Chapter Forty

The Consolation of Israel by the Future Manifestation of the “Glory of the Lord”.

1–2. Heading. 3–5. Preparation of the way. 6–8. Human nothingness. 9–11. The manifestation of the mighty God and at the same time good Shepherd. 12–17. Divine omnipotence, compared with human nothingness. 18–20. The futility of idols. 21–26. The greatness of God – Creator of heaven and earth. 27–31. Consolation, following as a moral-practical conclusion from all this.

Isaiah 40:1. “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God; “Comfort, comfort.” The opening words of this chapter (40) directly introduce the reader into the theme of the last, third part of the book of the prophet Isaiah and give a proper understanding of its basic character and tone – prophetic exhortation, or more precisely, comforting and encouraging. The very repetition of these words, by the known property of the Hebrew language, indicates a strong emphasis of the thought contained in them. Blessed Jerome and the Vulgate translated the Hebrew term of the original – nahamu – not in the active form, but in the reflexive – not “comfort,” but “comfort yourselves” (consolamini), through which the subject receiving and imparting comfort is the people themselves, not the priests or prophets, whom it merely implies, and in the following verse the Greek translation of the LXX even directly inserts the word “priests” into the text. “My people... your God.” The emphasis on pronouns is commonly used in the Bible to strengthen a thought; in this case, obviously to emphasize the thought of divine consolation (see Hos 1 and others).

Isaiah 40:2. “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and proclaim to it that its time of struggle is fulfilled, that its iniquity is paid for; for it has received from the hand of the Lord double for all its sins. “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” The Greek (LXX) and our Slavonic translation insert here, as the subject, the word “priests” (hiereis), although the Hebrew Bible does not have the corresponding term. Joel, commenting according to the LXX, speaks excellently: “it is the property of priests to intercede and correct; they are a haven of the peoples, intercessors for the appeasement of God, mediators between God and men.” “To speak to the heart or even in the heart... means, by the property of the Hebrew language, to speak something most penetrating the heart, chiefly something consoling, encouraging, in general, pleasant” (Gen 34:3; Gen 50:21; 2 Chr 32:6; and others). “Jerusalem.” The city, as the center of the people, is personified here instead of the people themselves. And the reference to Jerusalem is also characteristic in determining the chronology of this discourse. Evidently, the city of Jerusalem still continued to exist; consequently, the prophecy was uttered before its destruction, that is, before the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, not in the middle or end of it, as rationalist criticism thinks. “The time is fulfilled... satisfaction is made... received from the hand of the Lord.” The perfect past tense of the verbs gives rationalist criticism grounds to attribute the entire prophecy to the time of the actual completion of the indicated events, that is, to the end of the Babylonian captivity. But, of course, this is nothing more than the ordinary form of prophetic speech in the Bible, which, for greater assurance in the certainty of the future, speaks of it in the language of the present or even past tense. “The time of struggle is fulfilled.” Our Slavonic translation, following the Greek LXX, instead of the word “struggle,” has the word “humiliation,” in Greek tapeinosis. In the Hebrew text stands – tsaba – which means “army, host, troops.” Bishop Peter in his commentary on the book of the prophet Isaiah happily reconciles these variants: “the word ‘troops’ (Heb. tsaba),” says he, “properly means the formation of an army arranged in proper order; likewise – a difficult, cramped state, for example, in formation, on guard duty, hard service subject to certain rules, order and time, such as military service... Hence the word ‘troops’ is used to designate, in general, a grievous state of human life (Job 7:1). Most immediately the prophet has in view here the time of the end of the future Babylonian captivity and the joyful return to the homeland; but in a more remote historical perspective his spiritual vision could foresee the end of the entire period of Old Testament history – the era of slavish fear and difficult external deeds of ceremonial law – which was to begin with the opening of the new gracious Messianic kingdom (Mark 1:15; Gal 4:3). “For its iniquities... received from the hand of the Lord double for all its sins.” The basic concept of “iniquity” or “sin” – in Greek to hamartema – in the Hebrew text – hattoth – contains a special indication of the “sin offering,” which is often designated in the Bible by precisely this same term (Lev 4:3; Lev 6:17; Lev 7:37; Ps 40:5; Mic 6 and others). Under “sin offerings” brought by the people of Jerusalem may be understood, first, all the ceremonial sacrifices of this name, second, all the sufferings and calamities of the people which served as a purifying sacrifice for it, and finally, the greatest Golgotha sacrifice, of which the prophet will speak specifically below (53) and regarding which the Apostle Paul writes of the Lord Jesus Christ: “He who knew no sin was made a sin offering for us (hamartian – hattoth)” (2 Cor 5:21), or: “He, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God forever” (Heb 10:12). “Received double for all his sins.” The majority, especially the newer, rationalist commentators (Dillmann, Orelli, Sanchez, Calmet, etc.) see here the idea of the severity of divine punishment that fell upon Jerusalem and the Jewish people and translate accordingly as: “for all his sins he received double punishment.” But representatives of orthodox and moderate exegesis (Vitringa, Delitzsch, Knabenbauer etc.) with greater reason (the paraphrase of the Targum) and rightly (the sense of the context and the character of biblical worldview) find in these words a comforting indication of twofold divine mercy, which is always ready to repay double for each trial endured by a man, according to the word of the apostle: “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape” (1 Cor 10:13). Divine love and mercy always overcome His justice, and at the slightest attempt of the prodigal son to repent, the Heavenly Father not only joyfully receives him but also shows him increased signs of attention. Specifically, the meaning of these words is most clearly revealed in relation to the New Testament era, when God the Father showed the people of God (the New Testament church) twofold mercy: first, through the appropriation of the fruits of the redemptive death of the Savior of the world, He granted us forgiveness of sins; and second, through the reception of the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of the Church He opened to us the possibility of high, positive perfection.

