Isaiah 40 is the fortieth chapter of the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

or the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

of the

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, and the first chapter of the section known as "Deutero-Isaiah" (Isaiah 40- 55), dating from the time of the

Israelites The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...

' exile in Babylon. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

, and is one of the

Books of the Prophets Nevi'im (; he, נְבִיאִים ''Nəvīʾīm'', Tiberian: ''Năḇīʾīm,'' "Prophets", literally "spokespersons") is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the ''Tanakh''), lying between the Torah (instruction) and Ketuvim (wri ...

. Parts of this chapter are cited in all four canonical

Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

Text

The original text was written in

Hebrew language Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. This chapter is divided into 31 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the

Codex Cairensis The Codex Cairensis (also: ''Codex Prophetarum Cairensis'', ''Cairo Codex of the Prophets'') is a Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Hebrew Bible's Nevi'im (Prophets). It has traditionally been described as "the oldest dated He ...

(895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916),

Aleppo Codex The Aleppo Codex ( he, כֶּתֶר אֲרָם צוֹבָא, romanized: , lit. 'Crown of Aleppo') is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the city of Tiberias in the tenth century CE (circa 920) under the ...

(10th century),

Codex Leningradensis The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...

(1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the

Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the nor ...

(3rd century BC or later): * 1QIsa^a: complete * 1QIsa^b: extant verses 1-4 * 4QIsa^b (4Q56): extant verses 1‑4, 22‑26 * 5Q³ (5QIsa): extant verses 16, 18‑19 There is also a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the

version include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century),

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

(S; BHK:

\mathfrak

^S; 4th century),

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century) and

Codex Marchalianus Codex Marchalianus designated by siglum Q is a 6th-century Greek manuscript copy of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament) known as the Septuagint. The text was written on vellum in uncial letters. Palaeographically it ...

(Q;

\mathfrak

^Q; 6th century).

New Testament references

*: Matthew 3:1– 12; ; ; Isaiah 40
Berean Study Bible *: *:

Parashot

The ''

parashah The term ''parashah'' ( he, פָּרָשָׁה ''Pārāšâ'', "portion", Tiberian , Sephardi , plural: ''parashot'' or ''parashiyot'', also called ''parsha'') formally means a section of a biblical book in the Masoretic Text of the Tanakh (Heb ...

'' sections listed here are based on the

. Isaiah 40 is a part of the ''Consolations (Isaiah 40 –66)''. : open ''parashah''; : closed ''parashah''. : 40:1-2 40:3-5 40:6-8 40:9-11 40:12-16 40:17-20 40:21-24 40:25-26 40:27-31

Structure

John Skinner, in the

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges is a biblical commentary set published in parts by Cambridge University Press from 1882 onwards. Anglican bishop John Perowne was the general editor. The first section published was written by theologian ...

commentary, refers to verses 1-11 as the prologue (to Deutero-Isaiah).

Prepare the Way for the LORD (40:1–5)

Verse 1

:''Comfort,'' ::''comfort my people,'' ::''says your God.'' *"Your": The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural, may refer to "God’s people" or "unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem".

Verse 2

: ''Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her'' ::''that her warfare is ended,'' :::''that her iniquity is pardoned,'' ::''that she has received from the Lord's hand'' :::''double for all her sins.'' In the

this passage is addressed to the priests.

Verse 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.'' This verse is cited in all four

gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

as fulfilled in the person of

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

, who prepared for the coming of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

the Lord ( Matthew 3:1 –3; Mark 1:2–; Luke 3:2– 6; John 1:23). John himself confessed that the verse pertains to him: : ''He ohn the Baptistsaid, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet

said".'' Some

English translations Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

associate the reference to "the wilderness" with "the voice which cries out": examples include the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

and

New King James Version The New King James Version (NKJV) is an English translation of the Bible. The complete NKJV Bible was published in 1982 by Thomas Nelson, now HarperCollins. The NKJV is described by Thomas Nelson as being "scrupulously faithful to the origin ...

, the

Geneva Bible The Geneva Bible is one of the most historically significant translations of the Bible into English, preceding the King James Version by 51 years. It was the primary Bible of 16th-century English Protestantism and was used by William Shakespear ...

, Wycliffe's translation, the

Darby Bible The Darby Bible (DBY, formal title ''The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation from the Original Languages by J. N. Darby'') refers to the Bible as translated from Hebrew and Greek by John Nelson Darby. History and principles Darby published a ...

and Brenton's translation of the Septuagint. In more recent translations, "the wilderness" is associated with the place where the way of the Lord is to be prepared: examples include the ASV,

Common English Bible The Common English Bible (CEB) is an English translation of the Bible whose language is intended to be at a comfortable reading level for the majority of English readers. The translation was begun in late 2008 and was finished in 2011. It includes ...

