| Geneva Study Bible And they that be {c} wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that {d} turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (c) Who have kept the true fear of God and his religion. (d) He chiefly means the ministers of God's word, and next all the faithful who instruct the ignorant, and bring them to the true knowledge of God. King James Translators' Notes wise: or, teachers Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 3. wise-(Pr 11:30). Answering to "they that understand" (Da 11:33, 35), the same Hebrew, Maskilim; Israelites who, though in Jerusalem when wickedness is coming to a head, are found intelligent witnesses against it. As then they appeared worn out with persecutions (typically, of Antiochus; antitypically, of Antichrist); so now in the resurrection they "shine as the brightness of the firmament." The design of past afflictions here appears "to make them white" (Mt 13:43; Re 7:9, 14). turn . to righteousness-literally, "justify," that is, convert many to justification through Christ (Jas 5:20). stars-(1Co 15:41, 42). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 12:1-4. Michael signifies, Who is like God, and his name, with the title of the great Prince, points out the Divine Saviour. Christ stood for the children of our people in their stead as a sacrifice, bore the curse for them, to bear it from them. He stands for them in pleading for them at the throne of grace. And after the destruction of antichrist, the Lord Jesus shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and He shall appear for the complete redemption of all his people. When God works deliverance from persecution for them, it is as life from the dead. When his gospel is preached, many who sleep in the dust, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be awakened by it out of their heathenism of Judaism. And in the end the multitude that sleep in the dust shall awake; many shall arise to life, and many to shame. There is glory reserved for all the saints in the future state, for all that are wise, wise for their souls and eternity. Those who turn many to righteousness, who turn sinners from the errors of their ways, and help to save their souls from death, Jas 5:20, will share in the glory of those they have helped to heaven, which will add to their own glory. | 
