Isaiah 40:1-31
1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye comfortablya to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight,b and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9 O Zion,c that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strongd hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,e and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructedf him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renewg their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. What a sweet voice is this to the church, after all her long afflictions. The words are doubled, to designate the fulness of comfort in the pardon of sin, testified by remission of punishment.
Isaiah 40:2. She hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The later rabbins say here, that the Babylonian captivity, and the Roman dispersion, were the double punishment of Zion's sins. The words are variously expounded.
(1) Hyperbolically, she has been doubly punished for her sins.
(2) Of grace, she has received double, in the gifts and graces of Christ Jesus.
Isaiah 40:3. The voice that crieth in the wilderness. The ministry of John the baptist, preparing the way of the Lord, announcing the revelation of his glory, expostulating with the withering grass, and exhorting the people to hear his heralds on the tops of the mountains. Blessed are they that know the joyful sound.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Providence took care that this should be done by the translation of the holy scriptures into Greek, which was then the travelling language of the world; by the Roman conquests, and by the tolerant character of those conquests in adopting all gods, and honouring all temples, on which account Cicero calls the Romans the most religious of all nations; by a vast accession of gentile proselytes, and by synagogues in the great cities of the empire.
Isaiah 40:4. Every valley shall be exalted. The reference is to the pioneers, who go before great armies, and prepare the way. Semiramis levelled the road over the Zarcean mountain to Ecbatana; the Romans also made military roads in all the countries united to their empire. The existence of those roads can still be traced in different parts of England.
Isaiah 40:5. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Christ and his gospel. John 1:14. Eusebius says, the gospel was like the sun enlightening the world at once. The sound of the preachers' voice went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Romans 10:18. There was no nation where their voice was not heard. Psalms 19:3.
Isaiah 40:7. The Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Breath, wind, and spirit, very often are of the same import. Here it may mean the droughty season, when the grass was dried into hay.
Isaiah 40:9. Behold your God. The Messiah must not be degraded, else how should the world regard him with joy, as in the next words. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. St. Mark begins his history thus: The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. St. John says, “In the beginning was the Word,” coëternal with the Father, whose Divinity is the fountain of the Son's Divinity, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. Similar is the language of the apostle to the Romans Romans 1:3; and to the Hebrews, Hebrews 1:1.
Isaiah 40:31. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. In the fable, when the eaglets asked their dam what they should do when exposed to danger, she replied, “my children, look right at the sun.” This is equally good advice for the christian. By looking to heaven, he leaves danger far behind. He renews his strength by conversing with unseen objects, and gets fresh supplies of grace. The eagle lives to a great age, and when she renews her plumage, she is said to renew her youth.
REFLECTIONS.
Isaiah having left his country under the portentous cloud of Babylonian captivity, hastens to bring the rich cup of comfort to cheer the heart of Zion amidst her tears. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. The church he makes his first care and sole delight. For her the breezes blow, the sun shines, and the rains descend. He opens at once to her view the glory of Christ, the healer of all her woes. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed to eyes of flesh, and all the empire shall see the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. He is the light of the gentiles, and the glory of Israel. He saw the Baptist open his commission in the wilderness, and preparing the way of the Lord by calling the nation to repentance, and reformation of manners.
John, clothed with the grandeur of God, and filled with his Master's spirit, addresses the nations as withering grass, and as the fading flower: All flesh is grass; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the wind of the Lord blows upon it. What then is the best wisdom of a perishing world? It is to listen to the voice of his heralds, whose feet are beauteous upon the mountains. It is to behold their God, whose glory fadeth not away. He is the Lord and giver of life. His strong arm shall rule for him; he shall break the Assyrian power to pieces. Like David he is the shepherd of Israel; he shall take into his bosom the bleating lamb, and gently lead the weak. Eventually he shall gather the Jews and the Gentiles into one safe and secure fold.
Oh Israel, look alone at the grandeur of your God, sublime in all his works, profound in his counsel, and omnipotent in all his ways. Look solely to him, cast your idols into the fire, and fear your enemies no more. Why liken Jehovah to works of wood and stone? Why provoke him to destroy you? He is able, if you repent, to reverse the sentence of the Babylonian captivity, and prolong your lives as the life of Hezekiah. Jeremiah 36:3. But if otherwise, if the Chaldeans must come; if your young men must fall by the sword, and fill the streets in Jerusalem, then I will comfort the remnant. 2 Chronicles 36:17 2 Chronicles 36:17. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, and inherit all the glory of the future age.