Isaiah 40:1-2 announces comfort for Jerusalem because her time of discipline is ending and her guilt has been paid for. Her time of servitude in payment for her violation of the covenant will conclude. God commands His messengers to speak tenderly to His people and proclaim that restoration is coming.
Isaiah 40:1-2 opens the second half of Isaiah with God's command to comfort His people, announcing to Jerusalem that her warfare has ended, her iniquity has been removed, and she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins: "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God (v. 1).
The doubled imperative is a Hebrew device for urgency and intensity. Isaiah uses it repeatedly in this half of the book: "Awake, awake" (Isaiah 51:9, 52:1), "Depart, depart" (Isaiah 52:11). The repetition here signals that comfort is now the LORD's pressing business, commanded twice before anything else in the chapter is said.
The command is plural. God addresses a company of messengers—His prophets, and behind them the heavenly council whose deliberations Isaiah once overheard when he heard the question, "Who will go for Us?" (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah 6 commissioned the prophet to preach hardening and devastation "until cities are devastated" (Isaiah 6:11). Isaiah 40 issues the counter-commission: the devastation has run its course, and the messengers are now sent to console.
My people and your God are the two halves of the covenant formula that runs from Exodus onward: "I will take you for My people, and I will be your God" (Exodus 6:7; see also Leviticus 26:12,Jeremiah 31:33). The formula appears here at the moment it might have seemed to an observer as being void. But God’s promises are never revoked. Judah suffered the consequences of their actions as promised in their covenant/treaty with God. They had broken their vow to love their neighbor and instead adopted the pagan culture of exploitation.
The "tribute" God demanded as His "payment" under the treaty was to love their neighbor, seek justice and mercy—but they had not. As a result, they were liable to the "cursings" provision of the covenant/treaty (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). This included conquest and exile (Deuteronomy 28:25, 29-33, 36-37, 43-44). Israel had voluntarily entered the covenant/treaty and vowed to keep their part (Exodus 19:8). But they have failed to uphold their obligations many times over.
God did keep His part, and brought about the enforcement provisions of the treaty. But His word still stands, and in the covenant/treaty God also promised that when the cursings provision was implemented that He would bring them back when He saw their strength was gone (Deuteronomy 32:36).
Judah's monarchy had ended, the temple had burned, and the population displaced to Babylon—every visible sign of the covenant had been dismantled. By opening with My people, the LORD asserts that His relationship with Israel survived the judgment, just as He had promised. Exile was discipline within the covenant, but the covenant also promised restoration. That is now the focus of Isaiah's message.
The book of Lamentations, written amid the ruins of Jerusalem, circles five times around a single ache: "She has no comforter" (Lamentations 1:9; see also Lamentations 1:2, 16, 17, 21). Isaiah 40:1 is heaven's answer to that refrain, written in advance. The comfort promised here becomes a governing thread of the book's second half: "the LORD has comforted His people" (Isaiah 49:13), "the LORD will comfort Zion" (Isaiah 51:3), "I, even I, am He who comforts you" (Isaiah 51:12), and the Messiah's own commission "to comfort all who mourn" (Isaiah 61:2).
Centuries later, devout Israelites were still waiting on this promise by name: Simeon was "looking for the consolation of Israel" when he took the infant Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:25). Simeon blessed God for allowing him to see the personification of God's comfort in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid for the sins of the world and restored humanity's right to reign, thus fully paving the way for God's design for humanity to be fully restored (John 3:16,Hebrews 2:9,Revelation 21:7). God instructs in how to speak comfort:
"Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins" (v. 2).
