Isaiah 40:11

Jehovah as the Good Shepherd: an ideal picture of the homeward journey of the exiles, hardly of the permanent relations of Jehovah to His people in the final dispensation. The same image is used of the Restoration in Jeremiah 23:1 ff; Jeremiah 31:10; Ezekiel 34:11 ff.; Isaiah 49:9; cf. Isaiah 63:11.

those that are with young Render, with R.V., those that give suck. cf. Genesis 33:13.

Ch. Isaiah 40:12-31. Jehovah, God of Israel, the Incomparable, is the title suggested by Dr Davidson [76] for this great passage. It is a meditation or homily on the immeasurable greatness and power and wisdom of Jehovah, the Creator, as displayed in the works of nature and in the government of the world; an expansion of the idea of Isaiah 40:6. The argument from Creation is handled with a boldness of conception and freedom of imagination to which there is nothing equal in the earlier literature, and the frequent appeal to it on the part of this prophet may be held to mark a distinct advance in Israel's consciousness of God, coinciding generally with the period of the Exile. The practical aim which the writer has in view appears from Isaiah 40:27 ff.; it is to counteract the unbelief and despondency of his fellow-countrymen and to inspire them with some true sense of the infinitude of Jehovah, their own God, who has addressed to them the consolations of Isaiah 40:1. The passage may be divided as follows:

[76] Expositor, Second Series, Vol. VII. p. 96.

i. The argument, Isaiah 40:12.

(1) Isaiah 40:12. The greatness of Jehovah is illustrated by the magnitude of His operations as Creator (Isaiah 40:12), by the perfection and self-sufficiency of His knowledge (Isaiah 40:13), and by the insignificance in comparison with Him of all that exists (Isaiah 40:15).

(2) Isaiah 40:18. The thought of the transcendent greatness of Jehovah "suggests the idol, which also bears the name of God.… The magnitude of the true God suggests the littleness of the idol-god. Heis incomparable; itis by no means so. Its genesis and manufacture are known. It is a cast metal, gilt article, upheld with chains, lest it should totter and tumble to the ground. Or it is a hard-wood tree fashioned into a block by a cunning workman [77]." This is the first of several sarcastic passages in which the processes of an idol factory are minutely described: Isaiah 41:6-7; Isaiah 44:9-20; Isaiah 46:6-8.

[77] Davidson, Ibid.p. 101.

(3) Isaiah 40:21. The thought of Isaiah 40:12 is now resumed and completed. The intelligent contemplation of nature (Isaiah 40:21 f.) or of history (Isaiah 40:23 f.) is enough to dispel the glamour of idolatry, and force the mind back on the Incomparableness of Him who is the Creator and Ruler of the world (Isaiah 40:25 f.).

ii. The application, Isaiah 40:27. If such be the God of Israel, how can the exiles think that He is either unobservant of their fate or indifferent to it? Their God is an everlasting God; His strength is unfailing, His understanding unsearchable; and they who wait on Him shall find in Him an inexhaustible source of life and energy.