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 name,/
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 is 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.