Dayspring

Dayspring (the dawn, the rising of the sun) is used in Job 38:12, where God challenges Job with the question of whether he has commanded the morning or appointed the dayspring its place. The image is of the dawn taking hold of the edges of the earth and shaking the wicked out of it like dust from a garment. More theologically significant is its use in Luke 1:78, where Zechariah's prophecy (the Benedictus) describes the coming Messiah as "the dayspring from on high" who will visit his people to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death — a direct allusion to Isaiah 9:2 and 60:1–2. The metaphor frames Christ as the dawn breaking over the long darkness of human sin and death.