Introduction: The Chapter of Consolation and an Answer to the Skeptics
Chapter 40 of Yeshayahu is a chapter of consolation. Essentially, it serves as a response to a doubt that creeps into the heart: How is it possible that the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem us? Will the nations ever agree to release Israel? Does Hashem possess the power to do so, and will He truly desire to? The prophet systematically dismantles these doubts one by one, demonstrating that neither lack of power nor lack of will applies to the Holy One, blessed be He. Let us follow the order of the verses guided by the commentary of the Malbim.
The Two Conditions Required to Place One's Trust
The Malbim explains: in order to place one's trust in someone, two conditions must be met. Take the simplest example: someone is threatening me, and I rely on so-and-so to protect me. What is required for me to rely on him? First, that he possesses strength - for if the threateners are stronger than he is, how will he defend me? And second, that he possesses permanence - for if he is here today, but in a week, a month, or a year he will no longer be around, then the moment I need him there will be no one to protect me. Strength and permanence: these are the two conditions.
ק֚וֹל אֹמֵ֣ר קְרָ֔א וְאָמַ֖ר מָ֣ה אֶקְרָ֑א כׇּל־הַבָּשָׂ֣ר חָצִ֔יר וְכׇל־חַסְדּ֖וֹ כְּצִ֥יץ הַשָּׂדֶֽה׃ - A voice says, "Call out!" And he said, "What shall I call out? All flesh is grass, and all its grace is like the blossom of the field."
יָבֵ֤שׁ חָצִיר֙ נָ֣בֵֽל־צִ֔יץ כִּ֛י ר֥וּחַ יְהֹוָ֖ה נָ֣שְׁבָה בּ֑וֹ אָכֵ֥ן חָצִ֖יר הָעָֽם׃ - Grass withers, a flower fades, when the breath of Hashem blows upon it; surely the people are grass.
Here the prophet shows that flesh and blood lacks both conditions entirely. "All flesh is grass" - flesh perishes quickly, its days are few, and it has no endurance. And if you might say, perhaps it has at least strength in its own right? To this it is said, "and all its grace is like the blossom of the field" - even while alive it lacks strength and permanence, like a withering flower. "Surely the people are grass" - within the people themselves there is neither strength nor continuity, neither as the blossom nor as the grass. In these, there is certainly nothing to rely upon.
יָבֵ֥שׁ חָצִ֖יר נָ֣בֵֽל צִ֑יץ וּדְבַר־אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יָק֥וּם לְעוֹלָֽם׃ - Grass withers, a flower fades, but the word of our God shall endure forever.
In contrast, in the word of our God both conditions are fulfilled simultaneously: "Shall endure" (yakum) - an expression of permanence, validity, and strength; "forever" (le'olam) - eternity and continuity. One who possesses both power and eternity is someone upon whom one can truly rely. Therefore, do not place your trust in flesh and blood, but in the Holy One, blessed be He - whose power endures forever and whose word never falls to the ground.
The Herald of Zion and the Herald of Jerusalem
עַ֣ל הַר־גָּבֹ֤הַּ עֲלִי־לָךְ֙ מְבַשֶּׂ֣רֶת צִיּ֔וֹן הָרִ֤ימִי בַכֹּ֙חַ֙ קוֹלֵ֔ךְ מְבַשֶּׂ֖רֶת יְרוּשָׁלָ֑͏ִם הָרִ֙ימִי֙ אַל־תִּירָ֔אִי אִמְרִי֙ לְעָרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה הִנֵּ֖ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃ - Ascend a high mountain, O herald of Zion; lift up your voice with power, O herald of Jerusalem; lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
Who is the herald? Zion itself and Jerusalem itself are the heralds. To Zion it is said, "Ascend a high mountain," and to Jerusalem it is said, "Lift up your voice with power" - why the change in wording? The Malbim explains: Zion is the place where the king and the Sanhedrin sit, the site of the Beit HaMikdash; while Jerusalem refers to the rest of the city, the dwelling place of the general public. Zion heralds that the Holy One, blessed be He, will restore the Shechinah, the monarchy, and the priesthood - a tidings of greatness and elevation, which is why it says, "Ascend a high mountain," atop the Temple Mount. Jerusalem, on the other hand, heralds the ingathering of the exiles to the masses of the people, which is why it says, "Lift up your voice with power" - so that all the dispersed outcasts in exile may hear that the time has come to return.
