turn; hence the situation to which he addressed himself was also uniform and unchanging. No special occasions were required to move him to speech, nor had he any need, like the pre-exilic prophets, to adopt special modes of address for different sets of people or for representatives of different interests. Deutero-Isaiah’s whole proclamation is summed up in its opening and closing statements (40:8 and 56:6–11), concerning the word of God. 4. The cry, ‘the grass withers, the flower fades’, in 40:7