Isaiah 40

The fortieth chapter is the Introduction to the Second portion of the Book, which is by many eminent scholars regarded as the work of a “second Isaiah.” (For the arguments for and against, see Angus and Green’s Bible Handbook, 1904, pp. 499-503.) The prophet is directed to comfort God’s captive people by the assurance that the Lord will soon appear to end their humiliation (1, 2). The New Testament authorises the application of the prophecy to the advent of the Divine Redeemer (see Matt. iii. 1-3, etc.), and this alone fully meets the requirements of the language; but other great interpositions of God on behalf of His Church may be included.

1. Comfort ye. An address to God’s messengers and ministers everywhere. All are to combine in the high mission of comfort to His people.

2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Lit., “Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is here put for the chosen people, whose metropolis it was.

warfare. Or, “hardship,” suffering: see note on Job vii. 1 (R.V. marg.).

double for all her sins. “Double” probably means ample or abundant: see note on Job xi. 6.

3 of him that crieth. Rather, as R.V., “of one that crieth.”

Prepare ye the way of the Lord. This refers to the Eastern custom of sending pioneers to prepare the way for the march of the monarch through a wild and uncultivated region. Such was the character of the ministry of John the Baptist, who came to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke i. 16, 17).

6. The voice said, Cry, etc. Or, as R.V., “The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said.” Two voices, one responding to the other: both different from the “voice” in ver. 3.

goodliness. All that is human is perishing; and that which is most attractive, “the flower thereof,” is the most frail. But God’s word, especially His “exceeding great and precious promises,” are everlasting and sure: comp. 1 Pet. i. 24, 25. Verbum Dei manet in Æternum was the motto of John the Steadfast, Elector of Saxony and friend of Luther. Carlyle says: “The letters V. D. M. I. Æ. were engraved on all the furniture of his existence, standards, pictures, plate, on the very sleeves of his lackeys, and I can perceive on his own deep heart first of all.”

7 the spirit. This should be rendered “breath” (R.V.), or “wind.”

10 will come with strong [hand]. Rather, “will come as a mighty one” (R.V.).

His work. i.e., the result of “His work” of deliverance; “His reward” (R.V.).

11. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. These exquisitely beautiful figures, borrowed from pastoral life, and now enshrined in the sweet music of Handel’s Messiah, express the benignant and tender care of the “Good Shepherd”; who provides for all His sheep, but shows peculiar compassion to the weak: comp. John x. The word translated “gently lead” is the same that is rendered “leadeth” in Psa. xxiii. “Those that are with young,” should read, as in R.V., “those that give suck.”

13. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord? The appeal in ver. 12 is to the omnipotence of God, in this verse to His omniscience; in ver. 14 to His infinite wisdom. The questions apply to all His arrangements; but especially to the Gospel and its application to men, to which it is referred in Rom. xi. 34.

15. Behold, the nations, etc. From what God is in Himself, the prophet passes to what He is in His government of the world, which is infinitely easy to Him. The symbols (a drop hanging to a bucket, a grain of sand adhering to a balance) represent the extreme of lightness.

16. Lebanon is not sufficient, etc. The utmost conceivable sacrifice is immeasurably short of what we owe to God.

18. To whom then will ye liken God? If God is thus infinitely great, how foolish must it be to regard a piece of metal, or a block of wood, fashioned “by art and man’s device,” as being in any way a representation of Him!

20. He that is so impoverished, etc. The sense is better given by the R.V., “He that is too impoverished for [such] an oblation”; i.e., as that of verse 19.

21 from the foundations of the earth. Delitzsch interprets, “Have ye not gained insight into the foundations of the earth?"—“has no understanding (such is the sense of the four questions) dawned upon you, namely, how they originated?”

24 they shall not be planted. Rather, as R.V. marg., “Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely hath their stock taken root in the ground, when He bloweth upon them, and they wither,” etc.

27. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, etc.? God’s people ought cheerfully to trust in Him, though the fulfilment of His promise appears to be delayed.

My way. i.e., My troublous, thorny way. Does not He see it?

my judgement. i.e., My right, disregarded by my oppressors. Is He indifferent to it?

28. There is no searching of His understanding. Therefore He knows all your wants, though you cannot understand all His doings.

31. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. “Put forth pinions like eagles” (G. A. Smith); “lift up their wings like eagles” (Delitzsch).

They shall walk and not faint. Courage, steadfastness, perseverance in the routine tasks or drudgery of everyday life.