Or again in the way that _righteousness_ and _renown_ are identified (lxi. 11): _The Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and renown to spring forth before all the nations_. In each of these promises the idea of an external and manifest splendour is evident; not the inward peace of justification felt only by the conscience to which it has been granted, but the outward historical victory appreciable by the gross sense of the heathen. Of course the outward implies the inward,--this historical triumph is the crown of a religious process, the result of forgiveness and a long purification,--but while in the New Testament it is these which would be most readily called a people's righteousness, it is the former (what the New Testament would rather call _the crown of life_), which has appropriated the name in Isa. xl.-lxvi. The same is manifest from another text (xlviii. 18): _O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments; then had thy peace been as the River, and thy righteousness like the waves of the sea_. Here _righteousness_ is not only not applied to inward morality, but set over against this as its external reward,--the health and splendour which a good conscience produces. It is in the same external sense that the prophet talks of the _robe of righteousness_ with its bridal splendour, and compares it to the appearance of _Spring_ (lxi. 10-11). For this kind of righteousness, this vindication by God before the world, Israel waited throughout the Exile. God addresses them as _they that pursue righteousness, that seek Jehovah_ (li. 1). And it is a closely allied meaning, though perhaps with a more inward application, when the people are represented as praying God to give them _ordinances of righteousness_ (lviii. 2),--that is, to prescribe such a ritual as will expiate their guilt and bring them into a right relation with Him. They sought in vain. The great lesson of the Exile was that not by works and performances, but through simply waiting upon the Lord, their righteousness should shine forth. Even this outward kind of justification was to be by faith.