"Lift it up, do not fear" - do not worry that this might not materialize, that ultimately redemption will not come. Furthermore, "Say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God!" - the word "Hinei" ("Here" or "Behold") is an expression of pointing with a finger: here it is, it has arrived! The redemption is truly imminent, and one must never despair of it.
Neither a Lack of Power nor a Lack of Will
הִנֵּ֨ה אֲדֹנָ֤י יֱהֹוִה֙ בְּחָזָ֣ק יָב֔וֹא וּזְרֹע֖וֹ מֹ֣שְׁלָה ל֑וֹ הִנֵּ֤ה שְׂכָרוֹ֙ אִתּ֔וֹ וּפְעֻלָּת֖וֹ לְפָנָֽיו׃ - Behold, the Lord God will come with strength, and His arm rules for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His wage is before Him.
The prophet continues and tells the herald of good tidings: You have no reason to fear that Hashem might not fulfill His word. For such a thought could stem from only one of two reasons: either He cannot, or He can but does not want to. Neither applies to the Holy One, Blessed be He.
Let us begin with a lack of ability. Being "unable" can take two forms. The first is lacking strength, that one's power has failed or exhaustion has set in. Concerning this it says, "Behold, the Lord God will come with strength" - the Holy One, Blessed be He, is the Master of strength; could one ever say He lacks strength? The second form is an earthly king who makes a promise, but his army, his legions, and his advisors disagree with him, preventing him from carrying it out. Concerning this it says, "and His arm rules for Him" - His sovereignty is not dependent on the opinion of others; He has no cabinet and no ministers to whom He is subordinate. Rather, everything depends solely on Him and on His outstretched arm.
It remains, then, to ask: perhaps the power is there, but Hashem will not want to; perhaps a change of mind will occur? Here, too, there are two aspects. A person might promise to help because a reward was promised to him, but when it turns out there are no funds to pay, he reneges: "I came for payment; if you cannot pay, I will not come." Concerning this it says, "behold, His reward is with Him" - all reward belongs entirely to the Holy One, Blessed be He, so who could offer Him a reward that would cause Him to change His mind?
And the second aspect: perhaps He made a promise because it pleased Him at the time, but now it pleases Him no longer? Concerning this it says, "and His wage is before Him" - with human beings, there is a promise and there is execution, which are two separate matters; but with the Holy One, Blessed be He, once He promises something, it is as though He has already acted and brought it into being, "Whatever His soul desires, that He does." Therefore, no change from the original promise is possible: neither due to a lack of power - "will come with strength, and His arm rules for Him," nor due to a lack of will - "His reward is with Him, and His wage is before Him." Thus, one can point with confidence and say, "Here is your God!" - He will surely come and redeem His people.
Like a Shepherd Tending His Flock
כְּרֹעֶה֙ עֶדְר֣וֹ יִרְעֶ֔ה בִּזְרֹעוֹ֙ יְקַבֵּ֣ץ טְלָאִ֔ים וּבְחֵיק֖וֹ יִשָּׂ֑א עָל֖וֹת יְנַהֵֽל׃ - Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, with His arm He will gather the lambs, and in His bosom He will carry them; the nursing ewes He will guide.
There are two types of shepherds: a shepherd who watches over the flocks of others, and a shepherd who tends his own sheep. When a shepherd tends his own flock, he has immense compassion for it and cares for it personally. Then, "with His arm He will gather the lambs, and in His bosom He will carry them" - the tender, newborn lambs that struggle to walk, he gathers in one arm and carries in his bosom; "the nursing ewes He will guide" - and the nursing mothers he leads beside them with his other hand, out of his deep compassion for them. In the same way, the Holy One, Blessed be He, will have compassion on the Jewish people; He will take them out and guide them Himself, for they are His acquisition and His inheritance. He needs no reward from anyone, but by His own power He will lead Israel out of exile. And why are the nursing mothers called "olot"? Radak explains: the young offspring are called "olim," and therefore their mothers are called "olot."
