The promulgation of the Gospel, 1, 2. The preaching of John Baptist, 3-8. The preaching of the apostles, 9-11. The prophet, by the omnipotence of God, 12-17, and his incomparableness, 18-25, comforts the people, 26-31.
1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.
2 "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received from the LORD'S hand double for all her sins."
3 The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the LORD. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken it."
6 The voice said, "Cry." And he said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its goodliness is as the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades, because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it. Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever.
9 O Zion, who brings good tidings, go up upon the high mountain. O Jerusalem, who brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those who are with young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with the span, comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counselor has taught him?
14 With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, taught him in the path of judgment, taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he takes up the islands as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt-offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?
19 The workman melts an engraved image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and casts silver chains.
20 He who is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare an engraved image that shall not be moved.
21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as locusts, who stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in,
23 Who brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 They have hardly been planted, they have hardly been sown, their stock has hardly taken root in the earth, and then he blows upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
25 "To whom then will you compare me, or shall I be equaled?" says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power. Not one fails.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hid from the LORD and my judgment has passed over by my God"?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might he increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 40[➚]
[v.3] - Quoted in Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23.
[v.4] - Quoted in Luke 3:5.
[v.5] - Quoted in Luke 3:6.
[v.6] - Quoted in 1st Peter 1:24.
[v.7] - "the spirit" - this is referring to the breath, or wind of God.
[v.8] - Quoted in 1st Peter 1:24-25. Reference, Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33.
[v.13] - Quoted in Romans 11:34; 1st Corinthians 2:16.