g announcement of a
great calamity, yea, even necessarily demand this. It is just for this
reason that the historical chapters cannot be a later addition and
interpolation, but must be an original element of the collection
written by the Prophet himself.[1]

The contents of the second part are stated at once, and generally, in
the introductory words, chap. xl. 1, 2: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people, saith your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto
her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she receives of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." The
_comfort_ must, accordingly, form the fundamental character of the
second part. But since, for the people of God, there does not exist any
purely external salvation; since, for them, salvation is indissolubly
connected with _repentance_,--_exhortation_ must necessarily go hand
ill hand with the announcement of salvation. This second feature and
element concealed behind the first, is, moreover, expressly brought
forward in what immediately follows, inasmuch as by it the "Comfort ye"
does not receive any addition, [Pg 165] but is only commented upon and
enlarged. The servants of the Lord (the whole chorus of the messengers
of the divine salvation is addressed in vers. 3, 5), complying with His
command, announce the impending salvation, designating it as a
manifestation of the Lord's glory, and exhort to a worthy preparation
for it. Vers. 3 and 4 treat of preparing in the desert a high-way for
the Lord, who is to manifest himself gloriously. The way is prepared
by repentance; the desert symbolizes the condition of bodily and
spiritual misery. It is from this miserable condition that the Lord is
to deliver and redeem His people; but in order that He may perform His
part, they must, previously, have performed theirs. In ver. 5, this
manifestation itself is described, with which is connected the fulness
of salvation for the covenant-people. The servants of God are to
announce the approach of salvation to mourning Jerusalem, in which the
covenant-people appears to the Prophet as personified. (Jerusalem does
not stand for "the carried away Zionites;" it is an ideal person, the
afflicted and bowed down widow sitting on the ground in sackcloth; the
distressed and mourning mother of the children partly carried away, and
partly killed,--compare chap. iii. 26, where Jerusalem, desolate and
emptied, sits upon the ground.) But this salvation ca