Isaiah 40

Comfort Ye My People

A voice in the wilderness announces that Israel’s hard service is over, the Lord is coming, and the Creator who numbers the stars gives strength to the weary.

Addressed to the exiles in Babylon (6th century BC) Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 39 ended with a prophecy that Judah’s treasures and princes would be carried to Babylon.

Chapter 39 ended with a prophecy that Judah’s treasures and princes would be carried to Babylon. Chapter 40 begins as if that had already happened. The readers are exiles. Jerusalem lies in ruins, the temple is gone, and many have concluded that their God has either forgotten them or lost to the gods of Babylon (verse 27). No king or date is named, and Isaiah himself is never mentioned in chapters 40–66.

That shift is the main reason most modern scholars, following Bernhard Duhm’s influential commentary of 1892, attribute chapters 40–55 to an anonymous prophet of the exile (“Second Isaiah” or “Deutero-Isaiah”), writing around 550–539 BC, and chapters 56–66 to later disciples (“Third Isaiah”). They point to the Babylonian setting, the naming of Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:1), and changes in vocabulary and style. More recent scholarship, including Childs and Williamson, has emphasized the opposite side of the evidence as well: the deep verbal and thematic ties between 40–66 and 1–39 (the “Holy One of Israel,” the highway, the remnant, Zion), and the way the book reads as a deliberately unified whole, whoever wrote its parts.

Latter-day Saints have their own evidence to weigh. The brass plates, taken from Jerusalem around 600 BC, before the exile, contained Isaiah 48–54 (1 Ne. 20–21; 2 Ne. 7–8), and the risen Savior attributed Isaiah 52 and 54 to Isaiah (3 Ne. 20:11; 3 Ne. 23:1–3). For readers who accept the Book of Mormon as history, that places at least part of 40–66 before the exile. See How to Read Isaiah for more. Whatever position one takes, the chapters are addressed to exiles, and reading them that way is the key to understanding them.

The thread through the chapter

Isaiah 40 answers one question: can a defeated people still trust their God?

Isaiah 40 answers one question: can a defeated people still trust their God?

The chapter opens in the heavenly council. Voices are commanded to comfort Jerusalem: her “warfare,” her term of hard service, is over, and her sin is pardoned (verses 1–2). A voice calls for a highway through the desert for the Lord Himself (verses 3–5). Another voice is told to cry, and asks what there is to say, since all flesh is grass. The answer: yes, people wither, “but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (verses 6–8). And Zion is told to climb a mountain and announce the good news to the cities of Judah: “Behold your God!” He comes with power, and He comes as a shepherd carrying lambs (verses 9–11).

Then the tone changes to argument. The exiles had watched Babylon’s gods paraded through the streets and wondered whether their own God was small. Isaiah answers with a series of rhetorical questions. Who measured the oceans in His palm? Who advised Him? What can you compare Him to? A statue that has to be nailed down so it won’t fall over? (verses 12–26). The nations are a drop in a bucket. The rulers are grass. The stars that Babylon worshipped are His troops, and He calls every one by name.

The chapter ends by turning that cosmic argument into pastoral care. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob… My way is hid from the LORD?” (verse 27). The God who never grows tired gives strength to those who have none, and “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” (verse 31). The greatness of God is not an argument for His distance. It is the reason He can carry the weary.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

Comfort Jerusalem

In plain words

“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her hard service is over, that her guilt has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Word & Language #

Who is being told to comfort?

The Hebrew imperative naḥămû is plural: “Comfort, all of you.” Who is being addressed?

The Hebrew imperative naḥămû is plural: “Comfort, all of you.” Who is being addressed? The verse doesn’t say.

The Greek Septuagint added an answer to verse 2: “O priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” Many modern scholars, following Frank Moore Cross, think instead that the scene is set in the heavenly council, the assembly of divine beings around the Lord’s throne that Isaiah saw in chapter 6 (Isa. 6:1–8; compare 1 Kgs. 22:19–22). On this reading, verses 1–11 are a new prophetic call. God commands His messengers, voices answer, and one of them asks, “What shall I cry?” (verse 6).

The doubled word is typical of these chapters: “Awake, awake” (Isa. 51:9; Isa. 52:1), “I, even I” (Isa. 43:11; Isa. 51:12). The repetition is urgent and emotional. After thirty-nine chapters dominated by warnings, the first word of the new section is comfort, twice.

Sources: Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969. Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.

