2 Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her time of suffering is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins.
Turn again to the stronghold, prisoners of hope! even to-day do I declare I will render double unto thee.
Instead of your shame [ye shall have] double; instead of confusion they shall celebrate with joy their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them.
But first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have profaned my land with the carcases of their detestable things, and with their abominations have they filled mine inheritance.
For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over, it is gone: The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing is come, And the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land; The fig-tree melloweth her winter figs, And the vines in bloom give forth [their] fragrance. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away!
And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against me. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do unto them; and they shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but it hasteth to the end, and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; for it will surely come, it will not delay.
And Jehovah turned the captivity of Job, when he had prayed for his friends; and Jehovah gave Job twice as much as he had before. And all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house, and they condoled with him, and comforted him concerning all the evil that Jehovah had brought upon him; and every one gave him a piece of money, and every one a golden ring. And Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses.
but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law,
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and will write it in their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will pardon their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you in your latter end a hope.
For thus saith Jehovah: Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; and I will strive with him that striveth with thee, and I will save thy children.
And in that day thou shalt say, Jehovah, I will praise thee; for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou hast comforted me.
*Thou* wilt rise up, thou wilt have mercy upon Zion: for it is the time to be gracious to her, for the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour her dust. And the nations shall fear the name of Jehovah, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When Jehovah shall build up Zion, he will appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute one, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come; and a people that shall be created shall praise Jah: For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from the heavens hath Jehovah beheld the earth, To hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to die; That the name of Jehovah may be declared in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem, When the peoples shall be gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve Jehovah. He weakened my strength in the way, he shortened my days. I said, My ùGod, take me not away in the midst of my days! ... Thy years are from generation to generation. Of old hast thou founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands: *They* shall perish, but *thou* continuest; and all of them shall grow old as a garment: as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the Same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall abide, and their seed shall be established before thee.
And [some] of the wise shall fall, to try them, and to purge and to make them white, to the time of the end: for it shall yet be for the time appointed.
And Hezekiah spoke consolingly to all the Levites that had understanding in the good knowledge of Jehovah; and they ate the feast-offerings the seven days, sacrificing peace-offerings, and extolling Jehovah the God of their fathers.
Lo, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them -- them that contend with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I, Jehovah, thy God, hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
in the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by the books that the number of the years, whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, for the accomplishment of the desolations of Jerusalem, was seventy years.
And he hath performed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; so that there hath not been done under the whole heaven as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
Seventy weeks are apportioned out upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to close the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make expiation for iniquity, and to bring in the righteousness of the ages, and to seal the vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies. Know therefore and understand: From the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah, the Prince, are seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times. And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war, -- the desolations determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many [for] one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations [there shall be] a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.
And thou, Daniel, close the words, and seal the book, till the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
And he said, Go thy way, Daniel; for these words are closed and sealed till the time of the end.
And he said to them, It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in his own authority;
Do ye not know that unrighteous [persons] shall not inherit [the] kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who make women of themselves, nor who abuse themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor abusive persons, nor [the] rapacious, shall inherit [the] kingdom of God. And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O sovereign Ruler, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth? And there was given to them, to each one a white robe; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until both their fellow-bondmen and their brethren, who were about to be killed as they, should be fulfilled.
And the seventh angel sounded [his] trumpet: and there were great voices in the heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world of our Lord and of his Christ is come, and he shall reign to the ages of ages. And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, [He] who is, and who was, that thou hast taken thy great power and hast reigned. And the nations have been full of wrath, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead to be judged, and to give the recompense to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear thy name, small and great; and to destroy those that destroy the earth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Isaiah 40
Commentary on Isaiah 40 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 40
Isa 40:1-31. Second Part of the Prophecies of Isaiah.
