The big picture
Isaiah 40 begins with comfort, but it refuses sentimental comfort. Jerusalem is told that service is completed and iniquity pardoned, a highway is prepared for the LORD, and a voice immediately reminds every listener that human strength is grass. Hope rests somewhere sturdier: "the word of our God shall stand for ever." From there the chapter expands until oceans fit in a hand, nations become a bucket drop, rulers wither like plants, and the stars answer roll call by name. That immense scale is not an end in itself. The Book of Isaiah keeps drawing it toward one wounded complaint: Jacob thinks his way is hidden and his cause has passed out of God's sight. The answer is that the everlasting Creator neither faints nor loses track. More than that, he gives strength to those who do faint. The chapter that spans creation closes with people walking without collapsing, making cosmic power matter at the scale of one more faithful step.
Central truth
Isaiah 40 announces comfort to a people whose strength is exhausted by setting fragile humanity and powerless idols beside the incomparable Creator, then presents that same sovereign LORD as a shepherd who gathers lambs and as the giver of renewed strength to those who wait upon him.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Isaiah 40:1: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”
Slow down at the turning point
Isaiah 40:14: “With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of…”
Keep this word trail visible
LORD, earth, grass, faint, flower, hand
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Isaiah 40:1-2
Comfort after the worst news
Read 39:5-8 and then 40:1-2 aloud without a pause. The silence between the chapters is long, and the Book of Isaiah now speaks to people who have lost everything to Babylon. Explain "Speak ye comfortably" as speak to the heart, tenderly. Then give the three clauses of 40:2: her "warfare is accomplished", meaning her hard term of service is over; "her iniquity is pardoned"; and she has "received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins". Explain that readers take double as full payment or as a complete matching sentence. Teach this first because the whole chapter rests on pardon announced.
Isaiah 40:3-5
A highway for God
Read 40:3-5 and picture it: a royal road built through the desert, valleys filled, hills cut down, so that God himself can come to his people. Notice it is the LORD's road, not theirs. The goal is "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together", guaranteed because "the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it". Then read Matthew 3:3, where the Gospels hear this voice in John the Baptist preparing for Jesus. Teach it here because it says what comfort is: God coming.
Isaiah 40:6-8
Grass and the word
Read 40:6-8 as a dialogue: a voice says Cry, and someone asks "What shall I cry?" The answer sounds discouraging, "All flesh is grass", fading under the hot wind. Explain that the exiles knew this already; empires and their own strength had withered. The good news comes in the turn: "but the word of our God shall stand for ever". Read 1 Peter 1:24-25, which applies this to the gospel. Teach this before the herald because the announcement that follows can be trusted only if the word behind it lasts.
Isaiah 40:9-11
Behold your God, the shepherd
Now Zion is the herald, told to climb a high mountain and say to the cities of Judah "Behold your God". Read 40:10: God comes "with strong hand", with his reward. Then 40:11 changes tone completely: he feeds his flock, gathers the lambs, carries them in his bosom, and gently leads "those that are with young", the nursing ewes. Explain that a shepherd carried the weakest lambs against his chest. Teach this before the measuring questions so that, when God's size is described, the class already knows how he handles the weak.
Isaiah 40:12-26
To whom will ye liken God
This is the longest section; teach it as a series of questions. Who measured the waters in his hand and weighed the mountains (40:12)? Who taught him (40:13-14)? The nations are "as a drop of a bucket" (40:15), and all Lebanon's forests could not supply a worthy sacrifice (40:16). Then the idol workshop of 40:18-20, an image that must be fastened so "that shall not be moved". Then God "sitteth upon the circle of the earth" (40:22), brings princes to nothing, and calls every star "by names" so that "not one faileth" (40:26). Keep the questions as questions.
Isaiah 40:27-31
The complaint answered
Read 40:27 and let the class feel it: my life is hidden from God, my case ignored. Then read the answer slowly. The same God who numbers the stars, "the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary". He gives power to the faint. Explain "wait upon the LORD" as hopeful, expectant trust, not idleness. Point out the order of 40:31: soar, run, walk. Teach it last because it brings the cosmic God down to tired people, and because walking without fainting is often the grace most needed.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
"'Double for all her sins' means God punished Jerusalem twice as much as she deserved."
The verse is comfort, not complaint. Its first two clauses are "her warfare is accomplished" and "her iniquity is pardoned" (40:2). Readers explain "double" as a full and matching payment, like a duplicate that covers the whole debt, or as a way of saying the sentence is completely served. None of these makes God unjust. The point is that nothing remains to be paid, so comfort can be spoken.
"Isaiah 40:31 promises I will never feel tired or weak."
Verse 30 says the opposite of exemption: "Even the youths shall faint and be weary". The promise is that God "giveth power to the faint" (40:29) and that those who wait on him "shall renew their strength" (40:31). Renewal assumes weakness. The verse is given to people who are already exhausted, so do not use it to shame anyone who is still tired.
