suggestion in other, more reputable, translations that it is the Dead Sea being referred to here.

So then the need for this contorted and implausible "explanation" disappears.

 

[sun rise]

"Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended."

My personal interpretation is that the bipolar world of light and darkness, pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness will be ended and joy will be everlasting.

 

[74x12]

Below, I reproduce Isaiah 60 followed by notes on the Isaiah passage quoted.

Am I alone to find a mismatch between the profound spirituality of the passage and the crass mundane interpretation of it in the footnotes? Does the promise "Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended." has anything to do with the mineral-laden Dead Sea? Can the supposedly 4 times the wealth of the United States locked in the chemicals bestow on anyone the promise highlighted in blue above (Isaiah 60.20)?

Or, being a dullard, am I not able to piece together the meaning of the verse?

Isaiah 60 (Amplified Bible)

1 ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.

3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes round about you and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in the arms.

5 Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and tremble with joy [at the glorious deliverance] and be enlarged; because the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea shall be turned to you, unto you shall the nations come with their treasures.
----
19 The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory and your beauty.

20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

Footnotes:

• Isaiah 60:5 Prior to well into the twentieth century, scholars could only speculate as to what Isaiah might have meant here by "the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea" that would one day be turned over to Jerusalem. Of course, the Dead Sea, which for ages had been considered only a place of death and desolation, was ruled out as a possible meaning. Then suddenly it was discovered that the waters of the Dead Sea contain important chemicals. In A.D. 1935 G.T.B. Davis wrote, "One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts of its waters is... four times the wealth of the United States!" (G.T.B. Davis, Rebuilding Palestine) Isaiah himself did not know this, but the God who caused the Dead Sea to play a part in His program in the last days knew all about it, and He led the prophet to so prophesy here in this verse.

...

Can anyone explain, please? Thanks in advance.

Easy way to understand that the sun won't be your light nor the moon is because as you can see in the first verse God Himself promises to arise upon them like the sun Himself. So God will be the Light of the heavenly Jerusalem and is so now (spiritually speaking). Therefore they have no need of the sun or moon.

I disagree a bit with the interpolation in the translation you're using. I don't believe it means to arise from depression and prostration. Although that might be part of it. I believe it has more to do with arising from the mundane. From the worldly and shining the light of God to the world. As it is written in Isaiah 52:2 about her (Jerusalem)

"Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion."

So, Jerusalem is pictured as a woman who is taken captive -think Babylonian captivity- they put her in chains and made her stay in the dust on the ground.

But spiritually; it means to get rid of the worthless from your lives which is the dust and to free yourself from spiritual bondage which is slavery to vices (John 8:34) which are the bands of her neck. When she (Jerusalem) does this; when she repents of the worthless and she arises to glorify God. Then God Himself will arise upon her like the sun -so she will shine brightly to the world- and all her children will come to her from all over the world. So that's what God wants for the church to do.

So this passage is about that moment in time when she arises to what she was meant to do and God's light will shine on the world through her witness.

Jesus said:
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

 

[truthseeker7]

Below, I reproduce Isaiah 60 followed by notes on the Isaiah passage quoted.

Am I alone to find a mismatch between the profound spirituality of the passage and the crass mundane interpretation of it in the footnotes? Does the promise "Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended." has anything to do with the mineral-laden Dead Sea? Can the supposedly 4 times the wealth of the United States locked in the chemicals bestow on anyone the promise highlighted in blue above (Isaiah 60.20)?

Or, being a dullard, am I not able to piece together the meaning of the verse?

Isaiah 60 (Amplified Bible)

1 ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!

2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you.

3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

4 Lift up your eyes round about you and see! They all gather themselves together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried and nursed in the arms.

5 Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall thrill and tremble with joy [at the glorious deliverance] and be enlarged; because the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea shall be turned to you, unto you shall the nations come with their treasures.
----
19 The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord shall be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory and your beauty.

20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.

Footnotes:

• Isaiah 60:5 Prior to well into the twentieth century, scholars could only speculate as to what Isaiah might have meant here by "the abundant wealth of the [Dead] Sea" that would one day be turned over to Jerusalem. Of course, the Dead Sea, which for ages had been considered only a place of death and desolation, was ruled out as a possible meaning. Then suddenly it was discovered that the waters of the Dead Sea contain important chemicals. In A.D. 1935 G.T.B. Davis wrote, "One is almost staggered by the computed wealth of the chemical salts of the Dead Sea. It is estimated that the potential value of the potash, bromine, and other chemical salts of its waters is... four times the wealth of the United States!" (G.T.B. Davis, Rebuilding Palestine) Isaiah himself did not know this, but the God who caused the Dead Sea to play a part in His program in the last days knew all about it, and He led the prophet to so prophesy here in this verse.

