Isaiah 40:12-31 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

An Expansion of the Text Suggested in Isaiah 40:6-8.

Isaiah 40:12-17. The Majesty of God, in Whose Eyes the World is Insignificant. God is the Creator, disposing of earth and heaven as very small things. No adviser instructed Him. The nations in His sight are like the drop hanging from the bucket, or the dust on the scale, too small to count in the bulk. The forests of Lebanon and the many wild beasts that range them would not provide fuel and victims for a worthy sacrifice.

Isaiah 40:14. path of judgement: rather, the correct way. way of understanding: how to do it.

Isaiah 40:15. isles: properly coastlands, but used as a synonym for (distant) lands.

Isaiah 40:17-20. What Material Image Can Represent so Mighty a God?

Isaiah 41:6 f. should be inserted to fill the obvious gap between Isaiah 40:19 and Isaiah 40:20. In their present context they are a disturbing element. Addressing mankind the prophet asks, If God is so exalted, what can represent Him? A molten image? Why the founder makes a core, which the goldsmith plates with gold, the workmen heartening each other as they work! A wooden idol? Carved from a tree and propped securely lest it fall! How absurdly inadequate!

Isaiah 40:19. graven image: the original sense of the word; here simply image; a molten image is in question. In Isaiah 40:20 it is used of a carven image. and casteth. chains: LXX omits; delete as a guess at unintelligible and corrupt Heb. Isaiah 41:6. Render, Each helps the other, and says to his comrade, Be strong.

Isaiah 40:7. carpenter: render, artificer. that smiteth the anvil: what has the blacksmith to do here? The last delicate modelling? fastened it: it may be the gold plating: the next clause is a gloss from Isaiah 40:20.

Isaiah 40:20. He. oblation: improbable translation of unintelligible text. Possibly emend, He who cuts out an image (of wood).

Isaiah 40:21-26. God's Absolute Power over the Universe and its Inhabitants. The appeal is again to mankind. The universe from the beginning has shown its Maker's might. Enthroned high above the disc-like earth, He spreads the heavens over it, easily as if they were but a tent (cf. mg.). History shows that no earthly power, however august, can for a moment survive His attack. What image can represent such an one? Even the stars (regarded here as in some sense personalities; Genesis 2:1 *, Job 38:7 *) are His handiwork, and He summons them forth each night to take their appointed stations; so great is His might that none of them dare play truant.

Isaiah 40:24. Their reign seems to end before it has begun (mg.).

Isaiah 40:26. Read, For fear of him who is great in might and strong in power not one fails.

Isaiah 40:27-31. Yahweh, the Eternal God. shall Strengthen All who Trust in Him. Israel complains that God has forgotten her just claims. Does she not see that God takes long views beyond her absorption in the moment? Let her not fear that He has become decrepit. On the contrary, His overflowing strength shall fill those who trust in Him so that they, when even strong men despair, shall rise above all feebleness.

Isaiah 40:27. way: render, fate. Judgement: render right. passed away from: i.e., is forgotten by.

Isaiah 40:31. mount. eagles: read, Put forth wings like (those of) eagles. The following words are an addition and an anticlimax.

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 40:12

Isaiah 40:12-31

12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,e and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?

14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructedf him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

20 He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.

21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renewg their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.