Daniel12:3

This verb means to “send out light” or “to teach, i.e. to send out truth.” I have tried to include both ideas because the ancient Jews would have thought of both things when they read it. This person is a bright light because of how they teach others. As an example of Jewish parallelism, the second half of the verse repeats the same idea. The previous verse has indicated that some will rise from the dead in order to be rewarded for the way they lived, but here we see that others will stand out because their lives were exceptionally bright examples of how someone should live, and the key difference is how they taught others by spreading truth and by being a good example.

This cannot be talking about the sky itself, for at night the sky is primarily dark. It must be talking about the lights that God has placed in the sky. Since it says, “as bright as,” it is a comparison of one great source of brightness (the teaching of a prudent person) to another source of great brightness (the sun and the moon are the brightest things in the sky during the day or night, respectively). Also, the fact that it mentions the stars specifically later in this verse hints that the first of the verse may be referring to the sun and the moon.

While the stars are pinpoints of light against the dark backdrop of the night sky, they do not produce a significant amount of light compared to that of the moon. Therefore, I take this reference to the stars as an emphasis on beauty rather than on true brightness. A person who guides others into a life characterized by righteous living is indeed attractive and winsome. What they have done will stand for all eternity and be honored unceasingly.