2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

Word & Language #

Hard service and “double”

The word for “warfare,” ṣābāʾ, is the word behind “Lord of hosts.” It means an army, and by extension a term of military service or forced labor.

The word for “warfare,” ṣābāʾ, is the word behind “Lord of hosts.” It means an army, and by extension a term of military service or forced labor. Job uses it for the hard lot of human life: “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth?” (Job 7:1), where “appointed time” is ṣābāʾ. Jerusalem’s enlistment is up.

“Her iniquity is pardoned” uses the verb rāṣâ, a technical term from the sacrificial system. It means “accepted” or “paid off”: the debt has been satisfied, as when land has “enjoyed her sabbaths” after the exile (Lev. 26:34, same verb).

“Double for all her sins” is harder. It could mean that Jerusalem has suffered twice what her sins deserved, which would be a strange thing for a just God to admit. Most commentators read it as a legal idiom: the penalty has been paid in full, even more than full (Ex. 22:4, Ex. 22:7 require double restitution for theft). Some suggest kiplayim means something “folded over” to match, an exact equivalent. Either way, the message is that the account is closed. Latter-day Saints may hear an echo of the Atonement here, but in context the verse speaks of Israel’s own suffering in exile, not a substitute.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.

Verses 3–5

A highway in the desert

In plain words

A voice calls out: “Clear a way for the Lord in the wilderness. Build a straight highway in the desert for our God. Every valley will be raised and every mountain and hill made low. The uneven ground will become level and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all humanity together will see it, for the Lord Himself has spoken.”

3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Witness of Christ #

A voice in the wilderness

This verse can be punctuated two ways. The Hebrew accents (the Masoretic cantillation marks, which guide how the text is chanted and parsed) put the pause after “crieth”: A voice…

This verse can be punctuated two ways. The Hebrew accents (the Masoretic cantillation marks, which guide how the text is chanted and parsed) put the pause after “crieth”: A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD.” The Greek Septuagint and the Gospels attach “in the wilderness” to the voice: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way.” The KJV follows the second.

Both readings have had a long life. The Qumran community, who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, took the Hebrew reading literally and cited this verse as their reason for withdrawing to the desert to study the law (the Community Rule, 1QS VIII, 13–16). All four Gospels apply the verse to John the Baptist, whose preaching in the wilderness prepared for Jesus (Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4–6; John 1:23). Six hundred years earlier Lehi had prophesied of a prophet who would “prepare the way of the Lord” and “cry in the wilderness” (1 Ne. 10:7–8).

In its first setting the highway is for the Lord Himself, returning to Zion at the head of His people across the desert, like a new Exodus. Babylon had grand processional avenues on which the statues of its gods were carried in festival parades. Isaiah pictures a greater procession through the desert, and the God in this one walks.

The Lord has repeated the call in our dispensation: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight, for the hour of his coming is nigh” (D&C 33:10; compare D&C 65:1).

Sources: Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969. Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.

4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

Restoration Insight #

Mountains made low

Ancient kings sent crews ahead of a royal visit to level and straighten the road.

Ancient kings sent crews ahead of a royal visit to level and straighten the road. Isaiah’s version is on a geological scale.

Luke quotes the passage at length, through “all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:4–6), and the Joseph Smith Translation of Luke 3 expands it further into a prophecy of Christ’s mission and Second Coming. Latter-day revelation also reads the leveling literally, as part of the earth’s transformation at the Second Coming. The Saints are to look “for the valleys to be exalted, and for the mountains to be made low” (D&C 49:23; compare D&C 109:74; D&C 133:22).

There is a moral reading too, and Luke’s context invites it. John’s preaching leveled people: the proud were brought low and the humble lifted up (Luke 3:10–14). The same pattern runs through Mary’s song: “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree” (Luke 1:52).

Sources: “Joseph Smith Translation (JST)”, Bible Dictionary.

5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Verses 6–8

The word that stands forever

In plain words

A voice said, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All people are grass, and all their faithfulness is like wildflowers. The grass withers and the flowers fade when the breath of the Lord blows on them. Yes, the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”

6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

Word & Language #

“And I said”: a variant in the Great Isaiah Scroll

The Masoretic Text reads “and he said.” The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaᵃ) reads wāʾōmĕrâ, “and I said,” and the Septuagint agrees.

