Isaiah Chapter 40

From The Open Bible Project

40:1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.

• (a) This is a consolation for the Church, assuring them that they will never be destitute of prophets by which he exhorts the true ministers of God that then were, and those also that would come after him, to comfort the poor afflicted and to assure them of their deliverance both of body and soul.

40:2 "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh's hand double for all her sins."

• (b) The time of her affliction.
• (c) Meaning, sufficient as in (Isaiah 61:7) and full correction, or double grace, while she deserved double punishment.

40:3 The voice of one who calls out, "Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

• (d) That is, of the prophets.
• (e) That is, in Babylonia and other places, where they were kept in captivity and misery.
• (f) Meaning Cyrus and Darius who would deliver God’s people out of captivity and make them a ready way to Jerusalem.

40:4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.

• (g) Whatever may prevent or hinder this deliverance will be removed.

40:5 The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it."

• (h) This miracle will be so great, that it will be known through all the world.

40:6 The voice of one saying, "Cry!" One said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

• (i) The voice of God which spoke to the prophet Isaiah.
• (k) Meaning, all man’s wisdom and natural powers, (James 1:10; 1 Peter 1:24).

40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh's breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.

• (l) The spirit of God will discover the vanity in all that seems to have any excellency of themselves.

40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever."

• (m) Though considering the frailty of man’s nature many of the Jews would perish, and so not be partakers of this deliverance, yet God’s promise would be fulfilled, and they who remained, would feel the fruit of it.

40:9 You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up. Don't be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold, your God!"

• (n) To publish this benefit through all the world.
• (o) He shows in one word the perfection of all man’s happiness, which is to have God’s presence.

40:10 Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

• (p) His power will be sufficient without help of any other, and will have all means in himself to bring his will to pass.

40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.

• (q) He will show his care and favour over them who are weak and tender.

40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

• (r) Declaring that as only God has all power, so does he use the same for the defence and maintenance of his Church.

40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or has taught him as his counselor?

• (s) He shows God’s infinite wisdom for the same.

40:14 Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

40:16 Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.

40:17 All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

• (t) He speaks all this to the intent that they would neither fear man nor put their trust in any, save only in God.

40:18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?

• (u) By this he arms them against the idolatry with which they would be tempted in Babylon.

40:19 A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.

40:20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.

• (x) He shows the rage of the idolaters, seeing that the poor who do not have enough to meet their own needs will defraud themselves to serve their idols.

40:21 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard, yet? Haven't you been told from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth?

• (y) Do you not have the word of God, which plainly condemns idolatry?
• (z) Can you not learn by the visible creatures whom God has made for your use, that you should not serve them or worship them?

40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;

40:23 who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.

40:24 They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

• (a) So that his power appears in every place we turn our eyes.

40:25 "To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

40:26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.

• (b) Who has set in order the infinite number of the stars.

40:27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?"

• (c) He rebukes the Jews because they did not rest on the providence of God, but thought that he had forsaken them in their troubles.

40:28 Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint. He isn't weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

• (d) And therefore all power is in his hand to deliver when his time comes.
• (e) Showing that men must patiently abide, and not curiously seek out the cause of God’s delay in our affliction.

40:29 He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.

40:30 Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;

• (f) They who trust in their own virtue, and do not acknowledge that all comes from God.

40:31 But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.