Speak kindly to Jerusalem in Hebrew is literally "speak to the heart of Jerusalem." The Hebrew word "leb" translated kindly is literally "heart." It is the Hebrew idiom for tender speech that calms fear: Joseph "comforted them and spoke kindly [to the heart] to them" when his brothers feared vengeance (Genesis 50:21), Boaz spoke this way to Ruth (Ruth 2:13), and the LORD promises in Hosea to "allure" unfaithful Israel into the wilderness "and speak kindly [to the heart] to her" (Hosea 2:14). After thirty-nine chapters dominated by condemnation, God now speaks to the heart of Israel and Judah to calm their fears and speak assurance. As promised, Israel remains His people and His possession.
Three parallel announcements describe what this comfort will entail, and all three are stated as accomplished facts. First, her warfare has ended. The Hebrew word "saba" rendered her warfare covers a fixed term of compulsory service—military duty or forced labor (the NASB 95 margin offers "hard service"). Job uses "saba" for the hard service of human life on earth in Job 7:1, where "saba" is rendered "forced to labor."
One fulfilment of this prophecy is likely the promised return from exile, which might be viewed as being pictured here as a term of conscription with a discharge date. Jeremiah had named the term: seventy years for Babylon, after which the LORD would bring His people back (Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10). However, as Simeon understood, merely returning to the land did not completely fulfill this prophecy. The real comfort needed was the removal of sin, and that comfort would come through the promised messiah. The declaration her iniquity has been removed foreshadows the ministry of Jesus to take away the sin of the world (Colossians 2:14).
The NASB 95 margin gives the fuller legal sense of the removal of iniquity: "penalty of iniquity accepted as paid off." This is debt language. Leviticus had warned that covenant violation would send Israel into enemy lands while the land "enjoys its sabbaths" (Leviticus 26:34, 43)—the exile functioning as payment of accumulated debts—and 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 records the seventy years in Babylon as that settling of accounts.
From the standpoint of what the land is owed, the seventy years will pay the debt. They will return to their land, as promised. But from a spiritual standpoint, it is the messiah who will bear the full weight of all the righteous requirements of the Law which humans can never repay (Colossians 2:14). It is Jesus who will fully pay a debt that would be otherwise unpayable (Romans 5:20-21).
It is also pronounced she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins (v 2). She here refers to Jerusalem, which likely is intended to also stand for Israel as a whole, of which Jerusalem is its capital. The word double denotes a duplicate—something folded over so that the copy matches the original, the way a legal document was folded double to certify the terms. Read within the verse's legal language, the double is the full, certified equivalent of discipline. Jerusalem's punishment corresponds completely to its offense in breaking its covenant vow. This is a statement of fact.
The enforcement provision of Israel's covenant/treaty with God is finished and receipted. The double portion of inheritance law carried the same sense of the complete legal measure (Deuteronomy 21:17). Isaiah later adds a matching promise of grace: "Instead of your shame you will have a double portion" (Isaiah 61:7)—the God who measured the discipline in full will measure the restoration in full as well, as He had promised (Deuteronomy 32:36).
Again, in addition to a restoration to the land, there is a spiritual restoration in view as well. The exile disciplined Judah, according to the terms of their covenant/treaty. But seventy years in Babylon removed no one's guilt before God for their sin (Hebrews 10:1-4).
Isaiah 53 will supply the mechanism the comfort presupposes. There the vocabulary of Isaiah 40:2 returns: iniquity is dealt with because "the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him" (Isaiah 53:6), and peace comes because "The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5).
The comfort commissioned in Isaiah 40:1-2 rests, ultimately, on the Servant who absorbs the payment. This is why the New Testament gospel of Mark treats the opening of Isaiah 40 as the opening of the gospel itself (Isaiah 40:3,Mark 1:1-3). The comfort announced in Isaiah 40 is ultimately fulfilled in the advent of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew verbs translated has ended (referring to warfare) and has been removed (referring to iniquity) are of a type that represents an accomplished fact.
The Bible's good news of deliverance from sins was spoken of as an accomplished fact centuries prior to its actual fulfillment. This speaks to the fact that what the Lord declares is a certainty to come to pass. So once pronounced, what God speaks can be spoken in past tense due to the certainty of its fulfillment.