The Masoretic Text reads “and he said.” The Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran (1QIsaᵃ) reads wāʾōmĕrâ, “and I said,” and the Septuagint agrees. Most modern translations adopt “I” (NRSV, NIV, ESV). The difference is one letter in Hebrew, but it changes the passage: with “I,” the prophet speaks in the first person and verses 1–8 become a call narrative, much like Isaiah’s own call in chapter 6, where he also answered a heavenly voice and asked a question (Isa. 6:8–11).

This is a good example of why the Dead Sea Scrolls matter. The scroll is about a thousand years older than the oldest complete Masoretic manuscripts, and here it supports an ancient reading that had survived only in Greek. It is also a good example of why the scrolls don’t overturn the text. The vast majority of 1QIsaᵃ’s differences are small spelling and grammar variations like this one.

Sources: The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ), The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999. Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012.

7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Liken It #

Grass and the word

In Palestine, the spring grass and wildflowers can disappear within days when the hot east wind, the sirocco, blows off the desert.

In Palestine, the spring grass and wildflowers can disappear within days when the hot east wind, the sirocco, blows off the desert. The “spirit” (rûaḥ) of the Lord in verse 7 is the same word as “wind.” Human glory, even the empire of Babylon, is that transient.

The “goodliness” of verse 6 is ḥesed, the word usually translated “mercy” or “lovingkindness,” covenant loyalty. The point is not that people are ugly. It’s that even human faithfulness doesn’t last. Only God’s word does.

The Septuagint and the original hand of the Great Isaiah Scroll both lack most of verse 7; in the scroll a later scribe added it between the lines. The eye of a copyist easily skips from one “the flower fadeth” to the next.

Peter quotes verses 6–8 and adds an interpretation: “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Pet. 1:24–25). James applies it to the rich (James 1:10–11). The promise is personal: “though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled” (D&C 1:38).

Sources: Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.

Verses 9–11

“Behold your God!”

In plain words

Zion, herald of good news, climb up on a high mountain. Jerusalem, herald of good news, raise your voice and shout; raise it and don’t be afraid. Tell the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” Look, the Lord God comes with strength, and His arm rules for Him. His reward is with Him, and what He has won goes before Him. He tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the mothers of the young.

9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Witness of Christ #

The herald of good tidings

“That bringest good tidings” translates mĕbaśśeret, a feminine participle of the verb bāśar, “to announce good news.”

“That bringest good tidings” translates mĕbaśśeret, a feminine participle of the verb bāśar, “to announce good news.” The Greek translators rendered it with euangelizomai, the verb behind euangelion, “gospel.” This is one of the Old Testament roots of the word gospel.

Grammatically, the phrase can mean either “Zion, the herald of good news” (Zion herself announces it to the cities of Judah) or “herald of good news to Zion.” The KJV takes the first. Handel’s Messiah takes the second: “O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion.” The Hebrew allows both.

The message itself is three words: hinnēh ʾĕlōhêkem, “Behold your God!” Isaiah will develop the herald image in Isa. 52:7, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,” which Abinadi applied to Christ and to all who publish peace (Mosiah 15:14–18).

10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Witness of Christ #

The mighty arm that carries lambs

Verse 10 and verse 11 use the same body part in opposite ways. In verse 10 the Lord’s arm rules with strength, the arm of a conqueror.

Verse 10 and verse 11 use the same body part in opposite ways. In verse 10 the Lord’s arm rules with strength, the arm of a conqueror. In verse 11 the same arm gathers lambs and carries them against His chest. Isaiah refuses to separate God’s power from His tenderness.

Shepherds in the region still carry newborn lambs inside the fold of their robes, and they don’t drive pregnant or nursing ewes hard. Jesus claimed the image: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11). Nephi, drawing on Isaiah, promised that the Holy One of Israel “gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him” (1 Ne. 22:25). And the risen Lord told the Nephites that they were the “other sheep” He had spoken of in Jerusalem (3 Ne. 15:21).

Verses 12–17

The God who needs no counselor

In plain words

Who has measured the oceans in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the sky with the width of his fingers? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or advised Him as His counselor? Whom did He consult, and who taught Him the right way? Who gave Him knowledge or showed Him the path of understanding? The nations are like a drop in a bucket. They are no more than dust on the scales. He picks up the islands like fine powder. All of Lebanon’s forests would not be enough fuel for His altar, and all its animals would not be enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him. He regards them as less than nothing, as emptiness.

12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?

History & Setting #

A God with no advisers

Verses 12–14 are a string of questions like the Lord’s questions to Job (Job 38:4–5).

