A Surprising Consolation - Reflections on Isaiah 40:1-11, Second Sunday of Advent, Year B
by John C. Holbert on Thursday, November 5, 2026
There may be no more astonishingly surprising set of verses in the entire Hebrew Bible than we find in Is.40:1-2. If one has read the first book of Isaiah—1-39—it is filled with recriminations, assaults on the continual sinning of Israel/Judah, attacks against a people who have majored in avoidance of aid for the poor and outcast among them, with a constant turning to foreign gods, abandoning YHWH in every way. That 8th century Isaiah, like his three counterparts—Amos and Hosea in the north and Micah in the south—spends the bulk of his prophetic energy pointing to the vast, horrifying, and myriad shortcomings of a people who claim to know the demands of YHWH but plainly cannot follow them. And as a result, as the 7th-century Jeremiah warned, exile from the land was the inevitable consequence.
Is.39 ends with a darkly ironic statement of King Hezekiah of Judah (715-687BCE) who proudly announces to Isaiah, the prophet, that he has revealed to an envoy from Babylon all that his storehouses possess: silver, gold, spices, precious oil, vast sets of arms (Is.39:2). Instead of congratulating the king on his willingness to share with the Babylonians the full range of his wealth and goods, the prophet warns him that all of that, along with some of his own sons, will one day find their way into Babylonian exile. Upon hearing this word, Hezekiah imagines that his openness with the Babylonians will provide comfort, saying, "There will be peace and security in my days” (Is.39:8),” and claims that Isaiah’s words are somehow “good” (Is.39:7). The king has badly misunderstood the prophet. What happens, as we know all too well, is that Hezekiah’s heir, Zedekiah, will suffer blindness at the cruel hands of a later Babylonian warrior, after witnessing the death of his children, and will be carted off into Babylon, apparently to die there. Thus 1-Isaiah ends in confusion, predicting not peace and security but exile and death.
How much more surprising then are the very first words of 2-Isaiah, spoken sometime during that fateful exile. “Comfort, comfort, my people,” says your God. Speak to the very heart of Jerusalem, and proclaim to them that their time of service has been completed, that their penalty is paid, that they have received from YHWH’s hand double for all their sins” (Is.40:1-2). This is no less than a complete reversal of the expectations that Judah had for the response of YHWH in the first part of Isaiah, a prophet who was quick to condemn Judah and to warn them about the coming fury of their God.
Now this new prophet opens his prophecy with an amazing word—“comfort,” he says first to them. It is the word that David speaks to the grieving Bathsheba after the death of their child of adultery in 2 Samuel 12:24. It is the word spoken by Joseph’s brothers after they have claimed to a grieving Jacob that his favorite, Joseph, has been eaten by beasts, holding before his eyes that famous robe, torn and bloodied, at Genesis 37:35. It is an ultimate statement of consolation, a sign of relief, a claim of sorrow at a terrible event. In short, it is not a word we expect any Hebrew prophet to speak readily to a people so often subject to withering scorn and divine rejection.
And this wonderful word of comfort is to be spoken to “the heart of Jerusalem,” the city of YHWH still smoldering from the fires of Babylonian destruction. The “heart” means the center, the source of will and purpose, a center now gone, seemingly lost to the exiles forever. But the prophet continues by saying that “their time of service has been completed,” that is the punishment, promised by YHWH and fulfilled by YHWH, has now finally ended. The KJV translation, echoed in the famous tenor recitative from Handel’s “Messiah,” is “her warfare is accomplished.” It is true that the word “zabah” in Hebrew is regularly connected with battles and war and armies (see the common “YHWH sebaoth,” which means “YHWH of the armies,” commonly read “YHWH of hosts”). Yet, here it appears to imply a service time, an end to engagement in the battles of Israel; all that is now over, says the prophet.
Furthermore, all iniquity, all sins, are pardoned, because YHWH has taken double the punishments for those sins. The time in Babylon has indeed been harsh, even worse than the Judeans expected, but all that is now in the past. All is forgiven! All are pardoned! Judah may now look forward to a time of hope and joy and possibility for a bright future. Soon, says the prophet, “the glory of YHWH shall be revealed, and everyone will see it together, because YHWH’s own mouth has spoken” (Is.40:5).
Such language has scarcely come out of the mouth of any Hebrew prophet. Little wonder that this passage has regularly been heard in the time of Advent, when we all anticipate the coming of the Christ child, and fully see in his coming the bright hope of a future with a God who loves and forgives and pardons. There is comfort indeed for all who await his coming!