Isaiah 40:1-26

1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

2 Speak ye according to the heart of Jerusalem and cry unto her that her time is now fulfilled that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

3 The voice of him that cries 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, and the rough places made plain:

5 And the glory of the LORD shall be manifested, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

6 The voice that said, Cry. And I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the mercy thereof is as the open flower of the field:

7 The grass withers, the flower fades because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withers, the open flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, go up into the high mountain; lift up thy voice with strength O bearer of good tidings of Jerusalem; lift it up, do not be afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong 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 has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and prepared the heavens with his palm and with three fingers measured the dust of the earth and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills with weights?

13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD or being his counsellor has taught him?

14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him? Who taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed unto him the way of intelligence?

15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he causes the isles to disappear as dust.

16 And all Lebanon is not sufficient for the fire, nor all the beasts thereof sufficient for the sacrifice.

17 All the Gentiles are as nothing before him, and they are counted to him as vanity and as less than nothing.

18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

19 The workman prepares the graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and casts silver chains.

20 He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto himself a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

21 Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not been taught since the land was founded?

22 He is seated upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; he stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:

23 He brings the powerful to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as if they had never been,

24 As if they had never been planted, as if they had never been sown, as if their stock had never taken root in the earth; even blowing upon them, they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

25 To whom then will ye liken me, or what shall ye compare me to? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things; he brings out his host by number; he calls them all by their names; none shall be lacking by the greatness of his might and by the strength of his power.

Isaiah 40:1-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 40

This chapter treats of the comforts of God's people; of the forerunner and coming of the Messiah; of his work, and the dignity of his person; of the folly of making idols, and of the groundless complaints of the church of God. The consolations of God's people, by whom to be administered, and the matter, ground, and reason of them, Isa 40:1,2. John the Baptist, the harbinger of Christ, is described by his work and office, and the effects of it; it issuing in the humiliation of some, and the exaltation of others, and in the revelation of the glory of Christ, Isa 40:3-5, then follows an order to every minister of the Gospel what he should preach and publish; the weakness and insufficiency of men to anything that is spiritually good; their fading and withering goodliness, which is to be ascribed to the blowing of the Spirit of God upon it; and the firmness and constancy of the word of God is declared, Isa 40:6-8, next the apostles of Christ in Jerusalem are particularly exhorted to publish fervently and openly the good tidings of the Gospel; to proclaim the coming of Christ, the manner of it, and the work he came about; and to signify his faithful discharge of his office as a shepherd, Isa 40:9-11, the dignity of whose person is set forth by his almighty power, by his infinite wisdom, and by the greatness of his majesty, in comparison of which all nations and things are as nothing, Isa 40:12-17 and then the vanity of framing any likeness to God, and of forming idols for worship, is observed, Isa 40:18-25, and from the consideration of the divine power in creation and upholding all things, the church of God is encouraged to expect renewed strength and persevering grace, and is blamed for giving way to a distrustful and murmuring spirit, Isa 40:26-31.