...

Can anyone explain, please? Thanks in advance.

ITS ASTROLOGICAL

 

[atanu]

ITS ASTROLOGICAL

How so?

 

[atanu]

My personal interpretation is that the bipolar world of light and darkness, pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness will be ended and joy will be everlasting.

Easy way to understand that the sun won't be your light nor the moon is because as you can see in the first verse God Himself promises to arise upon them like the sun Himself. So God will be the Light of the heavenly Jerusalem and is so now (spiritually speaking). Therefore they have no need of the sun or moon.

I disagree a bit with the interpolation in the translation you're using. I don't believe it means to arise from depression and prostration. Although that might be part of it. I believe it has more to do with arising from the mundane. From the worldly and shining the light of God to the world. As it is written in Isaiah 52:2 about her (Jerusalem)

"Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion."

So, Jerusalem is pictured as a woman who is taken captive -think Babylonian captivity- they put her in chains and made her stay in the dust on the ground.

But spiritually; it means to get rid of the worthless from your lives which is the dust and to free yourself from spiritual bondage which is slavery to vices (John 8:34) which are the bands of her neck. When she (Jerusalem) does this; when she repents of the worthless and she arises to glorify God. Then God Himself will arise upon her like the sun -so she will shine brightly to the world- and all her children will come to her from all over the world. So that's what God wants for the church to do.

So this passage is about that moment in time when she arises to what she was meant to do and God's light will shine on the world through her witness.

Jesus said:
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

I more or less agree. But what about the reference to the Black Sea? What is it?

 

[74x12]

I more or less agree. But what about the reference to the Black Sea? What is it?

In a more literal translation it doesn't say the dead sea specifically. It says "for the multitude of the sea turns to you, the forces of the nations come to you"

I would think that it was probably speaking of the Mediterranean sea rather than the dead sea. Because, to the ancient Hebrews, there were some gentile nations they associated with the Mediterranean sea. They considered those nations to be the "isles". Like Greece or Rome etc. These were countries that came to Israel (when they came) by ship. And there are indeed a lot of islands surrounding Greece and Italy and throughout the Mediterranean. So the "multitude of the sea" would be people from these gentile nations.

The context is important here to understand it. Because it's kind of an archaic way of talking.

In verses 9-11 we see that it speaks of isles and ships of "Tarshish" (Possibly just the Hebrew name for the city of Carthage which was famous for it's merchant ships). So it's just talking about how gentiles will come to Jerusalem to bring it's "sons" and to enrich it, build it's walls etc.

9 Surely for Me isles do wait, And ships of Tarshish first, To bring thy sons from afar, Their silver and their gold with them, To the name of Jehovah thy God, And to the Holy One of Israel, Because He hath beautified thee.
10 And sons of a stranger have built thy walls, And their kings do serve thee, For in My wrath I have smitten thee, And in My good pleasure I have pitied thee.
11 And opened have thy gates continually, By day and by night they are not shut, To bring unto thee the force of nations, Even their kings are led.​

So, to give my spiritual perspective of the passage and it's meaning. I believe in the new Testament this is how gentiles are added to the spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem. Because in the old Testament it was for Jews. But in the new Testament anyone can be a part of that heavenly city. That's why it says the that the "isles" wait for God. That is they trust in and wait for God.

That's how the gentiles enrich the city. It's by enriching it with themselves and with their good deeds. (if anyone does bad, even if they're called Christian then they won't enrich the city) So, it's not a bad thing for Jews that gentiles are now being converted. It's actually good because they will enrich and beautify the city which is still Jewish in it's roots and it always will be.

 

[atanu]

In a more literal translation it doesn't say the dead sea specifically. It says "for the multitude of the sea turns to you, the forces of the nations come to you"

I would think that it was probably speaking of the Mediterranean sea rather than the dead sea. Because, to the ancient Hebrews, there were some gentile nations they associated with the Mediterranean sea. They considered those nations to be the "isles". Like Greece or Rome etc. These were countries that came to Israel (when they came) by ship. And there are indeed a lot of islands surrounding Greece and Italy and throughout the Mediterranean. So the "multitude of the sea" would be people from these gentile nations.

