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Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 40:2

Jerusalem, the personification of God’s people, the Israelites, needed persuading to respond to the Lord’s love for her. Her lover had not cast her off. Judah’s period of educational discipline involving duress (the Babylonian Captivity) was over. Punishment for her iniquity (by the sacrifice of the Lord’s servant) had been accepted as satisfactory."Here is the first intimation of the truth to be more fully revealed in the fifty-third chapter of the book." [Note: Young, 3:23.] Indeed, Israel... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 40:3-4

Isaiah announced that someone was calling out to prepare a highway in the desert, because the Lord was coming to His people’s aid (cf. Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23; John 3:30). It was customary to construct processional avenues for approaching dignitaries and for idols carried in parade. The wilderness and desert represent the barren waste of Babylon where God’s people dwelt, complete with obstacles and impediments to overcome, and through which He would come to them with... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Isaiah 40:3-5

Divine intervention 40:3-5Here begins explanation of how God could offer sinful people comfort. He would break into history (cf. Isaiah 52:7-10). read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:1-22

The hope of return is grounded by the prophet upon the fact that Jehovah is the only God, the Creator and Ruler of all things, the Disposer of the fate of nations, who guides the course of history according to His will. The tone of this section is argumentative, the respective claims of Jehovah and of the heathen gods being discussed as in a court of justice. The object of the argument is to encourage the Jews in their exile by showing that, since Jehovah is thus supreme, no obstacles will be... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:1-24

Israel’s Restoration from Exile in BabylonOn the authorship and date of these chapters see Intro. According to their subject matter, they fall naturally into three divisions of almost equal length (Isaiah 40-48, 49-57, , 58-66), the close of each division being marked by an intimation that the wicked shall not share in the blessings promised to God’s people. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Isaiah 40:1-31

The Proclamation of Deliverance1, 2. The theme of the prophecies following: the period of Zion’s trouble and affliction is over. 3-26. Celestial voices give the message of restoration to God’s people, who are encouraged by the thought of His infinite power. 27-31. Trust in Jehovah is, therefore, the source of true strength.2. Warfare] RM ’time of service,’ i.e. enforced service and hardship: cp. Job 7:1. Double] i.e. double (ample) penalty (Jeremiah 17:18), in the sufferings of the exile.3-5. A... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 40:2

(2) Speak ye comfortably . . .—Literally, Speak ye to the heart. The command is addressed to the prophets whom Isaiah contemplates as working towards the close of the exile, and carrying on his work. In Haggai 1:13, Haggai 2:9, and Zechariah 1:13; Zechariah 2:5-10; Zechariah 9:9-12, we may rightly trace the influence of the words as working out their own fulfilment.That her warfare is accomplished.—The time of war, with all its suffering, becomes the symbol of sufferings apart from actual war.... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Isaiah 40:3

(3) The voice of him that crieth . . .—The laws of Hebrew parallelism require a different punctuation: A voice of one crying, In the wilderness, prepare ye . . . The passage is memorable as having been deliberately taken by the Baptist as defining his own mission (John 1:23). As here the herald is not named, so he was content to efface himself—to be a voice or nothing. The image is drawn from the march of Eastern kings, who often boast, as in the Assyrian inscriptions of Sennacherib and... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Isaiah 40:1-31

Comfort Ye! Comfort Ye! Isaiah 40:1 How lovable the God who speaks thus! He allures us irresistibly. He commands our hearts. And the quality of the consolation He enjoins is so rich. Comfort, in the Bible, means strengthening. The word has deteriorated of late. It now too often signifies soothing, lulling to rest. But when God says 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,' He calls His prophets to strengthen them, to arouse them, to nerve them. It is a great and enduring empowerment which God... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Isaiah 40:1-11

CHAPTER VTHE PROLOGUE: THE FOUR HERALD VOICESIsaiah 40:1-11IT is only Voices which we hear in this Prologue. No forms can be discerned, whether of men or angels, and it is even difficult to make out the direction from which the Voices come. Only one thing is certain-that they break the night, that they proclaim the end of a long but fixed period, during which God has punished and forsaken His people. At first, the persons addressed are the prophets, that they may speak to the people (Isaiah... read more

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