Who Measured the Waters in the Hollow of His Hand - The Measures of the Creator of the World
מִי־מָדַ֨ד בְּשׇׁעֳל֜וֹ מַ֗יִם וְשָׁמַ֙יִם֙ בַּזֶּ֣רֶת תִּכֵּ֔ן וְכָ֥ל בַּשָּׁלִ֖שׁ עֲפַ֣ר הָאָ֑רֶץ וְשָׁקַ֤ל בַּפֶּ֙לֶס֙ הָרִ֔ים וּגְבָע֖וֹת בְּמֹאזְנָֽיִם׃ - Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and gauged the heavens with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains with scales, and the hills in a balance?
Rashi explains according to the plain sense: One who possessed the power to do all this certainly has the power to bring Israel out of exile. And what is "besho'alo"? One explanation is: in His stride and steps, as in "bemish'ol hakeramim" (in the pathway of the vineyards). A second explanation is: sho'al is the name of a measuring vessel, as in "besha'alei se'orim" (handfuls of barley). Radak explains: with His fist - as if the Holy One, blessed be He, measured the waters of the world with His fist, indicating immense greatness and power. Of course, one must not mistakenly think these descriptions are literal, for He has no body and no form of a body; rather, it is entirely allegorical. When the Holy One, blessed be He, placed the waters of the world into the seas and rivers, it was as if He measured them like someone pouring into a calibrated vessel, observing the exact required measure.
"Veshamayim bazeret tiken" (and gauged the heavens with a span) - since the heavens are spread out, they are measured by a unit of length, by a span (zeret) or a measuring rod. "Vechal bashalish afar ha'aretz" (and contained the dust of the earth in a measure) - Rashi cites several explanations: He measured in thirds, for when the Holy One, blessed be He, created the earth, He made one third desert, one third inhabited land, and one third seas and rivers. Another explanation is that shalish is the span from the thumb to the middle finger, which is the third finger, a unit of measurement. Most commentators, however, take the view that shalish is the name of a vessel, as in "vatashkem bidma'ot shalish" (and gave them tears to drink in a third-measure), as if it read "and gave them tears to drink by the shalish" - the Holy One, blessed be He, dispenses drink with this vessel. Likewise, cal here denotes measurement, as in "vayamodu va'omer" (and they measured with an omer). "Veshekal bapeles harim" (and weighed the mountains in a scale) - Rashi says that everything was weighed according to the nature of the terrain: a heavy mountain was set in dense, firm ground, and a lighter mountain in soft ground, for if you were to place a heavy mountain upon soft ground, the mountain would gradually sink. The Holy One, blessed be He, weighed each mountain and determined its proper place.
The Malbim explains that here the prophet elaborates on the theme he introduced in verse 10: "Behold, the Lord God will come with strength." This serves as a reply to the nations who claim that it is impossible to extract Israel from exile, and to the skeptics among Israel who doubt that such a thing can happen. The Holy One, blessed be He, possesses infinite power, and no force compares to the power of the Creator. Indeed, the prophet enumerates the four classical elements here: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand" represents the element of water; "and gauged the heavens with a span" represents the element of fire; and "contained the dust of the earth in a measure" represents the element of earth.
And what is the meaning of "contained the dust of the earth in a measure"? The Malbim explains: even without extensive knowledge of astronomy, any thinking person understands that the Earth rotating in a constant, recurring cycle is not self-evident. Take an object and spin it - why should it continue spinning in that exact trajectory? By the laws of inertia and centrifugal force, an object moving in a circular path naturally tends to break out of the circle. Take a sling, or a rope with a stone tied to its end, swing it around, and when you let go, the stone does not keep revolving; it flies outward. How, then, does the Earth continue traveling in its orbit around the sun without hurtling outward? The answer is magnetic pull. All the celestial spheres created by the Holy One, blessed be He, were endowed with immense magnetic force. When an object is dropped and falls to the ground, that is gravitational force, because the Earth functions like a magnet. Where this force is weaker, such as on the moon, gravity is roughly one-sixth of that on Earth.
It emerges that the ability of the celestial bodies to remain in their orbits stems from the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, calibrated the precise magnetic force of each one with wondrous precision. When two celestial bodies draw near, they exert an influence on each other, and if one were to drift too close to another, it could trigger a catastrophic impact, disintegrate, or be thrown entirely off its fixed course. Who was it that "contained the dust of the earth in a measure" - who precisely calculated and measured the magnetic force of the Earth so that it would rotate in this exact manner and never veer from its path?