Contemporary English Version The Contemporary English Version or CEV (also known as Bible for Today's Family) is a translation of the Bible into English, published by the American Bible Society. An anglicized version was produced by the British and Foreign Bible Society, w ...

English Standard Version The English Standard Version (ESV) is an English translation of the Bible. Published in 2001 by Crossway, the ESV was "created by a team of more than 100 leading evangelical scholars and pastors." The ESV relies on recently published critic ...

Jerusalem Bible ''The Jerusalem Bible'' (JB or TJB) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1966 by Darton, Longman & Todd. As a Catholic Bible, it includes 73 books: the 39 books shared with the Hebrew Bible, along with the seven deuterocanonical ...

Revised Standard Version The Revised Standard Version (RSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. This translation itself is a revision of the Ameri ...

and

New Revised Standard Version The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is an English translation of the Bible published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches.

Verse 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:'' Cited in Luke 3:5.

Verse 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.'' Cited in Luke 3:6. Ellicott, C. J. (Ed.) (1905)
''Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers''. Isaiah 40.
London : Cassell and Company, Limited, 905-1906Online version: (OCoLC) 929526708. Accessed 28 April 2019.

The Enduring Word (40:6–8)

Verse 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:'' *" All flesh is grass" (Hebrew: ''-ha- '' compare to and see also ; ; ; .Exell, Joseph S.; Spence-Jones, Henry Donald Maurice (Editors)
On "Isaiah 40".
In: ''The

Pulpit Commentary The ''Pulpit Commentary'' is a homiletic commentary on the Bible created during the nineteenth century under the direction of Rev. Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones. It consists of 23 volumes with 22,000 pages and 95,000 entrie ...

''. 23 volumes. First publication: 1890. Accessed 24 April 2019. is answering the question, "What shall I cry?" (also see ; ; ).

Isaiah 40
Accessed 28 April 2019. Cited in 1 Peter 1:24. Barnes, Albert
''Notes on the Bible'' - Isaiah 40
James Murphy (ed). London: Blackie & Son, 1884.

Verse 7

:''The grass withers, the flower fades'' ::''because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it;'' ::''surely the people are grass.'' *"Spirit of the Lord": can also rendered as "wind of Jehovah" () or may refer to the "withering east wind of those countries sent by Jehovah" ().

Verse 8

:''The grass withers, the flower fades,'' ::''but the word of our God shall stand forever.'' Cited together with Isaiah 40:6 in 1 Peter 1:24–25.

Here Is Your God! (40:9–31)

Verse 13

: ''Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,'' :: ''Or as His counselor has taught Him?'' * Cross reference: * Cited in Romans 11:34

Verse 22

Mural in Church of the Sermon on the Mount 1112 (511012098)

:''It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,'' ::''and its inhabitants are like

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

s;'' :''who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,'' ::''and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;'' Westermann notes the similarity of parts of this verse to other Bible verses: verse 22a vs. b and verse 22b vs. b. This verse contains several rare words such as , ''doq'' ("curtain"), and , ''mathach'' ("spread, stretch"), which are only found here, as well as , ''chug'' ("circle"), which are only found in a few other verses (; ; ) suggesting "well-defined, distinctive traditions." * "Circle" (of the earth): is translated from the Hebrew word , , which also denotes "horizon, circuit, vault of the heavens"; while the Gesenius Lexicon also adds "sphere". It can refer to ** the full circuit the seen and unseen halves of the stars across the dome of the sky, or ** the vault of heaven () extending "in a half-circle from horizon to horizon", or ** a circular observable horizon (cf. ; ) :It is to emphasize the range of God’s authority "over everything the eye can see in every direction, even to the distant ends of the earth," but not necessarily refer to the "circular nature of the earth." :

Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...

mentions an expression with the same root in "and with a

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

(וּבַמְּחוּגָה)" to view this word as a "circle" (as made by a

). A newer edition of the

Douay–Rheims Bible The Douay–Rheims Bible (, ), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by member ...

renders it as "globe" – and so does the Spanish version of the Jubilee Bible (''el globo'', although the English version renders as "circle") – but an older edition of the Douay-Reims renders it as "compasse" (original spelling in 1582 CE).

Uses

Modern literature

A part of the Hebrew text of Isaiah 40:4 was used by

Shmuel Yosef Agnon Shmuel Yosef Agnon ( he, שמואל יוסף עגנון; July 17, 1888 – February 17, 1970) was one of the central figures of modern Hebrew literature. In Hebrew, he is known by the acronym Shai Agnon (). In English, his works are published und ...

as the title for his 1912-novella, "Vehaya Ha'akov Lemishor" ("The Crooked Shall Be Made Straight").

Music

The

of verses 1–5, 9 and 11 from this chapter is cited as texts in the English-language

oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...

" by

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

(HWV 56).

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

Jewish

Isaiah 40: Hebrew with Parallel English

Christian

Isaiah 40 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate
{{Book of Isaiah 40 Christian messianism