Isaiah 40:3. “A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a path for our God; Isaiah 40:4. “Every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places smooth; They speak of the necessary preparatory conditions that precede the manifestation of the “glory of the Lord” – the main subject of the consoling discourse. “A voice of one crying in the wilderness.” From clear indications of the Gospel we see that John the Baptist, the Forerunner of the Messiah, applied this prophecy to himself, appearing “to prepare His ways” (Matt 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23; Luke 1:76; Matt 11:10). “Understood in the general sense, these words contain an indication of a series of events in the political, religious and intellectual life of ancient humanity that preceded the manifestation of Christianity and facilitated its spread in the desert of paganism (Isa 35) along paths prepared beforehand by human thought and civilization” (Commentary on the book of the prophet Isaiah. St. Petersburg. Professor. Part II. p. 674) “The word ‘in the wilderness’ the evangelists refer to the preceding words: ‘a voice of one crying in the wilderness’; but the prophet refers it to the following words: ‘prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord.’ In the first case the wild, dreadful wilderness of the Jordan near Jericho is understood, extending toward the Dead Sea, in which John the Baptist dwelled and preached repentance.” In the latter case, in the spiritual sense, the wilderness means the Jewish people, which by its moral, religious condition then resembled a wild untended desert” (Bishop Peter, II, p. 14). However, many take this concept even wider, understanding by it the entire then world, which, like a waterless desert thirsting for rain, eagerly awaited the Redeemer, of which the prophet mentioned already earlier, when he said: “Let the desert rejoice and the dry land; let them celebrate and put forth blossoms like the crocus” (Isa 35:1). Beginning from the words: “prepare the way of the Lord” and ending with the concluding words of the fourth verse: “and the rough places smooth” – there goes a parallelism of thought so characteristic of Hebrew poetic speech, when one and the same thought is expressed in several parallel images, an example of which we have here in speech about “straight paths,” “about the lowering of mountains and hills,” about “the straightening of crookedness” and “the smoothing of unevenness.” The image itself is taken, obviously, from the custom of ancient oriental despots during their journeys to send before them whole crowds of couriers, whose duty it was, among other things, to clear and prepare the path. In the figurative, spiritual-moral sense, this requirement, according to the interpretation of Blessed Jerome, meant “that we make for God straight paths and trails in our hearts, and be filled with virtues, and be humbled by humility, that we change what is crooked to straight, cruel to gentle, and thus become worthy to see the glory of the Lord and the salvation of God” (Works of Blessed Jerome, part 8. Kyiv, 1882, p. 141).

