Isaiah 40:9

Note

Isaiah 40 opens with comfort, and then a herald climbs a high mountain and lifts up a voice to the towns of Judah. The news fits in four words: "Here is your God!"

The chapter begins, "“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God" (Isaiah 40:1). Jerusalem's hard service is over and her iniquity pardoned (Isaiah 40:2). A voice calls for a highway for the LORD in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3); another says that all flesh is grass, "but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8). Our verse follows. To towns long laid waste, a herald on the heights announces that God is coming. The next two verses describe Him: "the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm establishes His rule" (Isaiah 40:10), and "He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart" (Isaiah 40:11).

The herald is called mevaseret, the piel participle of basar (בָּשַׂר), feminine singular, in the construct form, and it comes twice: mevaseret Tsiyyon, mevaseret Yerushalayim. Every command that follows is feminine singular too. The construct can be read two ways: Zion herself is the bearer of good news, or the herald is one who brings good news to Zion. The feminine suits Isaiah's habit of picturing the city as a woman, and it brings to mind the great company of women heralds in Psalm 68 (Psalm 68:11).

The translations divide on exactly this point. The KJV reads Zion as the herald: "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain." So do the BSB, "O Zion, herald of good news," and the LSV, "O Zion, Proclaiming tidings." The Septuagint takes the other road, with a masculine participle and Zion as the one addressed, ‘you who bring good news to Zion’ (ὁ εὐαγγελιζόμενος Σιων), and the Korean 개역한글 does the same, while the 흠정역 follows the KJV. On the first reading, the city that has just been comforted becomes the messenger to the other towns of Judah. On the second, the news runs to Zion from outside. Both are honest readings of the Hebrew, and on either one the message is the same.

Wesley takes the KJV's side: "Zion or Jerusalem is the publisher, and the cities of Judah the hearers" Wesley. On the charge not to be afraid he writes: "Lest thou shouldest be found a false prophet" Wesley. News this good can be hard to believe, and the one who carries it may fear it will not come true. Matthew Henry reads the verse of Christ's coming: "The glad tidings of the coming of Christ were to be sent forth to the ends of the earth" Matthew Henry. Of the shepherd in verse 11 he says simply, "Christ is the good Shepherd" Matthew Henry.

The New Testament opens the gospel with this chapter. Mark writes, "This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (Mark 1:1), and goes straight to the voice in the wilderness. Peter quotes the grass and the flower and the word that stands forever, and adds, "And this is the word that was proclaimed to you" (1 Peter 1:25); the Greek verb there is euangelizomai, to bring good news. The news shouted from Isaiah's mountain is the news the New Testament calls the gospel.

The herald points the towns of Judah to one Person. The arm that rules is the arm that gathers the lambs and carries them close to the heart (Isaiah 40:10–11). That is the God this verse tells them to look at.