Verses 12–14 are a string of questions like the Lord’s questions to Job (Job 38:4–5). Read against Babylonian religion, they are pointed. In the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish, the gods meet in council, and the wise god Ea devises the plans that make creation possible; Marduk is elevated to kingship by the assembly of the gods. Isaiah insists that Israel’s God consulted no one.

Paul quotes this verse, following the Greek “mind of the Lord,” to close his long meditation on God’s ways: “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Rom. 11:34; compare 1 Cor. 2:16).

Latter-day Saints, who believe in a premortal council in heaven (Abr. 3:22–28), might pause here. But the councils of the Restoration are councils in which God presides and His children are taught. The point of Isaiah’s question stands: God’s wisdom is not borrowed from anyone.

Sources: James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed 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 taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

Verses 18–26

To whom will you compare Him?

In plain words

To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you set beside Him? An idol? A craftsman casts it, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and makes silver chains for it. A person too poor for that chooses wood that won’t rot and looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that won’t topple over. Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded? God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He reduces rulers to nothing and makes the judges of the earth meaningless. They are barely planted, barely sown, barely rooted in the ground, when He blows on them and they wither, and a storm carries them off like straw. “To whom will you compare Me, or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One. Look up and see: who created all these? He leads out the stars like an army, one by one, and calls each one by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.

Word & Language #

The idol that won’t fall over

This is the first of Isaiah’s satires on idol-making (compare Isa. 41:6–7; Isa. 44:9–20; Isa. 46:1–7).

This is the first of Isaiah’s satires on idol-making (compare Isa. 41:6–7; Isa. 44:9–20; Isa. 46:1–7). The humor is deliberate. A god has to be cast, plated, fitted with chains, and set up by a skilled craftsman so that it “shall not be moved,” that is, so it won’t tip over.

The first words of verse 20 are a genuine puzzle. The KJV’s “he that is so impoverished” reads Hebrew hamsukkān as “the poor man.” But musukkannu is the Akkadian name of a hardwood tree (probably the sissoo, Dalbergia sissoo) used for fine furniture and for cult statues in Mesopotamia. Many scholars therefore translate, “as an offering, one chooses mulberry (or sissoo) wood that will not rot.” If they’re right, Isaiah is naming the very wood Babylonian craftsmen prized for making gods.

Sources: Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000. Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012. Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.

21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Word & Language #

The circle of the earth

The Hebrew ḥûg means a circle or a vault, the horizon seen as a circle, or the dome of the sky arched over the earth.

The Hebrew ḥûg means a circle or a vault, the horizon seen as a circle, or the dome of the sky arched over the earth. Job says that God “walketh in the circuit of heaven” (Job 22:14), and Proverbs that He “set a compass upon the face of the depth” (Prov. 8:27); “circuit” and “compass” translate the same word.

People sometimes cite this verse as an ancient statement that the earth is a sphere. That claims too much. The word describes a circle, not a ball, and the image in context is of God enthroned above the vault of heaven, looking down on people who seem as small as grasshoppers. Isaiah’s point isn’t cosmology. It’s perspective.

23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Restoration Insight #

He calls the stars by name

The Babylonians worshipped the heavenly bodies. Their astronomer-priests charted the planets and stars as the visible forms of gods, and the exiles lived under that sky.

The Babylonians worshipped the heavenly bodies. Their astronomer-priests charted the planets and stars as the visible forms of gods, and the exiles lived under that sky. Isaiah tells them to look up and see not gods, but an army (“their host”) that God musters “by number” and calls by name. Not one is missing from the roll call.

Latter-day revelation expands the vision. The Lord told Moses that His creations are “innumerable… unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them” (Moses 1:35). Abraham saw the stars and learned their order and governing ones (Abr. 3:1–10). The same God, Abraham was told, knows each of His spirit children (Abr. 3:22–23).

That is the logic of the chapter’s last section. If He knows every star by name, He hasn’t lost track of Jacob.

Verses 27–31

Strength for the weary

In plain words

Jacob, why do you say, and Israel, why do you complain, “My situation is hidden from the Lord, and my God ignores my case”? Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows tired or weary, and no one can measure His understanding. He gives strength to the weary and power to those who are exhausted. Even young people grow tired and weary, and strong young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint.

27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Word & Language #

Waiting as hope

“Wait upon” is qôwê, from qāwâ, to wait with expectation, to hope. It is not passive waiting in line.

