Isaiah 40:1–5

The Lord Returns to Jerusalem

40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”

says your1 God.

40:2 “Speak kindly to2 Jerusalem,3 and tell her

that her time of warfare is over,4

that her punishment is completed.5

For the Lord has made her pay double6 for all her sins.”

40:3 A voice cries out,

“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;

construct in the desert a road for our God.

40:4 Every valley must be elevated,

and every mountain and hill leveled.

The rough terrain will become a level plain,

the rugged landscape a wide valley.

40:5 The splendor7 of the Lord will be revealed,

and all people8 will see it at the same time.

For9 the Lord has decreed it.”10

1	tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine plural. The identity of the addressee is uncertain: (1) God’s people may be addressed, or (2) the unidentified heralds commanded to comfort Jerusalem.
2	tn Heb “speak to the heart of Jerusalem.” Jerusalem is personified as a woman.
3	map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
4	tn Heb “that she is filled [with] her warfare.” Some understand צָבָא (tsavah, “warfare”) as meaning “hard service” or “compulsory labor” in this context.
5	tn Heb “that her punishment is accepted [as satisfactory].”
6	tn Heb “for she has received from the hand of the Lord double.” The principle of the double portion in punishment is also seen in Jer 16:18; 17:18 and Rev 18:6. For examples of the double portion in Israelite law, see Exod 22:4, 7, 9 (double restitution by a thief) and Deut 21:17 (double inheritance portion for the firstborn).
7	tn Or “glory.” The Lord’s “glory” is his theophanic radiance and royal splendor (see Isa 6:3; 24:23; 35:2; 60:1; 66:18–19).
8	tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NAB, NIV “mankind”; TEV “the whole human race.”
9	tn Or “indeed.”
10	tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).