And to maintain all this - "and weighed the mountains in a scale, and the hills in a balance." The peles is used for large measurements and the moznayim (balance) for smaller measurements, and the purpose of this weighing was to equalize the weight and proportion between them, ensuring that the globe would not possess excessively heavy or light regions. An unbalanced mass can alter rotation: load a vehicle unevenly, and it will pull toward the side bearing the weight. So too with the Earth: had it carried disproportionate weight on one side, it could not rotate smoothly. Therefore, it was necessary to weigh the mountains and distribute them across the globe in a manner that preserves perfect equilibrium. Who accomplished all this if not Hashem, blessed be He - and could one possibly doubt His power to deliver Israel from exile?
"Who Has Directed the Spirit of Hashem" - The Element of Air and the Absence of Counsel
מִֽי־תִכֵּ֥ן אֶת־ר֖וּחַ יְהֹוָ֑ה וְאִ֖ישׁ עֲצָת֥וֹ יוֹדִיעֶֽנּוּ׃ - Who has directed the Spirit of Hashem, or who, as His counselor, informed Him?
Here, says the Malbim, the prophet transitions to the fourth element. We have addressed water, earth, and fire (which constitutes the heavens), and now comes the element of air (ru'ach) - the wind that the Holy One, blessed be He, causes to blow across the earth. If the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned and established all of these, His power is certainly far greater than anything He created. For that which is produced by a creator is inherently lesser than its maker, never greater: an intelligent person who designs an intelligent creation cannot produce something more intelligent than himself, for how could he impart what he does not possess? Surely, then, the power of the Holy One, blessed be He, surpasses the four elements He brought into being.
And lest one suggest that He perhaps lacks the wisdom or counsel to fulfill His promise, the verse continues: "or who, as His counselor, informed Him?" - from whom would the Holy One, blessed be He, seek counsel, and who could possibly serve as His advisor to tell Him how to act? Rashi explains: "Who has directed the Spirit of Hashem" - who directed the holy spirit (Ru'ach Hakodesh), which is the spirit of Hashem in the mouths of the prophets, if not Hashem, blessed be He? "And who, as His counselor, informed Him" - the Holy One, blessed be He, makes His counsel and plans known to man, namely the prophet, as was said regarding Avraham, "Shall I conceal from Avraham [what I am about to do]?" Rashi also offers an explanation according to the literal flow, reading it back to the opening of the verse: Who formed the spirit of Hashem? He did so Himself; and who is the counselor who could impart advice to the Holy One, blessed be He? Radak explains: Hashem made everything, "Whatever His soul desired, He did." No human, angel, or spiritual force advises the Holy One, blessed be He, to say "do this" or "do not do that"; rather, He is "stretching out the heavens alone." If His power is boundless and His capability infinite, then whatever He promises, He fulfills; and having promised to deliver Israel from their exile, He will surely redeem them.
The Three Sources of Wisdom That Man Needs - and the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Needs No One
אֶת־מִ֤י נוֹעָץ֙ וַיְבִינֵ֔הוּ וַֽיְלַמְּדֵ֖הוּ בְּאֹ֣רַח מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וַיְלַמְּדֵ֣הוּ דַ֔עַת וְדֶ֥רֶךְ תְּבוּנ֖וֹת יוֹדִיעֶֽנּוּ׃ - With whom did He consult, that he gave Him understanding, and taught Him in the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?
The Malbim explains that human comprehension is always dependent on others, and he enumerates the ways in which a person acquires knowledge. The first way is what the Holy One, blessed be He, grants to man through intellect - common sense, natural sound judgment. If you ask for proof of these things, one cannot provide it, but common sense dictates it. For example, one cannot assert two opposites in a single sentence: "It is now night and day" - decide, it is either night or day; "This man is wise and foolish" - this is an inherent contradiction. Such things cannot be proven through theoretical research, yet they are the foundation of all research.
The same applies to matters of morality: no moral society determines that stealing is legitimate. There may be societies where it occurs, but none of them decrees that it is morally legitimate. And why, indeed, not steal? After all, the animal kingdom is built such that one creature snatches from another, and not only steals but devours the other animal itself - so why should we not live this way? The answer is that common sense dictates that a civilized society is one in which people do not steal. This is an innate reality with which every human being is created.