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Isaiah 40:1-2 meaning
Isaiah 40:1-2 opens the second half of Isaiah with God's command to comfort His people, announcing to Jerusalem that her warfare has ended, her iniquity has been removed, and she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins: "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God (v. 1).
The doubled imperative is a Hebrew device for urgency and intensity. Isaiah uses it repeatedly in this half of the book: "Awake, awake" (Isaiah 51:9, 52:1), "Depart, depart" (Isaiah 52:11). The repetition here signals that comfort is now the LORD's pressing business, commanded twice before anything else in the chapter is said.
The command is plural. God addresses a company of messengers—His prophets, and behind them the heavenly council whose deliberations Isaiah once overheard when he heard the question, "Who will go for Us?" (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah 6 commissioned the prophet to preach hardening and devastation "until cities are devastated" (Isaiah 6:11). Isaiah 40 issues the counter-commission: the devastation has run its course, and the messengers are now sent to console.
My people and your God are the two halves of the covenant formula that runs from Exodus onward: "I will take you for My people, and I will be your God" (Exodus 6:7; see also Leviticus 26:12, Jeremiah 31:33). The formula appears here at the moment it might have seemed to an observer as being void. But God’s promises are never revoked. Judah suffered the consequences of their actions as promised in their covenant/treaty with God. They had broken their vow to love their neighbor and instead adopted the pagan culture of exploitation.
The "tribute" God demanded as His "payment" under the treaty was to love their neighbor, seek justice and mercy—but they had not. As a result, they were liable to the "cursings" provision of the covenant/treaty (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). This included conquest and exile (Deuteronomy 28:25, 29-33, 36-37, 43-44). Israel had voluntarily entered the covenant/treaty and vowed to keep their part (Exodus 19:8). But they have failed to uphold their obligations many times over.
God did keep His part, and brought about the enforcement provisions of the treaty. But His word still stands, and in the covenant/treaty God also promised that when the cursings provision was implemented that He would bring them back when He saw their strength was gone (Deuteronomy 32:36).
Judah's monarchy had ended, the temple had burned, and the population displaced to Babylon—every visible sign of the covenant had been dismantled. By opening with My people, the LORD asserts that His relationship with Israel survived the judgment, just as He had promised. Exile was discipline within the covenant, but the covenant also promised restoration. That is now the focus of Isaiah's message.
The book of Lamentations, written amid the ruins of Jerusalem, circles five times around a single ache: "She has no comforter" (Lamentations 1:9; see also Lamentations 1:2, 16, 17, 21). Isaiah 40:1 is heaven's answer to that refrain, written in advance. The comfort promised here becomes a governing thread of the book's second half: "the LORD has comforted His people" (Isaiah 49:13), "the LORD will comfort Zion" (Isaiah 51:3), "I, even I, am He who comforts you" (Isaiah 51:12), and the Messiah's own commission "to comfort all who mourn" (Isaiah 61:2).
Centuries later, devout Israelites were still waiting on this promise by name: Simeon was "looking for the consolation of Israel" when he took the infant Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:25). Simeon blessed God for allowing him to see the personification of God's comfort in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid for the sins of the world and restored humanity's right to reign, thus fully paving the way for God's design for humanity to be fully restored (John 3:16, Hebrews 2:9, Revelation 21:7). God instructs in how to speak comfort:
"Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins" (v. 2).
Speak kindly to Jerusalem in Hebrew is literally "speak to the heart of Jerusalem." The Hebrew word "leb" translated kindly is literally "heart." It is the Hebrew idiom for tender speech that calms fear: Joseph "comforted them and spoke kindly [to the heart] to them" when his brothers feared vengeance (Genesis 50:21), Boaz spoke this way to Ruth (Ruth 2:13), and the LORD promises in Hosea to "allure" unfaithful Israel into the wilderness "and speak kindly [to the heart] to her" (Hosea 2:14). After thirty-nine chapters dominated by condemnation, God now speaks to the heart of Israel and Judah to calm their fears and speak assurance. As promised, Israel remains His people and His possession.