The context is important here to understand it. Because it's kind of an archaic way of talking.

In verses 9-11 we see that it speaks of isles and ships of "Tarshish" (Possibly just the Hebrew name for the city of Carthage which was famous for it's merchant ships). So it's just talking about how gentiles will come to Jerusalem to bring it's "sons" and to enrich it, build it's walls etc.

9 Surely for Me isles do wait, And ships of Tarshish first, To bring thy sons from afar, Their silver and their gold with them, To the name of Jehovah thy God, And to the Holy One of Israel, Because He hath beautified thee.
10 And sons of a stranger have built thy walls, And their kings do serve thee, For in My wrath I have smitten thee, And in My good pleasure I have pitied thee.
11 And opened have thy gates continually, By day and by night they are not shut, To bring unto thee the force of nations, Even their kings are led.​

So, to give my spiritual perspective of the passage and it's meaning. I believe in the new Testament this is how gentiles are added to the spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem. Because in the old Testament it was for Jews. But in the new Testament anyone can be a part of that heavenly city. That's why it says the that the "isles" wait for God. That is they trust in and wait for God.

That's how the gentiles enrich the city. It's by enriching it with themselves and with their good deeds. (if anyone does bad, even if they're called Christian then they won't enrich the city) So, it's not a bad thing for Jews that gentiles are now being converted. It's actually good because they will enrich and beautify the city which is still Jewish in it's roots and it always will be.

Thank you @74x12 for your help.

I must, however, admit that I am not satisfied because so many aspects of this grand text remain unexplained. For example, "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise."; "Thy sun shall no more go down; ........ or "Thy people also [shall be] all righteous:.......

These are either unrealisable utopia or these speak of the ultimate salvation. The word 'salvation' in the text indicates that I may be correct. Else taken literally, these verses seem a revenge fantasy that longs for one’s oppressors to become the oppressed.

On the other hand, the text seems familiar to me if I read from a spiritual perspective of the Spirit being unborn, infinite and partitionless wherein the phenomena of the multiform world appear and disappear. It is about the rise of knowledge and destruction of subject-object distinction and dissolution of the mental boundaries. The realisation that “The soul, when purified, abides entirely in God; its being is God.” (St. Catherine of Genoa); “The soul must wholly lose all human knowledge and all human feelings, in order to receive in fullness divine knowledge and divine feelings.” (St. John of the Cross); or “outside of God nothing has any existence at all.” (St. Veronica Giuliani).

Isaiah 60, in my opinion, points to that ultimate salvation also known as Samadhi or Fanaa -- the absorption of individual ego into the whole. I humbly submit that the purport of this text is not for intellectual theologians to decipher but will only be evident to those who have experienced the loss ego "I" in the all-encompassing light of the Spirit. As St. Anselm put it “Who does not experience will not know. For just as experiencing a thing far exceeds the mere hearing of it, so the knowledge of him who experiences is beyond the knowledge of him who hears.”

The purport of the text, in my understanding, is echoed by St. Simeon, who wrote “A man who has attained the final degree of perfection, is dead and yet not dead, but infinitely more alive in God.… He is inactive and at rest, as one who has come to the end of all action of his own. He is without thought since he has become one with Him who is above all thought.” This is not at all different from what Shri Krishna teaches in Bhagavat Gita.

YMMV.

@sun rise may wish to see.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

I would think that it was probably speaking of the Mediterranean sea rather than the dead sea.

Indeed, the mediterranean sea seems logical. Cross-referencing a few bibles, I didn't see the 'dead-sea' from the 5th verse being referred to as specifically the dead sea. I'll have to keep in mind that the 'amplified bible' has some strange stuff in it.

This section probably reflected some early aspiration to setup a trade market on the mediterranean, as any nation would that had a coast with it logically would. They probably saw the greeks starting to develop an interesting lifestyle with it. However, If that was an intention up for consideration, then it's ironic how poorly interactions from the m. sea would work out for the levant, if I am reading history correctly. A few centuries following Isaiah's time, the sea-nation influence seemed to become a hard stress on Israel. Instead of becoming a sea power, the romans and greeks would of course come to variously dominate the area.