Regarding the importance of common sense, a story is told of a prince who was thoroughly ignorant. The king sent him to teachers to instruct him, and they taught him for a very long time, starting from the basics: there are things that are round, things that are square, things that are triangular, and things that are long. He completed all his studies and passed his exams with a perfect score. The king's minister came, placed a ring in his hand, closed his fist, and said to the prince: "Guess what I have here." The prince began to ponder deeply, and finally asked for a hint. The minister said to him: "It is something round." The prince tried to recall what round object he had recently learned about, and remembered that the tutor had taught him that a wagon cannot travel without a wheel. He cried out: "A wagon wheel!" Everyone burst into laughter. Simple common sense dictates that a wagon wheel could hardly fit inside a person's palm. A person can study a great deal, but without common sense, he will utter the most illogical things.
The second way is the faculty of logical deduction inherent in man - the ability to compare one matter to another (ledamot milta lemilta) and draw conclusions. If you ask about something a person has never formally learned, he calculates: there is something else similar to it, and if it is so there, it is all the more so (kal vachomer) here. If A is similar to B, and B is similar to C, then necessarily C is similar to A - even though this was never explicitly stated to him. This is the logic that teaches how to extrapolate from one thing to another.
The third way is that, at a certain stage, neither common sense nor logical deduction will suffice, for there are things that someone else must teach you, and without that person, you would never know. There are established and known laws of nature that people have labored over for hundreds and thousands of years. If a person were to start from scratch to discover the law of gravity and conduct experiments, he would spend his entire life doing so - and how would he ever progress? A researcher relies on what others have researched before him and builds upon it, learning the foundations in school and university. It has already been proven that water boils at one hundred degrees, and one does not need to spend two months with a thermometer testing when it reaches boiling and when freezing. Especially in Torah study, there are matters that cannot be attained through independent labor or human conjecture, but only received from one who attained them - just as the Arizal received from Eliyahu HaNavi; which is why these teachings are called "Kabbalah" (received tradition).
Now we can analyze the verse according to the Malbim: "With whom did He consult... and He taught Him knowledge (da'at)" - knowledge is the most fundamental understanding, the natural common sense implanted in man even before he has studied anything, what we call today "life wisdom": a person who never attended university but possesses sound logic and can be consulted on anything. "And showed Him the way of understanding (tevunot)" - understanding is always discerning one matter from another (davar mitoch davar), which is the power of deduction and analogy. "And made Him understand, and taught Him in the path of judgment" - this is the domain where a person needs someone to instruct him methodically and explain things to him.
And the deeper lesson: with the Holy One, blessed be He - with whom did He consult? Who imparted understanding to Him? Who taught Him in the path of judgment? Not only does He not require instruction from another, but even natural intellect was not received from anyone else; rather, everything originates from Himself. This explains what was said earlier, "and His arm rules for Him": sometimes a person wishes to do something, but his advisers object and tell him there is another way and that it might not be advisable. With the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no possibility that He would change His mind because of an adviser, for all the principles of wisdom that man requires from others, the Holy One, blessed be He, possesses intrinsically. Consequently, His counsel will never change due to any external factor, and if He made a promise, He will fulfill it - both by virtue of His unlimited power and because He needs no counsel from others.
"Behold, Nations Are Like a Drop from a Bucket"
הֵ֤ן גּוֹיִם֙ כְּמַ֣ר מִדְּלִ֔י וּכְשַׁ֥חַק מֹאזְנַ֖יִם נֶחְשָׁ֑בוּ הֵ֥ן אִיִּ֖ים כַּדַּ֥ק יִטּֽוֹל׃ - "Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the balance; behold, He lifts up the isles like fine dust."
After establishing that the Holy One, blessed be He, created the four elements with unlimited capability, and that no power comes close to the power of the Creator of the universe, the question arises: how will He take us out from among the nations? Will they ever agree to release Israel? To this the prophet replies: "Behold, nations are like a drop from a bucket" - like a drop dripping from a bucket, and "like the dust of the balance" - like the fine, powdered dust resting upon scales. Such are the nations considered before Hashem; how then could they hinder the Holy One, blessed be He, from carrying out His intention?