The former were local and temporary in their reference. These belong to the distant future, and are world-wide in their interest; the deliverance from Babylon under Cyrus, which he here foretells by prophetic suggestion, carries him on to the greater deliverance under Messiah, the Saviour of Jews and Gentiles in the present eclectic Church, and the restorer of Israel and Head of the world-wide kingdom, literal and spiritual, ultimately. As Assyria was the hostile world power in the former part, which refers to Isaiah's own time, so Babylon is so in the latter part, which refers to a period long subsequent. The connecting link, however, is furnished (Isa 39:6) at the close of the former part. The latter part was written in the old age of Isaiah, as appears from the greater mellowness of style and tone which pervades it; it is less fiery and more tender and gentle than the former part.
1. Comfort ye, comfort ye—twice repeated to give double assurance. Having announced the coming captivity of the Jews in Babylon, God now desires His servants, the prophets (Isa 52:7), to comfort them. The scene is laid in Babylon; the time, near the close of the captivity; the ground of comfort is the speedy ending of the captivity, the Lord Himself being their leader.
my people … your God—correlatives (Jer 31:33; Ho 1:9, 10). It is God's covenant relation with His people, and His "word" of promise (Isa 40:8) to their forefathers, which is the ground of His interposition in their behalf, after having for a time chastised them (Isa 54:8).
2. comfortably—literally, "to the heart"; not merely to the intellect.
Jerusalem—Jerusalem though then in ruins, regarded by God as about to be rebuilt; her people are chiefly meant, but the city is personified.
cry—publicly and emphatically as a herald cries aloud (Isa 40:3).
warfare—or, the appointed time of her misery (Job 7:1, Margin; Job 14:14; Da 10:1). The ulterior and Messianic reference probably is the definite time when the legal economy of burdensome rites is at an end (Ga 4:3, 4).
pardoned—The Hebrew expresses that her iniquity is so expiated that God now delights in restoring her.
double for all her sins—This can only, in a very restricted sense, hold good of Judah's restoration after the first captivity. For how can it be said her "warfare was accomplished," when as yet the galling yoke of Antiochus and also of Rome was before them? The "double for her sins" must refer to the twofold captivity, the Assyrian and the Roman; at the coming close of this latter dispersion, and then only, can her "iniquity" be said to be "pardoned," or fully expiated [Houbigant]. It does not mean double as much as she deserved, but ample punishment in her twofold captivity. Messiah is the antitypical Israel (compare Mt 2:15, with Ho 11:1). He indeed has "received" of sufferings amply more than enough to expiate "for our sins" (Ro 5:15, 17). Otherwise (cry unto her) "that she shall receive (blessings) of the Lord's hand double to the punishment of all her sins" (so "sin" is used, Zec 14:19, Margin) [Lowth]. The English Version is simpler.
3. crieth in the wilderness—So the Septuagint and Mt 3:3 connect the words. The Hebrew accents, however, connect them thus: "In the wilderness prepare ye," &c., and the parallelism also requires this, "Prepare ye in the wilderness," answering to "make straight in the desert." Matthew was entitled, as under inspiration, to vary the connection, so as to bring out another sense, included in the Holy Spirit's intention; in Mt 3:1, "John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness," answers thus to "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Maurer takes the participle as put for the finite verb (so in Isa 40:6), "A voice crieth." The clause, "in the wilderness," alludes to Israel's passage through it from Egypt to Canaan (Ps 68:7), Jehovah being their leader; so it shall be at the coming restoration of Israel, of which the restoration from Babylon was but a type (not the full realization; for their way from it was not through the "wilderness"). Where John preached (namely, in the wilderness; the type of this earth, a moral wilderness), there were the hearers who are ordered to prepare the way of the Lord, and there was to be the coming of the Lord [Bengel]. John, though he was immediately followed by the suffering Messiah, is rather the herald of the coming reigning Messiah, as Mal 4:5, 6 ("before the great and dreadful day of the Lord"), proves. Mt 17:11 (compare Ac 3:21) implies that John is not exclusively meant; and that though in one sense Elias has come, in another he is yet to come. John was the figurative Elias, coming "in the spirit and power of Elias" (Lu 1:17); Joh 1:21, where John the Baptist denies that he was the actual Elias, accords with this view. Mal 4:5, 6 cannot have received its exhaustive fulfilment in John; the Jews always understood it of the literal Elijah. As there is another consummating advent of Messiah Himself, so perhaps there is to be of his forerunner Elias, who also was present at the transfiguration.
the Lord—Hebrew, Jehovah; as this is applied to Jesus, He must be Jehovah (Mt 3:3).
