Ver. 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.] Hitherto hath been the comminatory part of this prophecy: followeth now the consolatory. Here beginneth the gospel of the prophet Isaiah, and holds on to the end of the book. The good people of his time had been forewarned by the foregoing chapter of the Babylonian captivity, Those in later times, not only during the captivity, but under Antiochus and other tyrants, were ready to think themselves utterly cast off, because heavily afflicted. See Isaiah 40:27 of this chapter, with Lamentations 5:22. Here, therefore, command is given for their comfort, and that gospel be preached to the penitent; the word here used signifieth, first to repent, then to comfort. (1 Samuel 15:35 1 Samuel 12:24) This our prophet had been a Boanerges, a thundering preacher, all the fore part of his life. See one instance for all, (Isaiah 24) where, Pericles-like, fulgurat, intonat, totam terram permiscet, &c. Now toward his latter end, and when he had one foot in the grave, the other in heaven, he grew more mellow and melleous, as did likewise Mr Lever, Mr Perkins, Mr Whately, and some other eminent and earnest preachers that might be named, setting himself wholly in a manner to comfort the abject and feeble minded; which also he doth with singular dexterity and efficacy. This redoubled “Comfort ye,” is not without its emphasis; but that which followeth (Isaiah 40:2) is a very hive of heavenly honey. Sunt autem omnia plena magnis adfectibus. -Hyp.
Ver. 2. Speak ye comfortably.] Speak to the heart, as Genesis 34:3 Ho 2:14. Cheer her up, speak to her with utmost earnestness, that your words may work upon her and stick-by her; do it solidly, not frigidly. That her warfare is accomplished.] Militiam, not malitiam, as the Vulgate hath it; the word signifieth also a set term of time. See Daniel 9:2 Ga 4:4. God hath limited the saints’ sufferings. (Revelation 2:10) Some by warfare here understand that hard and troublesome pedagogy of Moses’ law, that yoke importable, (Acts 15:10) taken away by Christ. That her iniquity is pardoned.] Heb., Her iniquity is accepted: perfectam esse poenam eius, so Piscator rendereth it. She might be under God’s hand, though her sins were pardoned. The palsyman heard, “Son, thy sins are forgiven thee,” some while before he heard, “Take up thy bed and walk.” That she hath received of the Lord’s hand double,] i.e., Abundantly and in a large measure, satis superque, so much as to her merciful Father seemeth over and above, more than enough. “She hath received double for all her sins”: and yet death is the just hire of the least sin. (Romans 6:23) But this is the language of God’s compassions rolled together and kindled into repentings; Jerusalem herself was of another judgment. (Ezra 9:13) “Our God hath punished us less than our sins,” and yet he reckoneth that we “fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.” (Colossians 1:24)
Ver. 3. The voice of him that crieth.] See Matthew 3:3 Joh 1:25, [See Trapp on “Mt 3:3”] [See Trapp on “Joh 1:25”] but Luke citeth this text more fully than the other evangelists, applying it to the Baptist crying in the wilderness— sc., of Judea, where he first preached, or, as some sense it, in the ears of a waste and wild people. Hereby is meant the world, saith one, void of God’s grace, barren in all virtue, having no pleasing abode, nor sure direction of any good way in it, being full of horror and accursed. Diod.
Ver. 4. Every valley shall be exalted.] Terms taken from the custom of princes coming into a place—viz., to have their way cleared, and passages facilitated. See on Matthew 3:3.
Ver. 5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,] i.e., Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, (James 2:1) shall appear in the flesh. Some interpreters understand this whole sermon, ad literam, concerning Christ and redemption wrought by him, yet with an allusion to the Jews’ deliverance out of Babylon; for this was a type of that, like as Cyrus also was of Christ.
Ver. 6. The voice.] Or, A voice— sc., in vision. What shall I cry? All flesh is grass.] This is taught by every philosopher, saith Sasbout: but never is it taught effectually till cried to the heart by God’s Word and Spirit, for which reason also it is not uttered here without a preparative, by way of dialogue, to stir up to attention. All flesh is grass.] Not only as grass, but is grass: we are all but dying men; death hath already taken hold of us, and doth every day feed upon us insensibly. To live is but to lie dying. The Jews at this day, when they return from burying a corpse, cast grass over their heads; either to signify that all flesh is grass, or else their hope of a resurrection. And all the goodliness thereof.] Anything eximious or excellent in man must needs vanish, when the glory of the Lord is revealed. (Isaiah 40:5) The sight of God makes all else little. As the flower of the field.] Which is more apt to be blasted, cropped, or trodden down, than the flower of the garden. “ Esse, fuisse, fore, tria florida sunt sine flore: Nam simul omne perit, quod fuit, est, et erit.”