AI-generated illustration: a shepherd carries a lamb along a straight road through the wilderness at sunrise as a prophet calls out comfort. Classical sacred-art style.
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Isaiah · WEB-C

Isaiah

40
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“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. See also: 2 Corinthians 1:4Isaiah 51:12Isaiah 51:3“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.” See also: Zechariah 9:12Isaiah 61:7Hosea 2:14The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. See also: Malachi 3:1Mark 1:2-5John 1:23Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. See also: Luke 3:5Ezekiel 21:26Luke 18:14The LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.” See also: Habakkuk 2:14Isaiah 52:10Joel 2:28The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. See also: Psalms 103:15-161 Peter 1:24-25James 1:10-11The grass withers, the flower fades, because the LORD’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. See also: Job 41:21The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.” See also: Mark 13:31Matthew 24:351 Peter 1:25You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!” See also: Isaiah 52:7-8Ephesians 6:19Isaiah 12:2Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. See also: Revelation 22:12Revelation 17:14Isaiah 62:11He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young. See also: Revelation 7:17Psalms 23:1-6Micah 5:4Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? See also: Proverbs 30:4Hebrews 1:10-12Psalms 102:25-26Who has directed the LORD’s Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor? See also: 1 Corinthians 2:16Romans 11:34Job 21:22Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? See also: Job 21:22Colossians 2:31 Corinthians 12:4-6Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing. See also: Isaiah 40:22Jeremiah 10:10Job 34:14-15Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering. See also: Micah 6:6-7Psalms 40:6Psalms 50:9-12All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity. See also: Psalms 62:9Daniel 4:34-35Isaiah 29:7To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him? See also: Isaiah 46:51 Samuel 2:2Isaiah 40:25A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it. See also: Jeremiah 10:9Isaiah 46:6-7Habakkuk 2:18-19He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved. See also: Jeremiah 10:3-4Isaiah 46:7Isaiah 41:7Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth? See also: Isaiah 48:13Romans 1:19-21Isaiah 46:8It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, See also: Proverbs 8:27Psalms 104:2Isaiah 42:5who brings princes to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. See also: Job 12:21Psalms 107:40Isaiah 34:12They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. See also: Isaiah 41:16Haggai 1:9Isaiah 17:13“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One. See also: Isaiah 40:18Deuteronomy 4:33Deuteronomy 4:15-18Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking. See also: Colossians 1:16-17Jeremiah 32:17-19Isaiah 48:13Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”? See also: Isaiah 49:4Luke 18:7-8Isaiah 49:14Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable. See also: Romans 11:33-34Psalms 147:51 Timothy 1:17He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might. See also: Isaiah 41:10Philippians 4:132 Corinthians 12:9-10Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; See also: Amos 2:14Psalms 34:10Psalms 33:16but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint. See also: Lamentations 3:25-262 Corinthians 4:16Psalms 27:13-14

See also: Cross references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), derived in part from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)20 notes

Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.

These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity

Isaiah 40:1

Ver. 1. Be. Sept. "comfort my people." Let them not be dejected. H. --- The end of the captivity, and still more the coming of the Messias, afford consolation, (C.) and to this the prophet chiefly alludes. W.

↑ 1

Isaiah 40:2

Ver. 2. Evil. Heb. and some Latin copies have, "warfare." --- Double. A rigorous chastisement.

Apoc. xviii. 6. C.

↑ 2

Isaiah 40:3

Ver. 3. God, that he may conduct his people from Babylon. Sanchez. --- Yet the prophet speaks chiefly of the baptist, (Mat. iii. 3. C.) who is evidently foretold.

W.

↑ 3

Isaiah 40:4

Ver. 4. Plain. For the captives, or the conversion of the world. Bar. v. 6.

↑ 4

Isaiah 40:5

Ver. 5. Glory. God will rescue his people. Christ will redeem mankind.

↑ 5

Isaiah 40:6

Ver. 6. Field. On the downfall of the empire of Babylon, the Jews were liberated.

↑ 6

Isaiah 40:9

Ver. 9. Thou, female. How beautiful are the feet of those who announce good tidings! Rom. x.

15. H. --- Thus a feminine noun is applied to Solomon. Eccle. i. Prophets make known to all the coming of the Saviour. C. --- Christ preaches from the mountain, and his apostles over the world.

W.

↑ 9

Isaiah 40:10

Ver. 10. Him. Christ will reward and punish. Jer. xxxi. 16. Lu. ii. 34.

↑ 10

Isaiah 40:11

Ver. 11. Young, or have lately had young lambs, fœtas. Jesus is the good shepherd. Jo. x. 14.

↑ 11

Isaiah 40:12

Ver. 12. Who. He now proceeds to shew the difference between God and idols.

--- Fingers, is not expressed in Heb. which may denote the epha. Ps. lxxix. 6. C.

--- God's power and goodness in the works of the creation, shew what he will do for man. W.

↑ 12

Isaiah 40:15

Ver. 15. Dust. Heb. caddak, (H.) "as dok fallen." Sym. --- It may signify an atom.

S. Jer. --- If all nations be only like a drop, what portion of it do I occupy? C. v.

17.

↑ 15

Isaiah 40:18

This 19th-century note uses polemical language; read it in the light of the note at the top of this panel.

Ver. 18. Image. Catholics never pretend to represent the Deity, when they depict the Father as a venerable old man, &c. The do not adore pictures, as our adversaries would insinuate. If we were disposed to cavil, we might bring the same charge against them. For a few weeks ago, "a beautiful altar-piece, painted and presented by the lady of major general Cheney, was put in Horn-sea church, representing Christ blessing the bread and wine." But Protestants can confine such things to their proper use, and Catholic must adore them. H.

--- "Such things the Jew, Apella, may believe: not I." Horace.

↑ 18

Isaiah 40:19

Ver. 19. Silver. Is God like these idols? H. --- Who knows not that the workman is better than they are? Wis. xiii. 11. C.

↑ 19

Isaiah 40:20

Ver. 20. Wood. Heb. hamsuccan, (H.) which Sept. Chal. and S. Jerom explain of a sort of wood used for idols. Moderns take it to be "a rich," or rather "a poor man. He who is mean in his offering, chooses wood that," &c. C. Prot.

↑ 20

Isaiah 40:21

Ver. 21. Beginning, by the light of nature, and (W.) has not Moses declared that God alone created the world? H. --- His power and goodness herein convince us that he will not deny grace.

W.

↑ 21

Isaiah 40:22

Ver. 22. Locusts, compared with the greatest animals. --- Nothing. Heb. "a curtain." Sept. Syr.

"vault, (C.) or chamber," kamaran.

↑ 22

Isaiah 40:23

Ver. 23. Searchers. Heb. "princes to nothing." Prot. H. --- Philosophers know nothing independently of God, nor can they subsist without him. W.

↑ 23

Isaiah 40:26

Ver. 26. Host of heaven, the stars, &c. Gen. ii. 1. Ps. cxlvi. 4.

↑ 26

Isaiah 40:27

Ver. 27. Judgment, or conduct, (Gen. xl. 13. C.) as if God minded not our affairs.

↑ 27

Isaiah 40:31

Ver. 31. Eagles, who grow young, when they get new feathers. Ps. cii. 5. S. Jer.

--- In this and the following 26 chapters the prophet chiefly comforts his people, as he had rebuked them for their crimes in the first part. W.

↑ 31

License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses

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Edition: World English Bible (Catholic) · License: Public Domain
World English Bible (Catholic). Public Domain. Source: eBible.org.
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