Verse 5
‘And my judgment will go forth as the light (or ‘as the sun’, the ‘greater light’ of Genesis 1:15-16).’
Using the same consonants as the MT but repointing (the pointing is not a part of the original text) YHWH now points out that because of their failure in covenant faithfulness and covenant love He is about to send forth His judgment which will come on them in the same way as the sun (or the morning light) causes the night to disappear. Thus like their covenant love, they themselves will soon ‘go early away’. Unlike the morning mist the sun (or period of light) lasts throughout the day, an indication of the certainty of God’s purposes. For the Hebrew word for ‘light’ being used to denote the ‘sun’ compare Judges 5:31, and see also Habakkuk 3:4.
The MT (Masoretic Text) reads, ‘your judgments are as the light (sun) which goes forth’. In that case ‘your judgments’ speaks of ‘the judgments which have come upon you’, and sees them as being as permanent and effective as the sun. But the original Hebrew text was simply composed of consonants with no joins between the words, and the reading suggested above is a translation of the MT consonants divided up in a slightly different way, using different vowel sounds. (The vowel signs were provided by the Masoretes some centuries after the coming of Christ and are therefore not an essential part of Scripture).
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