Text -- Isaiah 40:1-5 (NET)

The Lord Returns to Jerusalem

40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 40:2 “Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and tell her that her time of warfare is over, that her punishment is completed. For the Lord has made her pay double for all her sins.” 40:3 A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; construct in the desert a road for our God. 40:4 Every valley must be elevated, and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley. 40:5 The splendor of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it at the same time. For the Lord has decreed it.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Isa 40:1

¹ tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural. The identity of the addressee is uncertain: (1) God’s people may be addressed, or (2) the unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem.

NET Notes: Isa 40:2

¹ tn Heb “speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is personified as a woman.

² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

³ tn Heb “that she is filled [with] her warfare.” Some understand צָבָא (tsavah, “warfare”) as meaning “hard service” or “compulsory labor” in this context.

⁴ tn Heb “that her punishment is accepted [as satisfactory].”

⁵ tn Heb “for she has received from the hand of the Lord double.” The principle of the double portion in punishment is also seen in Jer 16:18; 17:18 and Rev 18:6. For examples of the double portion in Israelite law, see Exod 22:4, 7, 9 (double restitution by a thief) and Deut 21:17 (double inheritance portion for the firstborn).

NET Notes: Isa 40:5

¹ tn Or “glory.” The Lord’s “glory” is his theophanic radiance and royal splendor (see Isa 6:3; 24:23; 35:2; 60:1; 66:18-19).

² tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NAB, NIV “mankind”; TEV “the whole human race.”

³ tn Or “indeed.”

⁴ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).