"Waiting on the LORD means sitting back and doing nothing."
In 40:31 waiting is set against the complaint of 40:27. It means looking to God with hope and trust while one's way seems hidden. The result is movement, not stillness: they "mount up", "run" and "walk". Waiting is the posture of someone who expects God to act and keeps going in that expectation, rather than giving up or manufacturing a substitute like the idol-makers of 40:19-20.
"'All nations before him are as nothing' means other peoples do not matter to God."
Verses 15-17 compare the power of nations with the greatness of God; they say nothing about the worth of people. The same chapter says "all flesh shall see it together" (40:5), and Isaiah 49:6 calls the servant "a light to the Gentiles". The verses humble empires that frightened the exiles. Keep the comparison where Isaiah puts it, between human power and God.
"Verse 3 is only about John the Baptist, so it has nothing to do with Isaiah's own day."
In Isaiah the voice calls for a road for God through the desert, as he comes to lead his people home after the loss announced in 39:6. The Gospels, in Matthew 3:3 and its parallels, hear the same voice in John preparing for Jesus. Teach both layers: the promise as Isaiah's hearers received it, and the fuller coming the New Testament announces.
Learning objectives
- Explain what grounds the command 'Comfort ye' in Isaiah 40:1–2, including the announcement that warfare is accomplished and iniquity pardoned.
- Trace the voices and herald language in verses 3–11, from preparing the LORD's way to proclaiming 'Behold your God.'
- Compare the shepherd image in verse 11 with the cosmic measurements and rhetorical questions of verses 12–26.
- Identify how the idol-making scene in verses 18–20 answers the question 'To whom then will ye liken God.'
- Explain Jacob and Israel's complaint in verse 27 and the theological answer given in verses 28–31.
- Interpret 'wait upon the LORD' in verse 31 within the chapter's contrast between human exhaustion and God's unfailing strength.
Teacher preparation
- Read Isaiah 39:5–8 before Isaiah 40:1.
- Prepare the KJV phrase 'received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins' in verse 2.
- Mark the shifts in speaker and command across verses 1–11.
- Set the shepherd of verse 11 beside the Creator of verses 12–26.
- Prepare the KJV verb 'wait' in verse 31 as active trusting expectation, not mere idleness.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Isaiah 40:1 commands comfort.
Scripture-supported
Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4–6, and John 1:23 connect Isaiah 40:3 with John the Baptist's ministry.
Strong inference
The chapter's repeated rhetorical questions are not requests for missing information but a deliberate dismantling of the exiles' scale of comparison.
Possible or traditional reading
The KJV phrase 'double for all her sins' has been explained in several ways, including full punishment received or a doubled portion.
Limit
Isaiah 40:31 does not promise that believers will never experience bodily fatigue, grief, aging, or ordinary limits.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. Why does 'Comfort ye' make sense after Isaiah 39 rather than sounding abrupt?
What a good answer contains
Because chapter 39 ends with the worst news in the book so far: "all that is in thine house" will "be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left" (39:6). Chapter 40 speaks to people living on the far side of that loss. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people" (40:1) is doubled for emphasis, and verse 2 gives three reasons: warfare accomplished, iniquity pardoned, sentence fully received. A good answer reads 39 and 40 together. A weak answer treats 40:1 as a fresh, unrelated start.
Show teacher guidance
Chapter 39 ends with Babylonian exile ahead.
2. What sequence runs from the wilderness voice in verses 3–5 to the herald in verses 9–11?
What a good answer contains
A voice calls for a highway, "Prepare ye the way of the LORD" (40:3), and the land is levelled so "the glory of the LORD shall be revealed" (40:5). A second voice is told to cry that "All flesh is grass" but "the word of our God shall stand for ever" (40:6-8). Then Zion herself becomes the herald and says "Behold your God" (40:9), and God arrives as ruler and shepherd (40:10-11). A good answer sees one movement: road, glory, word, announcement, arrival.
Show teacher guidance
A way is prepared, God's glory is revealed, human grass fades, God's word stands, good tidings are proclaimed, and the proclamation culminates in 'Behold your God' and the shepherd image.
3. Why place verse 11's gentle shepherd directly before verses 12–17's enormous Creator imagery?
What a good answer contains
Because the arm that rules is the arm that carries. In 40:10 "his arm shall rule for him"; in 40:11 "he shall gather the lambs with his arm". Then 40:12 asks "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand". A good answer says the gentleness and the greatness belong to the same God, so the weak can trust the shepherd because he is the Creator. A weak answer sees two different moods and misses that each makes the other believable.
Show teacher guidance
The same LORD who carries lambs measures waters, heavens, dust, mountains, and nations.
