Isaiah 40:1-5 NIV

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:4

Crooked - The word עקב akob is very generally rendered crooked: but this sense of the word seems not to be supported by any good authority. Ludolphus, Comment. ad Hist. Aethiop. p. 206, says "that in the Ethiopia language it signifies clivus, locus editus :" and so the Syriac Version renders it in this place, ערמא arama : Hebrew, ערמה aramah , tumulus, acervus . Thus the parallelism would be more perfect:" the hilly country shall be made level, and the precipices a smooth... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:5

"The salvation of our God" - These words are added here by the Septuagint: το σωτηριον του Θεου , אלהינו ישועת את eth yesuath Eloheynu , as it is in the parallel place, Isaiah 52:10 . The sentence is abrupt without it, the verb wanting its object; and I think it is genuine. Our English translation has supplied the word it, which is equivalent to this addition, from the Septuagint. This omission in the Hebrew text is ancient, being prior to the Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate Versions:... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people . The key-note is struck at once. With that iteration which is his favourite mode of emphasizing what is important (see the comment on Isaiah 38:11 ), the prophet declares that he and his brethren have a direct mission from God to "comfort" Israel. Note the encouragement contained in the expressions, "my people," and "your God." Israel is not cast off, even when most deeply afflicted. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1

The comfort of God's restored favour. The question of the authorship of the latter half of Isaiah resolves itself into a discussion of its claim to be prophetical. If it is descriptive, it must have been written by some "great unknown." If it is prophetical, and a vision of historical events covering long centuries, but grouped for effective representation, then it may have been written by Isaiah, and it fittingly completes a work which, revealing Divine judgments, also reveals "mercy ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-2

Comfort after trouble. God "has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth;" it is no satisfaction to him to punish. As soon as ever those whom he is forced to punish will submit to the chastening rod in a proper spirit, and allow the staff of the Divine indignation to have its due effect upon them, God is ready to comfort. God the Holy Ghost is the One True Comforter. He and he alone can pour balm into the heart, quiet the conscience, enable the stricken soul to feel that it is once more at... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-2

Divine consolations. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem." Here, after prophetic revelation of danger and warning against the Nemesis of sin, we come upon the evangel of love. For God delights not in denunciation or death. All his universe testifies that he loves life, that he "has no pleasure in the death of the wicked." I. HERE IS REITERATION . "Comfort ye, comfort ye." It is an inspiration of earnestness in conveying the heavenly... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-2

Pardon and penalty. Israel is to be comforted by her teachers and pastors, because the time of her exile, which is the period of the Divine sentence, has nearly expired, and the hour of her redemption is consequently nigh. If we ask what ground of comfort we find here for the Christian Church, or for the chastened human soul, we have to reply— I. THAT COMFORT IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THE SUPPOSED LENIENCY OF GOD . No thought can be more perilously false than the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-11

The prophet's commission. He is to unfold a theme of consolation, which runs through the whole of the book, introduced by this chapter. He speaks to the prophets: "Ye prophets, prophesy consolation concerning my people" (Targum of Jonathan); or, "O priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem," according to the LXX . The former is probably correct. The prophets were numerous both in Isaiah's time ( Isaiah 3:1 ; Isaiah 29:10 , Isaiah 29:20 ) and during the Babylonian exile ( Jeremiah... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-31

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:2

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem ; literally, speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem. Address her inmost feelings, her very spirit and soul. Her warfare is accomplished … is pardoned … hath received . These perfects can only be viewed as "perfects of prophetic certainty." According to every theory of the authorship of Isaiah 40-46, they were written before the close of the Captivity, when Israel's warfare was not yet accomplished, her iniquity not yet fully pardoned. Isaiah, however, sees... read more

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:4

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:5

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-2

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-2

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-2

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-11

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-31

The Pulpit Commentary - Isaiah 40:2

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