Isaiah 40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see [the salvation of God]; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” When the way is prepared and all obstacles removed, then the very revelation of the glory and greatness of the Lord will come. “The glory of the Lord appeared always,” – justly remarks St. John Chrysostom, thus giving ground to see the most immediate historical fulfillment of this prophetic consolation in the fact of the deliverance of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. “But the glory of God appeared most when God took the form of man.” This interpretation is the most widespread; and in accordance with the fact of the preceding preaching of John the Baptist in the Jordan wilderness, the very manifestation of this glory of the Lord is ordinarily referred to a definite moment, namely to the moment of the Baptism of the Lord and the Epiphany accompanying it, that is, the revelation of the mystery of the Trinity of Persons. But in a wider and more general sense this can be referred to the fact of the incarnation of the Son of God, of which the Evangelist John expressly says: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father” (John 1:14). The very image of the “glory of the Lord” as a bright dazzling light shining in a dark place is encountered more than once, both in the earlier books of Holy Scripture (Exod 13:21; Exod 40:35; 1 Sam 8:10-11), and in the prophet Isaiah himself (Isa 60 and Isa 66:18). “And all flesh shall see it.” The revelation of the “glory of God” as a source of salvation, although it will take place among the Jews, will have significance for all other peoples: all fallen and redeemed humanity will see it, learn it and feel it, as is almost literally noted subsequently by the Evangelist Luke (Luke 3:6). “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” An indication of the highest divine authority for the greatest strengthening of what has been said – a method usual for the prophet Isaiah and very valuable for us in deciding the question of the authenticity and unity of the book (Isa 1:20; Isa 21:17; Isa 58 and others).

Isaiah 40:6. “A voice says, ‘Cry!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. Isaiah 40:7. “The grass dries up, the flower withers, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass. Isaiah 40:8. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. An interpolated meditation, belonging either to the prophet himself (St. Petersburg Professor., Vlastov), or to some mysterious heavenly voice (Bishop Peter, The Pulpit Commentary, Dillmann, Speak. Commentary etc.). “Whoever this person may be, it speaks by command of the Lord and reminds man that earthly life is fleeting, that it resembles field grass (Ps 89:6), “which today is, and tomorrow will be thrown into the furnace” (Matt 6:30). But such too is the life of entire peoples (Isa 24:1; Isa 25:2-3); and they live and flourish while the Lord preserves them, but an end comes to them too.” (Vlastov) Under “flesh” – Hebrew basar, Greek sarx – in the language of Holy Scripture is understood the natural state, especially the material and sinful condition of mankind (Isa 66:23; Zech 2:13; Rom 3:20; Rom 8:8; Gal 2:16; Gen 6:3; Isa 66:23; Zech 2:13; Rom 3:20; Rom 8:8; Gal 2:16).

1 Corinthians 1:29. By the “beauty” of this flesh should be understood its natural, ungracious excellences – health, glory, beauty, mental development, or that “wisdom” which the Apostle Paul calls “fleshly” (1 Cor.1:29). However, the Apostle Peter, who is inclined to apply the entire prophecy principally to the Jews, under “flesh” understands the entire “fleshly” Jewish people and under “beauty” – its external ceremonial law and various visible advantages on which the Jews relied so strongly, though entirely vainly (descent from Abraham, circumcision, ablution, etc., which in the language of Holy Scripture is also called “flesh” – Rom 4:1; Rom 3:20; 2 Cor 5:16; Gal 3:3; Heb 7:16). Such was the unstable condition of the chosen people and the entire world in their capacities and strength, deeply helpless and hopeless before the manifestation of the glory of the Lord, that is, before the coming into the world of the Savior. “But the word of our God stands forever.” In contrast to the vanity, instability and changeability of human decisions and deeds, the divine determination is eternal and unchangeable, for “with God no word will lose its power.” (Luke 1:37). The best interpretation of this place is given by the Apostle Peter, who, without directly mentioning the prophet Isaiah, cites in a light paraphrase almost the entire section we are commenting on (verses 6–8 of chapter 40), and under the “word of the Lord remaining forever” he definitely understands the “word which has been preached to you,” that is, the gospel of the kingdom of God (1 Pet 1:23-25), having saving force and eternal, unfailing significance.

