Isaiah 40-55 is usually assigned to an author that lived during the exilic period. Scholars call him Deutero-Isaiah. The daily mass readings for the second week of Advent is taken from his section of the book of Isaiah. Below is a summary of the contents of the selection:
| Verses | Content |
| 1-2 | The command to comfort Jerusalem (standing for the Southern exiles of 586) and the announcement of her redemption. |
| 3-5 | Another command, this time to prepare the way of the Lord: high places are to be brought low and low places be filled in. On that highway the Lord shall pass and all will see His glory. |
| 6-8 | Emphasis that what the Lord has spoken shall be fulfilled. |
| 9-11 | The command for Zion/Jerusalem to comfort Judah and the announcement that the coming Lord is in sight, bringing with him the exiles -- his gifts for Jerusalem. |
This opening oracle of the Book of Consolation is a dramatic portrayal of the return of the exiles. In vv. 1-2.6-8 is addressed a word to the prophet (an equivalent of his vocation?) to comfort Jerusalem and tell her the good news. Jerusalem, like a mother whose children has been taken away from her, appears in vv. 9-11 as the one who in turn should comfort Judah and announce to him the coming of the Lord.
"A voice cries out..." (vv. 3-5). In the Gospels this passage is presented in such a way as to present John the Baptist as the voice crying out in the wilderness. This way of the rendering the Isaianic text was made possible by the fact that there is no punctuation in the original Hebrew text:
"A voice cries out [I]n the wilderness..." and "A voice cries out [i]n the wilderness..." are both possible renderings. The second is the way the LXX translates this passage of Isaiah and it was what the Gospel writers read.
"A voice says: Cry out!.." (vv. 6-8). A dialogue between the Voice in the desert (v. 3) and the prophet where this latter is told to insist on the firmness of God's Word, that His promise will not fail. The parallel contrast between the power of the Lord's breath (here like the gusts of hot desert air) and the flowers that wilt gives this emphasis.
"Here comes with power..." (vv. 10-11) "Here is your God" at the end of v. 9 is followed by this majestic vision of Yahweh walking on the Highway in the desert towards Jerusalem bringing with him the prize of His redemption, the exiles. The exiles are described first as "reward"/"recompense." When the imagery shifts to something more pastoral, Yahweh is presented as a shepherd coming home with the flock.
Compare how the image of Yahweh coming home is presented here and in Isaiah 35:10. In this latter, it looks more like Yahweh goes up to Jerusalem as the leader of a processional group (cf. Ps. 42:5)
The explanation "so then, the people is like grass" is a scribe's note that has crept into the text. I think that this may be how they made entries into the "database" of texts that the Rabbis used when they created families of texts to support a particular biblical interpretation.
