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“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
Verse 1. Be. Septuagint “comfort my people.” Let them not be dejected. Bible.—The end of the captivity, and still more the coming of the Messias, afford consolation, ( Calmet.) and to this the prophet chiefly alludes. Worthington.
“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
Verse 2. Evil. Hebrew and some Latin copies have, “warfare.”—Double. A rigorous chastisement. Revelation 18:6. Calmet.
The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
Verse 3. God, that he may conduct his people from Babylon. Sanchez.—Yet the prophet speaks chiefly of the baptist, (Matthew 3:3. Calmet.) who is evidently foretold. Worthington.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
Verse 4. Plain. For the captives, or the conversion of the world. Baruch 5:6.
The LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”
Verse 5. Glory. God will rescue his people. Christ will redeem mankind.
The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
Verse 6. Field. On the downfall of the empire of Babylon, the Jews were liberated.
The grass withers, the flower fades, because the LORD’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”
You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”
Verse 9. Thou, female. How beautiful are the feet of those who announce good tidings! Romans 10:15. Bible.—Thus a feminine noun is applied to Solomon. Eccle. i. Prophets make known to all the coming of the Saviour. Calmet.—Christ preaches from the mountain, and his apostles over the world. Worthington.
Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
Verse 10. Him. Christ will reward and punish. Jeremiah 31:16. Lu. 2:34.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
Verse 11. Young, or have lately had young lambs, fœtas. Jesus is the good shepherd. John 10:14.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Verse 12. Who. He now proceeds to shew the difference between God and idols.—Fingers, is not expressed in Hebrew which may denote the epha. Psalms 79:6. Calmet.—God’s power and goodness in the works of the creation, shew what he will do for man. Worthington.
Who has directed the LORD’s Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor?
Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
Verse 15. Dust. Hebrew caddak, ( Bible.) “as dok fallen.” Sym.—It may signify an atom. Saint Jerome—If all nations be only like a drop, what portion of it do I occupy? Calmet. verse 17.
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?
Verse 18. Image. Catholics never pretend to represent the Deity, when they depict the Father as a venerable old man, and so forth The do not adore pictures, as our adversaries would insinuate. If we were disposed to cavil, we might bring the same charge against them. For a few weeks ago, “a beautiful altar-piece, painted and presented by the lady of major general Cheney, was put in Horn-sea church, representing Christ blessing the bread and wine.” But Protestants can confine such things to their proper use, and Catholic must adore them. Bible.—“Such things the Jew, Apella, may believe: not I.” Horace.
A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
Verse 19. Silver. Is God like these idols? Bible.—Who knows not that the workman is better than they are? Wisdom 13:11. Calmet.
He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.
Verse 20. Wood. Hebrew hamsuccan, ( Bible.) which Septuagint Chal. and S. Jerom explain of a sort of wood used for idols. Moderns take it to be “a rich,” or rather “a poor man. He who is mean in his offering, chooses wood that,” and so forth Calmet. Prot.
Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?
Verse 21. Beginning, by the light of nature, and ( Worthington.) has not Moses declared that God alone created the world? Bible.—His power and goodness herein convince us that he will not deny grace. Worthington.
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in,
Verse 22. Locusts, compared with the greatest animals.—Nothing. Hebrew “a curtain.” Septuagint Syr. “vault, ( Calmet.) or chamber,” καμαραν.
who brings princes to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
Verse 23. Searchers. Hebrew “princes to nothing.” Prot. Bible.—Philosophers know nothing independently of God, nor can they subsist without him. Worthington.
They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking.
Verse 26. Host of heaven, the stars, and so forth Genesis 2:1. Psalms 146:4.
Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”?
Verse 27. Judgment, or conduct, (Genesis 40:13. Calmet.) as if God minded not our affairs.
Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
Verse 31. Eagles, who grow young, when they get new feathers. Psalms 102:5. Saint Jerome—In this and the following 26 chapters the prophet chiefly comforts his people, as he had rebuked them for their crimes in the first part. Worthington.