“Wait upon” is qôwê, from qāwâ, to wait with expectation, to hope. It is not passive waiting in line. It’s active trust, like a watchman waiting for dawn (Ps. 130:5–6). The related noun tiqwâ means “hope,” and in one memorable passage the same noun means a cord: the “line of scarlet thread” Rahab hung from her window (Josh. 2:18). Many sermons build on the image of hope as a rope that holds. The meanings may come from a single root meaning “to stretch” or “to be taut,” though lexicographers are not certain.

“Renew” is ḥālap, to exchange. Those who hope in the Lord trade their strength for His.

The eagle (nešer) is probably the griffon vulture, which rides thermal currents for hours with barely a wingbeat. The Lord had told Israel at Sinai, “I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself” (Ex. 19:4).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000.

Restoration Insight #

The Word of Wisdom’s promise

Latter-day Saints know these words from the promise at the end of the Word of Wisdom: those who obey “shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint” (D&C 89:20).

Latter-day Saints know these words from the promise at the end of the Word of Wisdom: those who obey “shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint” (D&C 89:20). The Lord takes Isaiah’s promise to the exiles and attaches it to a law of health, and then adds that the destroying angel “shall pass by them, as the children of Israel” (D&C 89:21). Two exodus images, the eagle’s wings and the Passover, frame the promise.

Notice the order in Isaiah: soaring, then running, then walking. It sounds like an anticlimax, but it’s realistic. Most of discipleship is walking. The promise that matters most on an ordinary day may be the last one: to keep going and not faint.

Seeing Christ in Isaiah 40

All four Gospels open Jesus’s ministry with Isaiah 40:3. John the Baptist was the voice in the wilderness, and Jesus was the Lord whose way he prepared. The Gospel writers took Isaiah’s “our God” and applied it to Jesus without hesitation. For Latter-day Saints that is exactly right: the Lord (Jehovah) who promised to come to Zion is Jesus Christ.

The good news the herald announces in verse 9 is “Behold your God!” and it is the root of the word gospel. The God who comes “with strong hand” also carries lambs in His bosom (verses 10–11), and Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd. The chapter’s final promise, strength to the weary, is His invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

Liken it to yourself

The chapter opens with “Comfort ye.” Who around me needs to be spoken to “to the heart” right now?
What “valleys” in my life need to be raised and what “mountains” brought low to prepare the way for the Lord?
What in my life is grass, and what is the word of God? Which am I investing in?
Have I ever said, “My way is hid from the LORD”? What does the God who numbers the stars have to say to that?
Am I in a season of soaring, running, or walking? What would it mean to “wait upon the LORD” in that season?

Worth exploring next

The voice in the wilderness. Compare Matt. 3:1–3, Luke 3:2–6, John 1:19–23, and 1 Ne. 10:7–10.
The good-news herald. Trace bāśar through Isa. 41:27, Isa. 52:7, Isa. 61:1, and Mosiah 15:13–18.
God as Creator. Read verses 12–26 alongside Job 38–39, Ps. 104, and Moses 1:27–39.
The idol satires. Read Isa. 41:6–7, Isa. 44:9–20, and Isa. 46:1–7 as a series.
Handel’s Messiah. The oratorio opens with Isaiah 40:1–5 and returns to verses 9 and 11. Listen with the text in hand.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Matt. 3:1–3 — John the Baptist as the voice in the wilderness (also Mark 1:2–3; Luke 3:4–6; John 1:23).
1 Ne. 10:7–10 — Lehi prophesies of the forerunner who would prepare the way of the Lord.
1 Pet. 1:24–25 — Peter quotes verses 6–8 and applies “the word” to the gospel.
D&C 89:18–21 — The Word of Wisdom’s promise borrows verse 31.

Sources & further reading

Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40–66: A Commentary, Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969.
Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, Old Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001.
Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66: Translation and Commentary, Eerdmans Critical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012.
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah, Anchor Bible, 3 vols. New York: Doubleday, 2000–2003.
Bernhard Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia, Göttinger Handkommentar zum Alten Testament. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1892.
H. G. M. Williamson, The Book Called Isaiah: Deutero-Isaiah’s Role in Composition and Redaction, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaᵃ), The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.
Donald W. Parry, Jay A. Parry, and Tina M. Peterson, Understanding Isaiah, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998.
“Isaiah”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 16: The God of Israel and the Nations (Isaiah 36–47), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

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