4. What makes Isaiah's idol scene in verses 18–20 quietly devastating?
What a good answer contains
The question is "To whom then will ye liken God?" (40:18), and the answer is a workshop. A craftsman melts the image, a goldsmith plates it, silver chains are cast; a poorer man "chooseth a tree that will not rot" and hires a workman "to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved" (40:19-20). The devastating detail is that the idol must be fixed in place so it does not fall over. A good answer contrasts that with the God who moves nations and stars.
Show teacher guidance
A craftsman makes, plates, chains, selects, and stabilizes the image so it will not move.
5. What complaint do Jacob and Israel voice in verse 27?
What a good answer contains
"My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God" (40:27). Way means their life and circumstances; judgment means their right, their case. They feel unseen and their cause ignored. A good answer states the complaint fairly, as the honest cry of exiles, before answering it. It also notes God quotes their words back to them, which shows he heard. A weak answer scolds the complaint without hearing it.
Show teacher guidance
They say their way is hidden from the LORD and their judgment is passed over from God.
6. How do verses 28–31 answer verse 27 point by point?
What a good answer contains
Point for point. They said God does not see; 40:28 answers "there is no searching of his understanding". They implied God is far off or tired; he "fainteth not, neither is weary". They are weak; "He giveth power to the faint" (40:29). Even the young fall (40:30), but "they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength" (40:31). A good answer matches each line to the complaint and sees that the answer is God's character, not a change of circumstances.
Show teacher guidance
God has not become tired, ignorant, or inattentive.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Ask learners to compare three responses to weariness: manufacturing a substitute, assuming God does not see, and waiting on the LORD.
Relationships and community
Give a fictional community facing long-term discouragement.
Scale the problem correctly
Write the words nations, princes, stars, idols, lambs, and faint people on the board.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
After the worst news
Read 39:6-7 and 40:1-2. Ask question one, then use confusion one on the word double.
Road, grass, herald
Read 40:3-11 in three voices. Ask question two and draw the movement on the board: road, glory, word, announcement, shepherd.
The shepherd and the scales
Read 40:12-20. Ask questions three and four. Have someone mime propping up an idol so it will not fall.
The complaint and the answer
Read 40:21-31. Ask questions five and six, and use confusions two and three.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, give out the handout and pray for anyone who feels their way is hidden from God.
90 minutes
When comfort comes
Ask what someone needs to hear first after a terrible loss. Collect answers without comment.
Comfort ye
Read 39:5-8 and 40:1-2. Ask question one and confusion one. Compare the group's answers with the three clauses of 40:2.
The voice in the wilderness
Read 40:3-8 with Matthew 3:1-3 and 1 Peter 1:24-25. Ask question two and confusion five.
The shepherd
Read 40:9-11 and John 10:11. Ask question three. Show a picture of a shepherd carrying a lamb if you have one.
Incomparable
Read 40:12-26. Ask question four and confusion four. Have learners rewrite one rhetorical question in their own words.
My way is hid
Read 40:27-31. Ask questions five and six, then confusions two and three. Write soar, run, walk on the board.
Respond
Ask each person to write their own version of 40:27 privately, then write 40:28-29 under it as God's reply.
Handout and blessing
Read the key verse together and close by speaking 40:1 over the group as a blessing.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Show two pictures, a shepherd carrying a lamb and a sky full of stars. Read 40:11 and 40:26 and say the God who counts every star also carries little lambs. Let the children count stars on a paper sky and then hold a toy lamb. Teach 40:31 as a memory verse with actions: wings, running, walking. Leave out the idol scene for the youngest.
Youth
Start with 40:27, the feeling that nobody sees what you are going through, and keep it hypothetical so no one has to share. Then show how the chapter answers: God's size in 40:12-26, his care in 40:11, and his strength for the tired in 40:29-31. Discuss what young people make and then depend on, using the idol scene without preaching at them.
Adults
Spend time on the structure: the voices of 40:1-11, the questions of 40:12-26, and the complaint and answer of 40:27-31. Discuss double in 40:2 and the use of 40:3 in the Gospels. Many adults carry long weariness from caring, illness or grief; let 40:29-31 speak to them as renewal, not as a demand to feel stronger.
One to one
Read the chapter together and ask which voice the person hears most clearly: comfort, the grass, the shepherd, the questions, or the answer to the tired. If they are exhausted, read 40:27-31 slowly and ask whether 40:27 is how they feel. Do not rush to the answer; let God's words in 40:28 be heard after their honest one.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Isaiah 40:1–31
The passage in brief
Isaiah 40 speaks comfort to people who have lost everything. Their hard time is over and their sin is forgiven. A voice calls for a road through the desert so God can come to them. People fade like grass, but God's word lasts for ever. God comes as a strong ruler and as a shepherd who carries lambs. No idol or nation can compare with him. When his people say God cannot see them, he answers that he never grows tired and gives strength to the weak.
A verse to keep
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What three reasons for comfort does 40:2 give?
How can the God of 40:12 also be the shepherd of 40:11?
Where in your life do you feel what 40:27 says?
This week
Each morning this week, read 40:28-29 before you start the day's work.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