Isaiah 40:9. “Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God! “Go up on a high mountain... lift up your voice mightily... say to the cities of Judah.” In response to the question of verse 6: “what shall I cry?” the prophet receives from God a clear indication of a very important subject of proclamation. The very importance of this proclamation necessitates appropriate preparation, and therefore the prophet receives the command to go up on a high mountain, as is the custom of orators speaking to the people (Judges 9; compare Matt 5:1), and to proclaim from there to all strongly and openly. “O Zion, herald of good tidings... O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings.” The Russian Bible, by translating the words “Zion and Jerusalem” in the nominative case, makes them subjects and causes them themselves to appear in the role of preachers among other peoples of the ancient world. The Greek and Slavonic translations, on the other hand, have here the dative cases: “to Zion and to Jerusalem,” – through which the sense of the address is somewhat narrowed, referring principally to the Jewish people. But, of course, nothing prevents us from combining both interpretations in such a way that initially the gospel was directed toward the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt 10:6-7), and then it spread to all nations (Matt 28:19). If, moreover, we, basing ourselves on chapter 2 of Isaiah, treat Zion and Jerusalem in the figurative, spiritual sense, then understanding this place will be even easier: spiritual Zion and spiritual Jerusalem are placed there at the head of mountains (Isa 2:2-3): from the moral height of their voice goes forth the gospel proclaiming salvation for every person – both Jew and Gentile (Rom 3:29-30; Rom 9:24-25).

Isaiah 40:10. “Behold, the Lord God will come with might, And His arm will rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. “Behold, the Lord God will come with might.” Behold, the essence of the prophetic consolation, the revelation of that very glory of God of which was spoken above (verse 5). The Lord will come! How this reminds one of the well-known exclamation of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God” (John 1:36). In him we also encounter an indication of the special greatness and might of the Lord: “The one coming after me is mightier than I” (Matt 3:11). His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him, or as the LXX and Slavonic text translate: “and His reward is with Him and His work before Him.” Here we have, it seems, an example of synonymous parallelism of thoughts. This phrase is repeated verbatim again later in the same prophet (Isa 62:11). The basic meaning of it is that the almighty Lord is not accountable to anyone: He is both the first originator and the last Judge of all – “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 22:13).

Isaiah 40:11. “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes. “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock.” As the supreme Ruler of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ appears, on the one hand, as Judge and Rewarder (Matt 16:27; Matt 20:1-16; Matt 25:14-16), and on the other – as a good Shepherd, carefully guarding His sheep (Ezek 34:20-24; John 10:11). In this flock there are weak lambs, and pregnant and nursing ewes, which require especially attentive and careful treatment. All this indicates the difference in the spiritual-moral condition of the members of the New Testament Church and the variety of providential action upon them.