4. Eastern monarchs send heralds before them in a journey to clear away obstacles, make causeways over valleys, and level hills. So John's duty was to bring back the people to obedience to the law and to remove all self-confidence, pride in national privileges, hypocrisy, and irreligion, so that they should be ready for His coming (Mal 4:6; Lu 1:17).
crooked—declivities.
5. see it—The Septuagint for "it," has "the salvation of God." So Lu 3:6 (compare Lu 2:30, that is, Messiah); but the Evangelist probably took these words from Isa 52:10.
for—rather, "All flesh shall see that the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it" [Bengel].
6. The voice—the same divine herald as in Isa 40:3.
he—one of those ministers or prophets (see on Isa 40:1) whose duty it was, by direction of "the voice," to "comfort the Lord's afflicted people with the promises of brighter days."
All flesh is grass—The connection is, "All human things, however goodly, are transitory: God's promises alone steadfast" (Isa 40:8, 15, 17, 23, 24); this contrast was already suggested in Isa 40:5, "All flesh … the mouth of the Lord." 1Pe 1:24, 25 applies this passage distinctly to the gospel word of Messiah (compare Joh 12:24; Jas 1:10).
7. spirit of the Lord—rather, "wind of Jehovah" (Ps 103:16). The withering east wind of those countries sent by Jehovah (Jon 4:8).
the people—rather, "this people" [Lowth], which may refer to the Babylonians [Rosenmuller]; but better, mankind in general, as in Isa 42:5, so Isa 40:6, "all flesh"; this whole race, that is, man.
9. Rather, "Oh, thou that bringest good things to Zion; thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem." "Thou" is thus the collective personification of the messengers who announce God's gracious purpose to Zion (see on Isa 40:1); Isa 52:7 confirms this [Vulgate and Gesenius]. If English Version be retained, the sense will be the glad message was first to be proclaimed to Jerusalem, and then from it as the center to all "Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth" (Lu 24:47, 49; Ac 1:8) [Vitringa and Hengstenberg].
mountain—It was customary for those who were about to promulgate any great thing, to ascend a hill from which they could be seen and heard by all (Jud 9:7; Mt 5:1).
be not afraid—to announce to the exiles that their coming return home is attended with danger in the midst of the Babylonians. The gospel minister must "open his mouth boldly" (Pr 29:25; Eph 6:19).
Behold—especially at His second coming (Zec 12:10; 14:5).
10. with strong hand—or, "against the strong"; rather, "as a strong one" [Maurer]. Or, against the strong one, namely, Satan (Mt 12:29; Re 20:2, 3, 10) [Vitringa].
arm—power (Ps 89:13; 98:1).
for him—that is, He needs not to seek help for Himself from any external source, but by His own inherent power He gains rule for Himself (so Isa 40:14).
work—or, "recompense for his work"; rather, "recompense which He gives for work" (Isa 62:11; Re 22:12).
11. feed—including all a shepherd's care—"tend" (Eze 34:23; Ps 23:1; Heb 13:20; 1Pe 2:25).
carry—applicable to Messiah's restoration of Israel, as sheep scattered in all lands, and unable to move of themselves to their own land (Ps 80:1; Jer 23:3). As Israel was "carried from the womb" (that is, in its earliest days) (Isa 63:9, 11, 12; Ps 77:20), so it shall be in "old age" (that is, its latter days) (Isa 46:3, 4).
gently lead—as a thoughtful shepherd does the ewes "giving suck" (Margin) (Ge 33:13, 14).
