Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Isaiah 40:9
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Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
O Zion, that bringest good tidings - This is evidently the continuance of what the ‘voice’ said, or of the annunciation which was to give joy to an afflicted and oppressed people. There has been, however, much diversity of opinion in regard to the meaning of the passage. The margin renders it, ‘Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,’ making Zion the receiver, and not the publisher of the message that was to convey joy. The Vulgate, in a similar way, renders it, ‘Ascend a high mountain, thou who bringest good tidings to Zion’ (qui evangelizas Zion). So the Chaldee, understanding this as an address to the prophet, as in Isaiah 40:1, ‘Ascend a high mountain, ye prophets, who bring glad tidings to Zion.’ So Lowth, Noyes, Gesenius. Grotius, and others. The word מבשׂרת mebas'eret, from בשׂר bâs'ar, means cheering with good tidings; announcing good news; bearing joyful intelligence. It is a participle in the feminine gender; and is appropriately applicable to some one that bears good tidings to Zion, and not to Zion as appointed to bear glad titlings. Lowth supposes that it is applicable to some female whose office it was to announce glad tidings, and says that it was the common practice for females to engage in the office of proclaiming good news. On an occasion of a public victory or rejoicing, it was customary, says he, for females to assemble together, and to celebrate it with songs, and dances, and rejoicings; and he appeals to the instance of Miriam and the chorus of women Exodus 15:20-21, and to the instance where, after the victory of David over Goliath, ‘all the women came out of the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet Saul’ 1 Samuel 18:7. But there are objections to this interpretation; first, if this was the sense, the word would bare been in the plural number, since there is no instance in which a female is employed alone in this service; and, secondly, it was not, according to this, the office of the female to announce good tidings, or to communicate a joyful message, but to celebrate some occasion of triumph or victory. Grotius supposes that the word is ‘feminine in its sound, but common in its signification;’ and thus denotes any whose office it was to communicate glad tidings. Gesenius (Commentary in loc.) says, that the feminine form here is used in a collective sense for מבשׂרים mebas'eriym in the plural; and supposes that it thus refers to the prophets, or others who were to announce the glad tidings to Zion. Vitringa coincides with our translation, and supposes that the sense is, that Zion was to make proclamation to the other cities of Judah of the deliverance; that the news was first to be communicated to Jerusalem, and that Jerusalem was entrusted with the office of announcing this to the other cities of the land; and that the meaning is, that the gospel was to be preached first at Jerusalem, and then from Jerusalem as a center to the ether cities of the land, agreeably to Luke 24:49. In this view, also, Hengstenberg coincides (Christol. vol. i. p. 424). But that the former interpretation, which regards Zion as the receiver, and not the promulgator, of the intelligence, is the true one, is apparent, I think, from the following considerations: 1. It is that which is the obvious and most correct construction of the Hebrew. 2. It is that which is found in the ancient versions. 3. It accords with the design of the passage. The main scope of the passage is not to call upon Jerusalem to make known the glad tiding…
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