Isaiah 40:12. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by a span, And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales? Isaiah 40:13. “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has informed Him? Isaiah 40:14. “With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding? From verse 12 to 26 comes the second part of the discourse, containing teachings and rebukes. It in turn is divided into two halves – from 12–17 and from 18–26 inclusive. The general thought of the entire second part of the discourse under consideration – the revelation of the Wisdom, Omnipotence, Greatness and Power of the Lord. In the first half it is developed from the positive side, and in the second – from the negative side, through contrast with the weakness and vanity of idols. As for the purpose of such reasonings and their connection with what precedes, the best explanation of all this is given by the subsequent context, namely the question of verse 27: “Why do you say, Jacob, and assert, Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God’?” Evidently, the calamities of the time and the prolonged expectation of the coming of the Messiah in the minds of many faint-hearted people bred strong doubts about the onset of better times and led them to the thought that God either cannot (“My way is hidden from the Lord”) or does not want (“the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”) to give them deliverance. Arming himself against such, in essence, blasphemous thought, the prophet with all his might berates such faint-hearted and shortsighted critics and at the same time reveals to them all the greatness and power of the Almighty. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by a span?” It might seem strange to use “handful” and “span” to measure such, one might say, immense quantities as all the water and all the sky? Some, to explain this, suppose that here we have an example of biblical anthropomorphism. However, there is hardly any need for such an assumption; it is much more natural and simple to see here merely an indication of units of measurement: zehoal, in Greek cheir, hand, “handful,” and zeref – sarx, “span” – were ordinary natural units of measurement used by other peoples and adopted by the Hebrews as well. This is all the more plausible because, following the units of measurement, we have units of weight, with an indication of scales and pans: And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales. The significance of such indications is to open the eyes of man to his complete helplessness before the phenomena of the world. If man is so weak and helpless that he cannot make accurate calculations and measurements of the most, it would seem, accessible objects of nature, then how can he dare to judge the absolute being of God? This very thought is expressed in the following two verses – 13–14: “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has informed Him?” If the visible world created by God cannot be encompassed by the human mind, then the mighty Spirit of God much less can be grasped by it (Jer 23:18; Wis 9:13; Rom 11:34; 1 Cor 2:16; Commentary. St. Petersburg Professor.). The bitter irony of these words best reveals all the powerlessness of human criticism before the greatness and incomprehensibility of divine plans. And not without reason did the Apostle Paul, citing these words of the prophet Isaiah, preface them with the exclamation: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable His judgments and unsearchable His ways!” (Rom 11:33).

Isaiah 40:15. “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Isaiah 40:16. “Even Lebanon is not sufficient for a burnt offering, Nor are the beasts on it sufficient for a sacrifice. Isaiah 40:17. “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. In these three verses the development continues of that same thought about the Absoluteness of the divine Being, with this new distinction, that the object with which God is compared is not an individual man, but the entire people, or more precisely, entire nations. “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales.” “From the contemplation of nature,” says Cheyne, “the prophet passes to history.” And in it there is not a single people that would dare to compare itself with the Almighty. The strongest and greatest nations are so small and insignificant in comparison with the infinite omnipotence of God as a drop of water compared to a whole bucket of water, or like an insignificant speck of dust adhering to the scale pan and completely imperceptible to these scales because of its insignificance. “Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust.” “Islands” – ihiim, a term not geographic but ethnographic; in the Bible it is synonymous with the word – hoim, tongues or peoples. For the inhabitants of Palestine, as a maritime country, all other peoples seemed to live on islands, especially those of them who lived in the West (Gen 10:5; Isa 41:1; Isa 49:1; Isa 51 and others). Lands and peoples of the almost entirely unknown to the Hebrews West could, by virtue of their very unfamiliarity, appear to their imagination as particularly strong and mighty. But behold, regarding them too the prophet remarks that before the face of divine omnipotence they are no more than a speck (snowflake). In the LXX and our Slavonic we have “spitting” instead of “speck,” as a result of the erroneous substitution of the Hebrew word kadok (speck) – with the word karok (spittle). 46

Isaiah 40:16. “Even Lebanon is not sufficient for a burnt offering, Nor are the beasts on it sufficient for a sacrifice. “Even Lebanon is not sufficient... nor are the beasts on it sufficient for a sacrifice.” Wishing to give a more vivid illustration of the thought about the immeasurability of divine greatness and His unattainable Holiness, the prophet says that no, the greatest human sacrifice that one can only imagine, will not be commensurate with the greatness of God and, so to speak, will not win Him over in our favor, if it is not permeated with appropriate internal disposition. If we were to gather for the arrangement of a sacrificial fire the entire enormous forest of the Lebanon mountain range and placed upon such a gigantic altar all the animals dwelling in these forests, then even such a colossal sacrifice in no way would be commensurate with the greatness and glory of the Lord.