12. Lest the Jews should suppose that He who was just before described as a "shepherd" is a mere man, He is now described as God.
Who—Who else but God could do so? Therefore, though the redemption and restoration of His people, foretold here, was a work beyond man's power, they should not doubt its fulfilment since all things are possible to Him who can accurately regulate the proportion of the waters as if He had measured them with His hand (compare Isa 40:15). But Maurer translates: "Who can measure," &c., that is, How immeasurable are the works of God? The former is a better explanation (Job 28:25; Pr 30:4).
span—the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the middle finger extended; God measures the vast heavens as one would measure a small object with his span.
dust of the earth—All the earth is to Him but as a few grains of dust contained in a small measure (literally, "the third part of a larger measure").
hills in a balance—adjusted in their right proportions and places, as exactly as if He had weighed them out.
13. Quoted in Ro 11:34; 1Co 2:16. The Hebrew here for "directed" is the same as in Isa 40:12 for "meted out"; thus the sense is, "Jehovah measures out heaven with His span"; but who can measure Him? that is, Who can search out His Spirit (mind) wherewith He searches out and accurately adjusts all things? Maurer rightly takes the Hebrew in the same sense as in Isa 40:12 (so Pr 16:2; 21:2), "weigh," "ponder." "Direct," as in English Version, answers, however, better to "taught" in the parallel clause.
14. path of judgment—His wisdom, whereby He so beautifully adjusts the places and proportions of all created things.
15. of—rather, (hanging) from a bucket [Maurer].
he taketh up … as a very little thing—rather, "are as a mere grain of dust which is taken up," namely, by the wind; literally, "one taketh up," impersonally (Ex 16:14) [Maurer].
isles—rather, "lands" in general, answering to "the nations" in the parallel clause; perhaps lands, like Mesopotamia, enclosed by rivers [Jerome] (so Isa 42:15). However, English Version, "isles" answers well to "mountains" (Isa 40:12), both alike being lifted up by the power of God; in fact, "isles" are mountains upheaved from the bed of the sea by volcanic agency; only that he seems here to have passed from unintelligent creatures (Isa 40:12) to intelligent, as nations and lands, that is, their inhabitants.
16. All Lebanon's forest would not supply fuel enough to burn sacrifices worthy of the glory of God (Isa 66:1; 1Ki 8:27; Ps 50:8-13).
beasts—which abounded in Lebanon.
17. (Ps 62:9; Da 4:35).
less than nothing—Maurer translates, as in Isa 41:24, "of nothing" (partitively; or expressive of the nature of a thing), a mere nothing.
vanity—emptiness.
18. Which of the heathen idols, then, is to be compared to this Almighty God? This passage, if not written (as Barnes thinks) so late as the idolatrous times of Manasseh, has at least a prospective warning reference to them and subsequent reigns; the result of the chastisement of Jewish idolatry in the Babylonish captivity was that thenceforth after the restoration the Jews never fell into it. Perhaps these prophecies here may have tended to that result (see 2Ki 23:26, 27).
19. graven—rather, an image in general; for it is incongruous to say "melteth" (that is, casts out of metal) a graven image (that is, one of carved wood); so Jer 10:14, "molten image."
spreadeth it over—(See on Isa 30:22).
chains—an ornament lavishly worn by rich Orientals (Isa 3:18, 19), and so transferred to their idols. Egyptian relics show that idols were suspended in houses by chains.
20. impoverished—literally, "sunk" in circumstances.
no oblation—he who cannot afford to overlay his idol with gold and silver (Isa 40:19).
tree … not rot—the cedar, cypress, oak, or ash (Isa 44:14).
graven—of wood; not a molten one of metal.
not be moved—that shall be durable.
21. ye—who worship idols. The question emphatically implies, they had known.
from the beginning—(Isa 41:4, 26; 48:16). God is the beginning (Re 1:8). The tradition handed down from the very first, of the creation of all things by God at the beginning, ought to convince you of His omnipotence and of the folly of idolatry.