Three parallel announcements describe what this comfort will entail, and all three are stated as accomplished facts. First, her warfare has ended. The Hebrew word "saba" rendered her warfare covers a fixed term of compulsory service—military duty or forced labor (the NASB 95 margin offers "hard service"). Job uses "saba" for the hard service of human life on earth in Job 7:1, where "saba" is rendered "forced to labor."
One fulfilment of this prophecy is likely the promised return from exile, which might be viewed as being pictured here as a term of conscription with a discharge date. Jeremiah had named the term: seventy years for Babylon, after which the LORD would bring His people back (Jeremiah 25:11-12, 29:10). However, as Simeon understood, merely returning to the land did not completely fulfill this prophecy. The real comfort needed was the removal of sin, and that comfort would come through the promised messiah. The declaration her iniquity has been removed foreshadows the ministry of Jesus to take away the sin of the world (Colossians 2:14).
The NASB 95 margin gives the fuller legal sense of the removal of iniquity: "penalty of iniquity accepted as paid off." This is debt language. Leviticus had warned that covenant violation would send Israel into enemy lands while the land "enjoys its sabbaths" (Leviticus 26:34, 43)—the exile functioning as payment of accumulated debts—and 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 records the seventy years in Babylon as that settling of accounts.
From the standpoint of what the land is owed, the seventy years will pay the debt. They will return to their land, as promised. But from a spiritual standpoint, it is the messiah who will bear the full weight of all the righteous requirements of the Law which humans can never repay (Colossians 2:14). It is Jesus who will fully pay a debt that would be otherwise unpayable (Romans 5:20-21).
It is also pronounced she has received of the LORD'S hand Double for all her sins (v 2). She here refers to Jerusalem, which likely is intended to also stand for Israel as a whole, of which Jerusalem is its capital. The word double denotes a duplicate—something folded over so that the copy matches the original, the way a legal document was folded double to certify the terms. Read within the verse's legal language, the double is the full, certified equivalent of discipline. Jerusalem's punishment corresponds completely to its offense in breaking its covenant vow. This is a statement of fact.
The enforcement provision of Israel's covenant/treaty with God is finished and receipted. The double portion of inheritance law carried the same sense of the complete legal measure (Deuteronomy 21:17). Isaiah later adds a matching promise of grace: "Instead of your shame you will have a double portion" (Isaiah 61:7)—the God who measured the discipline in full will measure the restoration in full as well, as He had promised (Deuteronomy 32:36).
Again, in addition to a restoration to the land, there is a spiritual restoration in view as well. The exile disciplined Judah, according to the terms of their covenant/treaty. But seventy years in Babylon removed no one's guilt before God for their sin (Hebrews 10:1-4).
Isaiah 53 will supply the mechanism the comfort presupposes. There the vocabulary of Isaiah 40:2 returns: iniquity is dealt with because "the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him" (Isaiah 53:6), and peace comes because "The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5).
The comfort commissioned in Isaiah 40:1-2 rests, ultimately, on the Servant who absorbs the payment. This is why the New Testament gospel of Mark treats the opening of Isaiah 40 as the opening of the gospel itself (Isaiah 40:3, Mark 1:1-3). The comfort announced in Isaiah 40 is ultimately fulfilled in the advent of Jesus Christ. The Hebrew verbs translated has ended (referring to warfare) and has been removed (referring to iniquity) are of a type that represents an accomplished fact.
The Bible's good news of deliverance from sins was spoken of as an accomplished fact centuries prior to its actual fulfillment. This speaks to the fact that what the Lord declares is a certainty to come to pass. So once pronounced, what God speaks can be spoken in past tense due to the certainty of its fulfillment.