the sentence to rise to a climax. But, as the prophet puts it, it reads like a descending and diminishing promise, finishing in a kind of anti-climax. As the greatest of the commentators on Isaiah puts it: “Soaring, running, walking; and is not the next stage, a cynic might ask, standing still?” On second thoughts, however, we begin to realise that this is no descending and diminishing promise and that the “walking” at the finish is no anti-climax. The sentence is a true crescendo. The promise rises