Isaiah 51:8
“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.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Human opposition and human works decay like cloth eaten by moths, while God's righteousness and salvation pass intact through all generations.
Context
A parallel image to verse 6, emphasizing that human opposition crumbles while God's work endures. This encourages the faithful who are threatened by earthly powers.
What Does Isaiah 51:8 Mean?
The moth and worm are instruments of decay, eating away at fabric and thread until nothing remains. So too human plots against the righteous, human efforts to oppress and silence, will consume themselves from within and come to nothing. The garment of human pride, the wool of human schemes, provide no lasting substance. Empires that once seemed invincible fall into the dust; those who mocked God's people are themselves forgotten. Even a lifetime of human dominion passes like cloth in the moth's belly.
By contrast, God's righteousness and salvation move forward from generation to generation without diminishment. What God establishes in one age passes to the next, deepened and enlarged. The exiles will see their children's children inherit a redemption they could barely imagine. We too stand in this chain of inheritance. The righteousness and salvation that came to us through Christ reaches through us to our children and beyond. Our task is not to build something permanent; it is to receive what is permanent and pass it faithfully forward.
In the Original Language
esach (אסח), 'eat them up' -- to consume, to devour completely; the root suggests a thorough and final consumption
Application
What earthly opposition or mockery seems large and threatening to me now? How might I gain perspective by remembering that human schemes and human malice are temporary, while God's righteousness endures?