Isaiah40chapter 40

From here the book speaks to people in exile as though they are standing in front of the prophet. Because of that, and because Cyrus is named a few chapters on, most critical scholars propose a second author writing in the 500s BC and often a third for the closing chapters. The position held here is the traditional one: Isaiah, writing in advance, exactly as he says a prophet should. Two facts are worth knowing on either view. Isaiah's God stakes his claim on being the one who tells the future before it happens, which he argues out in chapter 41. And the oldest complete copy of the book we possess — the Great Isaiah Scroll from the caves at Qumran, copied around 125 BC — runs from chapter 1 to chapter 66 as one continuous scroll, with no break, no seam, and no change of hand at chapter 40.

The opening picture is a road gang. When a king traveled, crews went ahead to level the route, fill hollows, cut down high ground, and straighten the way — the great processional avenues of Babylon and Persia were built for exactly that. Isaiah has a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare that road, only the one arriving is the LORD himself, and every valley and mountain in the way is coming down.

The grass image is a specific weather event. When the sirocco blows in off the desert, green hillsides brown out in a day or two — the wind blows on it, the grass withers, the flower fades. That is the measurement Isaiah puts on all human strength, and against it he sets the one thing left standing: the word of our God shall stand forever.

The idol description is a workshop report. A craftsman casts the image, the goldsmith beats out gold plate to cover it, and silver chains are made to hold it. A man too poor for that chooses a wood that will not rot and hires a skilled workman to set it up so it will not topple over. The gods of the empire that conquered you have to be nailed down.

The last verses are astronomy and shepherding at once. He brings out the starry host by number and calls them all by name, and he gathers lambs in his arm and carries them in his chest, and gently leads those that are with young. A ewe near lambing cannot be driven at the flock's pace; a shepherd slows down for her.