Isaiah 40:17. “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. “All the nations... less than nothing and meaningless.” The concluding conclusion to the section that gives a positive revelation of the thought about the greatness and holiness of the Most High. It repeats the content of verse 15, but with an even greater expansion and intensification of the thought. The pronoun “all” added to the word “nations” strikes one, which gives occasion to Blessed Jerome for the following witty conjecture: “if all nations before Him are as nonexistent and are regarded as nothingness and meaninglessness (and among all is Israel); then, consequently, he (Israel) too is as nonexistent and regarded as nothingness and meaninglessness. We say this to crush the pride of Israel and that it might know that it is like other peoples.” “Less than nothing and meaningless.” From the Hebrew text one could translate “as nothingness and meaninglessness,” since here, according to the explanation of Hebraists, the genitive of the part is given, not of comparison (genitiv. partitivus sed non comparativus). The latter term – tobu – is well-known in the Bible, where it usually characterizes the utterly disordered, chaotic mass (Gen 1:2).

Isaiah 40:18. “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? From verses 18–26 comes the revelation of that same thought about divine greatness, but by another, so to speak, negative path, or more precisely, through the comparison of God’s infinite greatness with the highest objects of human worship and veneration. The theme of this comparison is set twice in verses 18 and 25, that is, at the beginning and end of the section. To the greatness of the One true God is first opposed the insignificance and falsity of pagan gods, or properly their images, that is, idols.

Isaiah 40:19. “As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, And a goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. To people who do not know or reject the true God, it is natural to worship idols and, of course, they considered them to be something most high and perfect. But the insignificance and emptiness of such idols, the absurdity and nonsense of their opposition to the true God are too obvious and are deservedly branded by the prophet with complete irony: what kind of gods are these if they are made by men themselves – a craftsman, a metalworker, a gilder, or a worker in silver? If they need to be fastened with plates and nails and tied with chains so that the wind does not blow them away? It is clear that such gods, as the work of man’s hands themselves, are far more insignificant and powerless than he is, and can they be equal to the Almighty God?

Isaiah 40:20. “He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a wood that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. “And the one who is poor for such an offering selects wood that does not rot.” The words “poor” and “for... an offering” are not in the translation of the LXX and the Slavonic text. Some completely ignore the second of these words (Dillmann), others suppose that here an error occurred, and the word “offering” was placed instead of the word – “sacrifice” (Duhm), others are ready to understand by a wooden offering a special wooden pedestal or pedestal for a metal idol (Condamin); but the best and most valuable explanation is the conjecture of those who see in the word “offering” an indication of the practice of ancient temple priests requiring themselves images of the worshipped temple deities. Such images, especially if they were cast from precious metals, constituted for covetous priests one of the prominent items of their income (cf. Acts 19:24-27). The plausibility of such a supposition is confirmed by the excavations at the sites of ancient temples of Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece and Crete, where entire heaps of small statuettes are found among the debris of temple ruins (Vlastov). “Wood that does not rot” in Hebrew amsunan, which Zimmern brings near to Assyrian musukkanu, a special kind of palm. All these indications of the substance, form of workmanship and decorations of idols have their religious-historical interest. For the Hebrew people, who constantly, as is known, were drawn to idolatry and manifested sympathy for it even during the life of the prophet Isaiah himself (2 Sam 21:1-9; 2 Chr 33:1-10), such condemning irony acquired deep moral-practical significance.

Isaiah 40:21. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? “Do you not know?.. has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?” Having touched upon the question of idols, the prophet by natural association of thoughts passes to a brief but powerful rebuke of his contemporaries for idolatry. If the likening of Deity to creation and the worship of it under the image of crude idols has no rational justification even for pagans, then all the more unforgivable is it for the Israelite people, to whom from ancient times (merosch) from the beginning of the history of the world and man, more than once the true knowledge of God has been revealed, explained and confirmed. Under “understanding from the foundation of the earth” it is most correct to understand natural knowledge of God, of which the Apostle Paul also speaks in a well-known passage from the epistle to the Romans (Rom 1:20).

