ra'-di-ant (nahar, "to sparkle" i.e. (figurative) be cheerful; hence (from the sheen of a running stream), to flow, i.e. (figurative) assemble; flow (together), be lightened): the American Standard Revised Version substitutes the active "radiant" for the passive "were lightened" in Psalms 34:5; Isaiah 60:5 (English Revised Version, the King James Version "flow together"). As the earth and moon, both being dark, face a common sun and lighten each other, they are not only lightened, but radiant. So with the believers, "They looked unto him (Yahweh), and were radiant." Thus nahar combines the two ideas of being lightened and flowing together. This appears, also, in a different connection, in Isaiah 60:5, "Then thou shalt see and be radiant." "It is liquid light--light that ripples and sparkles and runs across the face; .... the light which a face catches from sparkling water" (G.A. Smith, Isaiah, II, 430).

M. O. Evans

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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