to get out of bed and start the day
—Early in the morning on the first day of school, my mother turned on the lights and woke me with a cheerful, “Rise and shine!”
In telling the Israelites about the future time when God would show his glory, the prophet Isaiah called on the people to
“Arise! Shine! [Arise, shine] For your light arrives!
The splendor of the Lord shines on you!
For, look, darkness covers the earth
and deep darkness covers the nations,
but the Lord shines on you;
his splendor appears over you. (Isaiah 60:1,2)
Within 50 years after the printing of the King James Bible, William Erbery, a priest in the Church of England, wrote about Isaiah 60:1, using the phrase we have today, rise and shine.
In the early 1900s, rise and shine became a wake-up call in the US military, leading to its common use today. Some believe that shine for the soldiers refers to their polishing their boots.