Isaiah 40:22. “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He who sits above the circle of the earth... stretched out the heavens.” One of the best and most convincing proofs of divine omnipotence, the Bible in general considers the history of the creation, which is what the prophet Isaiah appeals to in this case (Ps 101:26). “The earth was pictured as a round plain surrounded by ocean (cf. Bocharti Geographia S. P. II. L. I. c. XXXVI), and from above covered and embraced by the circle of heaven (Job 22:14), at the central and highest point of which the Lord sits (cf. Gen 11:5), presiding over all beneath the heavens” (Job 28:24 – Commentary. St. Petersburg Professor.).

Isaiah 40:23. “He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Isaiah 40:24. “Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. “He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.” The second object of human pride and worship after their false gods are the mighty of the earth: kings, princes, judges and in general, various rulers. But they too present absolute insignificance before the greatness and power of divine omnipotence. Despite all their presumption and pride, a single, slightest motion of the divine will is enough for nothing to remain of all their actions and efforts. Some commentators not without reason see here an allusion to contemporary historical events, namely the terrible destruction of the army of Sennacherib and the misfortune and death that followed soon after him, slain by his own sons. Such was the swift and unexpected end of one of the most glorious Sargonids, who seemed to have finally consolidated the position of this dynasty (Commentary. St. Petersburg Professor., Vlastov and others).

Isaiah 40:25. “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be His equal?” says the Holy One. “To whom will you liken Me and with whom will you compare Me.” A summary conclusion to the section, analogous to its beginning, see verse 18. “If God is above all idols (verses 19–20), above nature (verse 22) and above all mankind (verses 23–25), then to whom else can He be likened? Is He not the Only and at the same time incomparable One?” (The Pulpit Commentary). Instead of veeschveh – “and I am equal,” the LXX read veesgov “and I will be exalted,” due to which a variation arose between the Russian and Slavonic texts. “Says the Holy One.” The definition of God as “Holy” – one of the characteristic features of the prophet Isaiah, testifying to the high degree of development of his religious-ethical worldview (cf. Isa 57:15 and others).

Isaiah 40:26. “Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing. “Lift up your eyes on high... and by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power not one of them is missing.” This verse directly adjoins in thought to verse 22, namely to that part of it where there was speech about God as Creator of heaven. Wishing to awaken in his listeners a sense of reverential amazement before the greatness of the Creator and awareness of one’s own insignificance, the prophet directs their gaze to the picture of the starry sky, which, according to the words of the psalmist, is especially instructive in this regard (Ps 28:2). Not without reason this argument has been used with great success by both Old Testament sages (Job 38:31-32) and Christian apologists (Minucius Felix, Arnobius and others). If, thus, the myriad stars – whole mysterious worlds – came from the hands of the Creator and are in full His will, then man has no ground to persist in his delusion that God either cannot or does not want to care for him. This conclusion is indeed made in the following verse 27.

Isaiah 40:27. “Why do you say, Jacob, And assert, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? Isaiah 40:28. “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. From verses 27–31 comes the last – consoling and exhorting part of the discourse, in which a moral application is made from the foregoing. Verses 27–28 in a parallel series of questions contain one and the same thought – a light rebuke of the chosen people (Judah and Israel) for the fact that, despite all natural and extraordinary revelations, they still seem not to have heard or, in any case, have not assimilated the proper knowledge of God. “The Lord God... does not become weary or tired.” The developing mind of the Hebrews was apparently ready to measure divine omnipotence by the standard of their weakness, and to conclude from this that if God had already accomplished so many great and glorious deeds, then His energy would now be exhausted, He would be tired and weakened. Arming himself against such false anthropomorphism, the prophet powerfully declares that God is not like man: He does not become weary or tired. “His understanding is inscrutable.” If God has no physical fatigue, then He has no mental exhaustion either, and in general, His mysterious plans are unknowable to us, as the Apostle Paul beautifully expressed it in the words: “How inscrutable are His judgments and unsearchable His ways!” (Rom 11:33).