22. It is he—rather, connected with last verse, "Have ye not known?"—have ye not understood Him that sitteth …? (Isa 40:26) [Maurer].
circle—applicable to the globular form of the earth, above which, and the vault of sky around it, He sits. For "upon" translate "above."
as grasshoppers—or locusts in His sight (Nu 13:33), as He looks down from on high (Ps 33:13, 14; 113:4-6).
curtain—referring to the awning which the Orientals draw over the open court in the center of their houses as a shelter in rain or hot weather.
23. (Ps 107:4; Da 2:21).
judges—that is, rulers; for these exercised judicial authority (Ps 2:10). The Hebrew, shophtee, answers to the Carthaginian chief magistrates, suffetes.
24. they—the "princes and judges" (Isa 40:23) who oppose God's purposes and God's people. Often compared to tall trees (Ps 37:35; Da 4:10).
not … sown—the seed, that is, race shall become extinct (Na 1:14).
stock—not even shall any shoots spring up from the stump when the tree has been cut down: no descendants whatever (Job 14:7; see on Isa 11:1).
and … also—so the Septuagint. But Maurer translates, "They are hardly (literally, 'not yet', as in 2Ki 20:4) planted (&c.) when He (God) blows upon them."
blow—The image is from the hot east wind (simoon) that "withers" vegetation.
whirlwind … stubble—(Ps 83:13), where, "like a wheel," refers to the rotatory action of the whirlwind on the stubble.
25. (Compare Isa 40:18).
26. bringeth out … host—image from a general reviewing his army: He is Lord of Sabaoth, the heavenly hosts (Job 38:32).
calleth … by names—numerous as the stars are. God knows each in all its distinguishing characteristics—a sense which "name" often bears in Scripture; so in Ge 2:19, 20, Adam, as God's vicegerent, called the beasts by name, that is, characterized them by their several qualities, which, indeed, He has imparted.
by the greatness … faileth—rather, "by reason of abundance of (their inner essential) force and firmness of strength, not one of them is driven astray"; referring to the sufficiency of the physical forces with which He has endowed the heavenly bodies, to prevent all disorder in their motions [Horsley]. In English Version the sense is, "He has endowed them with their peculiar attributes ('names') by the greatness of His might," and the power of His strength (the better rendering, instead of, "for that He is strong").
27. Since these things are so, thou hast no reason to think that thine interest ("way," that is, condition, Ps 37:5; Jer 12:1) is disregarded by God.
judgment is passed over from—rather, "My cause is neglected by my God; He passes by my case in my bondage and distress without noticing it."
my God—who especially might be expected to care for me.
28. known—by thine own observation and reading of Scripture.
heard—from tradition of the fathers.
everlasting, &c.—These attributes of Jehovah ought to inspire His afflicted people with confidence.
no searching of his understanding—therefore thy cause cannot, as thou sayest, escape His notice; though much in His ways is unsearchable, He cannot err (Job 11:7-9). He is never "faint" or "weary" with having the countless wants of His people ever before Him to attend to.
29. Not only does He "not faint" (Isa 40:28) but He gives power to them who do faint.
no might … increaseth strength—a seeming paradox. They "have no might" in themselves; but in Him they have strength, and He "increases" that strength (2Co 12:9).
30. young men—literally, "those selected"; men picked out on account of their youthful vigor for an enterprise.
31. mount up—(2Sa 1:23). Rather, "They shall put forth fresh feathers as eagles" are said to renovate themselves; the parallel clause, "renew their strength," confirms this. The eagle was thought to moult and renew his feathers, and with them his strength, in old age (so the Septuagint, Vulgate, Ps 103:5). However, English Version is favored by the descending climax, mount up—run—walk; in every attitude the praying, waiting child of God is "strong in the Lord" (Ps 84:7; Mic 4:5; Heb 12:1).