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Isaiah 51:8

in Isaiah 51

For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation unto all generations.

KJV

For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

This verse in Isaiah 51

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Thomas Aquinas

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 1274.

Third, he shows their fragility: for the worm shall eat them up as a garment: who am as a garment that is moth-eaten (Job 13:28). Fourth, the firmness of divine help: but my salvation shall be for ever, above: Israel is saved in the Lord …

This site's exposition

Do not fear the scorn of men

on Isaiah 51:7-8

Those with the law in their hearts are told, “Do not fear the scorn of men; do not be broken by their insults”. “For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool”, the picture of decay used at 50:9.

This site's exposition

the worm will eat them like wool

Barnes reads the moth as the agent itself, one of the smallest insects, so that the scornful are weaker than a worm beside the LORD. Aquinas sets the figure beside Job 13:28. The scorn of men dies with the men.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 420.

proposed

(Verse 7, 8.) Listen to me, you who know righteousness, (people add "my" in Vulg.): my law is in their hearts. Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their blasphemies. For like a moth, it will consume them; and like a worm, it will devour them. But my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness for generations upon generations. LXX: Listen to me, you who know judgment, my people: whose law is in their hearts. Do not be afraid of the disgrace of men, and do not be overcome by their contempt.

A commentator

Theodoret of Cyrus

COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.8 · Written before 458.

proposed

This is what the Lord has also said in the divine Gospels: "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul," and again: "Do not fear them," and: "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and shall say all …

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

But when heaven and earth pass away, when all flesh and the glory of it wither as grass, the word of the Lord endures for ever, and not one iota or tittle of that shall fall to the ground. Those whose happiness is bound up in Christ's righteousness and salvation will have the comfort of it when time and days shall be no more. What use they are to make of this comfort.
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

The falsehood of their reproaches will be detected, but truth shall triumph, and the righteousness of religion's injured cause shall be for ever plain. Clouds darken the sun, but give no obstruction to his progress. Prayer in Behalf of Israel;
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

For the moth - (see Isa 50:9). The idea is, that they shall be consumed as the moth eats up a garment; or rather, that the moth itself shall consume them as it does a garment: that is, that they were so weak when compared with Yahweh that even the moth, one of the smallest, and most contemptible of insects, would consume them.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כִּ֤יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • כַבֶּ֙גֶד֙like <the> garment

    khabegedH899 →217 times

  • יֹאכְלֵ֣םit will eat them

    yokhlemH398 →810 times

  • עָ֔שׁmoth

    ʾashH6211 →

  • וְכַצֶּ֖מֶרand like <the> wool

    vekhatzemerH6785 →

  • יֹאכְלֵ֣םit will eat them

    yokhlemH398 →810 times

  • סָ֑סclothes-moth

    sasH5580 →

  • וְצִדְקָתִי֙and righteousness my

    vetzidkatiH6666 →157 times

  • לְעוֹלָ֣םfor ever

    leolamH5769 →438 times

  • תִּֽהְיֶ֔הit will be

    tihyehH1961 →3559 times

  • וִישׁוּעָתִ֖יand salvation my

    vishuatiH3444 →78 times

  • לְד֥וֹרto a generation of

    ledorH1755 →167 times

  • דּוֹרִֽים׃ סgenerations

    dorimH1755 →167 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Isaiah 51:6

    Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like…

    it leads to

    • Matthew 24:35

      Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

    • Psalms 102:25–26

      In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

    • Isaiah 34:4

      All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig…

    • Hebrews 1:10–12

      And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

    • Revelation 6:12–14

      And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red,

  • Through

    Isaiah 66:24

    “As they go forth, they will see the corpses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never be quenched, and they will be a…

    it leads to

    • Revelation 14:10–11

      he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and…

    • Isaiah 14:11

      Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket.

  • Through

    Isaiah 50:9

    Surely the Lord GOD helps Me. Who is there to condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moths will devour them.

    it leads to

    • Job 13:28

      So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

Where this verse is studied

About Isaiah

The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 16:51.8 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.