Isaiah 40:29. “He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. “He gives strength to the weary.” A complete parallel to the preceding verse: God not only never weakens in power Himself, but also supports, in case of lack of it, others – all the weary and failing. He is the eternal power and the primary source of all strength and light.

Isaiah 40:30. “Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, They give a revelation of that same thought – about the power of divine omnipotence, but already by way of antithesis, in which is opposed the weakness of the young and physically strong people – to the power of the old and physically weak, but renewed by the divine grace assistance. “Though youths grow weary... and vigorous young men stumble badly.” Young, strong (according to Slavonic, “chosen”) people – the flower and hope of every nation, cannot endure prolonged tension, and in the end, weaken and fall.

Isaiah 40:31. “Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength... like eagles.” “While the most vital elements in humanity will weaken, and the chosen will stumble (koschol ikoschelou), those who have clung to the Lord with their faith will gain new strength and boldly rush along the path of God” (Commentary. St. Petersburg Professor.). Very expressive is the image of comparison here with the eagle: it is known that the eagle at a certain time changes its feathers and thus as if renews itself. Hence among many peoples of antiquity there existed a belief that the eagle, having lived 100 years, plunges into the sea and comes out again young. The echo of this belief, it would seem, is heard in the well-known phrase of the psalmist: “Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps 102:5). “They will run and not get tired.” “Eagles first lift their wings, then ‘run and not get tired.’ The latter expression means already smooth calm movement upward, along the path of truth to the source of all truth and light” (Vlastov.). This further completes and strengthens the expressed thought – about the unshakeable steadfastness of people trusting in God and supported by Him. According to the general opinion of commentators of this chapter, it by its content directly adjoins chapter 35 and is as it were its further continuation. In chapter 35 the prophet, among other things, exclaimed: “Let the desert be glad... Say to those with fearful hearts... do not fear; behold your God... the redeemed of the Lord will return... there will be eternal joy...” And behold, the fundamental tone of chapter 40 is entirely the same, inasmuch as it is clearly expressed already in the first verse: “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.” The so-called historical section dividing these chapters (36–39), as is evident from the analysis of its content, narrates the invasion of Sennacherib and events contemporary with it, and was written, consequently, somewhere shortly after the mentioned invasion, that is, after 714 BC. And since chapter 40 generally stands in close thematic and historical connection with the preceding chapters and itself bears some, although weak, imprint of those same events (the depression and confusion of the people, their doubts about divine omnipotence and providence, the indication of the transitoriness and fleeting nature of mighty earthly rulers, etc.), the time of writing of chapter 40 not without reason can be placed precisely as well around these events. Such close chronological connection serves as one of the best arguments in favor of the unity and authenticity of the book and, in particular, the belonging of chapter 40 to the one and same prophet Isaiah. This is further confirmed by the commonality of style and, especially, by the presence of characteristic for the prophet Isaiah terms and expressions, such as “glory of the Lord,” “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it,” “wilderness,” “every mountain,” “Holy One” and so on. Modern investigators of the text find a new and, in their opinion, especially weighty proof of the unity and authenticity of the entire book of the prophet Isaiah in the peculiarities of its poetic construction: in the symmetry of stanzas, in the regularity of their alternation and in the conventional repetition of the same words. French scholar Condamin, the author of one of the most recent works of this type, establishes such a poetic division of chapter 40. From verse 12 – I (stanza), verses 3–5 – II (antistanza), verses 6–8 – III (intermediate stanza) verses 9–1 verse 10–11 – II; verses 12–17 – III; verses 18–19... verses 20–24 – I; verses 25–31 – II. * * * Notes In the Slavonic translation of the LXX this verse is recorded as follows: “If all nations were like a drop from a bucket, and as the weight of a balance were regarded, and as spittle were regarded.” (Tr.)