Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
Parallel translations
- WEB and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
- KJV 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 noon day:
- BSB and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.
- NKJV If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
- NASB And if you offer yourself to the hungry And satisfy the need of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness, And your gloom will become like midday.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Pouring oneself out for the hungry and afflicted causes one's light to rise even in darkness. Self-giving love brings spiritual brightness from God.
Overview
God promises that those who spend themselves for the hungry and afflicted will find their light rising in darkness and their gloom becoming like noonday. Compassion toward the needy is met with God's transforming blessing. Such radiance reflects the character of Christ, the light of the world, in whom His people shine as they love others sacrificially.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 11:24–25There is one who scatters, and increases yet more. There is one who withholds more than is appropriate, but gains poverty.
- Isa 58:7–8Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Isa 42:16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know. I will lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not forsake them.
- Ps 37:6he will make your righteousness go out as the light, and your justice as the noon day sun.
- Job 11:17Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.
- Deut 15:7–10If a poor man, one of your brothers, is with you within any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother;
- Luke 18:22When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me.”
- Prov 14:31He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.
- Ps 112:5–9It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment.
- Prov 28:27One who gives to the poor has no lack; but one who closes his eyes will have many curses.
- Isa 29:18In that day, the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
- Ps 41:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 58:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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