Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke - (Isaiah 40:6; Isaiah 40:8; Psalms 102:26; Hebrews 1:11-12.)
Vanish away ( nimlaachuw (H4414), akin to an Arabic root, and the Hebrew, mªlachiym (H4418), torn clothes) - literally, shall be torn asunder, as a garment (Maurer): which accords with the context. But Gesenius makes the root meaning to be smoothness in gliding away. The ordinary meaning of maalach (H4414) is to salt. Christ alluding to the Levitical law, saith, "Every sacrifice shall be salted with fire," and "every one shall be salted with salt." Compare 1 Corinthians 3:13. The fire through which earth and the present heavens shall have to pass (2 Peter 3:7-10) shall be as the purifying salt to prepare them for the eternal state which shall follow (2 Peter 3:13).
In like manner - Kemo-Keen. But Gesenins, 'like a gnat;' like the smallest and vilest insect: a sense nowhere else found in the singular. The Chaldalc, Septuagint, Arabic, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as the English version. Jerome infers that, 'in like manner' as man, the heavens (i:e., the sky) and earth are not to be annihilated, but changed for the better (Isaiah 65:17).
My righteousness - my faithfully-fulfilled promise (note, Isaiah 51:5).