Isaiah 58:10 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Draw out; or, open; as when we break open a store or magazine to satisfy the wants of the needy: it implies bounty and liberality. A phrase contrary to that of shutting up of the bowels, 1 John 3:17. Thy soul; thy affection, i.e. thy pity and compassion; a metonymy of the subject, as one that condoles with them in their misery; affectionately, and with delight, Romans 12:8 2 Corinthians 9:7. God loves a cheerful giver as well as a liberal giver. Not grudgingly, not of constraint, not because thou must, but because thou wilt; not out of necessity, but of choice. Compassion and mercy in a work is more than the work of mercy itself; for this is something only without a man, but the other is something from within, and of himself. This argues a sympathy, which the other doth not; all without this being as nothing, 1 Corinthians 13:3. And satisfy: here the prophet notes the work that is to be done, as in the former expression the affection wherewith it is to be done, otherwise it would be no more than what the apostle James reproves, Jas 2 15,16; and the psalmist joins them both together, Psalms 37:21. And then further it implies a complete and proportionable answering of his wants, that the supply answer the necessity; that is, be such as may satisfy, not barely keep him from starving. The afflicted soul, i.e. the person afflicted with wants. Then shall thy light rise: this is the same promise, and expressed in the same figure, as in Isaiah 58:8. See the same phrase opened there. The Hebrews delight to express the same things often by a little altering of the phrase; only here it seems to be carried to a higher degree: there the light shall break forth, but here light shall be in obscurity. And thy darkness be as the noon-day; in the very darkness of the affliction itself thou shalt have comfort, Psalms 112:4. There it shall be as the morning, still increasing, here as the noonday, in its zenith and height of perfection, which shall be without so much as any shadow of affliction.

Isaiah 58:10

10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: