16 They will never be hungry, neither thirsty any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat;
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
They shall hunger no more - A considerable portion of the redeemed who will be there, were, when on earth, subjected to the evils of famine; many who perished with hunger. In heaven they will be subjected to that evil no more, for there will be no want that will not be supplied. The bodies which the redeemed will have - spiritual bodies 1-Corinthians 15:44 - will doubtless be such as will be nourished in some other way than by food, if they require any nourishment; and whatever that nourishment may be, it will be fully supplied. The passage here is taken from Isaiah 49:10; "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them." See the notes on that passage.
Neither thirst any more - As multitudes of the redeemed have been subjected to the evils of hunger, so have multitudes also been subjected to the pains of thirst. In prison; in pathless deserts; in times of drought, when wells and fountains were dried up, they have suffered from this cause - a cause producing as intense suffering perhaps as any that man endures. Compare Exodus 17:3; Psalm 63:1; Lamentations 4:4; 2-Corinthians 11:27. It is easy to conceive of persons suffering so intensely from thirst that the highest vision of felicity would be such a promise as that in the words before us - "neither thirst anymore."
Neither shall the sun light on them - It is hardly necessary, perhaps, to say that the word "light" here does not mean to enlighten, to give light to, to shine on. The Greek is πέσῃ pesē - "fall on" - and the reference, probably is to the intense and burningheat of the sun, commonly called a sunstroke. Excessive heat of the sun, causing great pain or sudden death, is not a very uncommon thing among us, and must have been more common in the warm climates and burning sands of the countries in the vicinity of Palestine. The meaning here is, that in heaven they would be free from this calamity.
Nor any heat - In Isaiah 49:10, from which place this is quoted, the expression is שׁרב shaaraab, properly denoting heat or burning, and particularly the mirage, the excessive heat of a sandy desert producing a vapor which has a striking resemblance to water, and which often misleads the unwary traveler by its deceptive appearance. See the notes on Isaiah 35:7. The expression here is equivalent to intense heat; and the meaning is, that in heaven the redeemed will not be subjected to any such suffering as the traveler often experiences in the burning sands of the desert. The language would convey a most grateful idea to those who had been subjected to these sufferings, and is one form of saying that, in heaven, the redeemed will be delivered from the ills which they suffer in this life. Perhaps the whole image here is that of travelers who have been on a long journey, exposed to hunger and thirst, wandering in the burning sands of the desert, and exposed to the fiery rays of the sun, at length reaching their quiet and peaceful home, where they would find safety and abundance. The believer's journey from earth to heaven is such a pilgrimage.
They shall hunger no more - They shall no longer be deprived of their religious ordinances, and the blessings attendant on them, as they were when in a state of persecution.
Neither shall the sun light on them - Their secular rulers, being converted to God, became nursing fathers to the Church.
Nor any heat - Neither persecution nor affliction of any kind. These the Hebrews express by the term heat, scorching, etc.
They shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more,.... The words are taken out of Isaiah 49:10, and will be true in a literal and corporeal sense. Now the saints are often in hunger and thirst, then they shall be so no more; and in a mystical and spiritual sense, there will be no famine of the word; for though there will not be the outward ministration of the word, as now, the substance of it will be enjoyed, to full satisfaction; nor will there be any uneasy desires after spiritual things, and much less any hungerings and thirstings, or lusting after carnal, sensual, and earthly things.
Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; not the sun of persecution, see Matthew 13:6; nor the heat of Satan's temptations, or his fiery darts; nor of any fiery trial, or sore affliction; nor of the divine displeasure, or any fearful sense and apprehension of it; nor of toil and labour, called the burden and heat of the day, from all which they will be now free.
(Isaiah 49:10).
hunger no more--as they did here.
thirst any more-- (John 4:13).
the sun--literally, scorching in the East. Also, symbolically, the sun of persecution.
neither . . . light--Greek, "by no means at all . . . light" (fall).
heat--as the sirocco.
Neither shall the sun light on them - For God is there their sun. Nor any painful heat, or inclemency of seasons.
*More commentary available at chapter level.