Why did the prophet duplicate the imagery? The Malbim explains: the drop from a bucket is of the very same substance as the water in the bucket, merely infinitesimal; whereas the dust upon the balance is not of the balance's substance at all - it is not metal, but entirely foreign to it. The parallel is this: if you reckon all living beings upon the earth, a human nation is part of them - not a separate category, but like a drop from those abundant waters, amounting to nothing relative to the entire bucket. But if you reckon everything upon the earth compared to the globe itself, and all the more so compared to the boundless galaxies across distances of millions of light-years, all of this is as nothing and naught, and not even of the same category, like fine dust compared to the balance. And if the great nations are like a drop from a bucket, all the more so the small islands: "Behold, He lifts up the isles like fine dust" - like swirling dust, He picks them up and scatters them, and they are accounted as nothing. Who, then, can prevent Hashem, blessed be He, from redeeming His people?
"And Lebanon Is Not Sufficient to Burn" - No Sacrifice Can Bribe the Creator
וּלְבָנ֕וֹן אֵ֥ין דֵּ֖י בָּעֵ֑ר וְחַ֨יָּת֔וֹ אֵ֥ין דֵּ֖י עוֹלָֽה׃ - Lebanon is not enough for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
And if you were to say: perhaps the Holy One, blessed be He, will not redeem us because we do not offer sacrifices to Him? Does the Holy One, blessed be He, need your sacrifices? "Lebanon is not enough for fuel" - all the timber of Lebanon is insufficient to keep a fire burning upon the altar; "nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering" - all the animals of Lebanon are not enough to be offered as an olah. The sacrifices are for your sake, not His. And likewise from the opposite perspective: all the wood of Lebanon and all the beasts of the forest would not be enough to appease the Holy One, blessed be He, on behalf of the nations, or to alter His decree to redeem Israel. As it is said, "I will not take a bull from your house... for Mine is every beast of the forest" (Tehillim 50:9-10), and "Will Hashem be pleased with thousands of rams?" (Michah 6:7) - it is impossible to entice the Holy One, blessed be He, with burnt offerings and sacrifices to change His will. And this corresponds to what was said earlier, "Behold, His reward is with Him": what reward could you offer Him, and what could you give Him so that He would turn His favor away from us and desire the nations instead?
All the Nations Are as Nothing Before Him
כׇּל־הַגּוֹיִ֖ם כְּאַ֣יִן נֶגְדּ֑וֹ מֵאֶ֥פֶס וָתֹ֖הוּ נֶחְשְׁבוּ־לֽוֹ׃ - All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are reckoned by Him as less than nothing and void.
And if you were to suggest that perhaps Hashem might be appeased by the nations and favor them because they find favor in His eyes - concerning this it is said, "All the nations are as nothing before Him." Rashi explains: they are like nothing in His eyes and hold no importance before Him. The Radak explains: less than zero, in the sense of "they are together lighter than a breath" (Tehillim 62:10); all of them are as nothingness before Hashem, blessed be He.
The Malbim notes with precision: why does the verse state both "as nothing before Him" and "they are reckoned by Him as less than nothing and void" - is it nothingness (*ayin*) or zero (*efes*)? Rather, one must distinguish between absolute value and relative value. Absolute value pertains to the entity itself - is it valuable or worthless, does it have significance or not? Relative value is when an entity is itself precious and of great worth, yet in comparison to something else, it is completely negligible, virtually zero. If one asks: is a million kilometers a lot or a little? On its own, in absolute terms, it is immense; but relative to thousands of light-years, it is zero, it does not even register. Similarly with a meter - relative to a millimeter it is substantial, but relative to a kilometer it is negligible. Everything depends on what you measure it against.
In summary:
The prophet comes to uproot doubt regarding the redemption from the hearts of the people. Flesh and blood possesses neither enduring strength nor constancy - "surely the people are grass"; but "the word of our God shall stand forever," fulfilling both conditions of true trust: stability and strength on the one hand, and eternity on the other. Therefore, let the harbinger of Zion ascend a high mountain to proclaim the restoration of the Shechinah, the monarchy, and the priesthood, and let the harbinger of Jerusalem lift up her voice with strength to gather the dispersed. With the Holy One, blessed be He, there is no lack of power - "He comes with strength, and His arm rules for Him" - nor any lack of will - "behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense precedes Him." He who measured the elements of creation with exact precision, weighed the mountains in scales, and balanced the globe in its orbit, needing no counsel or instruction from anyone - He will surely redeem His people. And the nations are like a drop from a bucket and like fine dust on the scales, and all the wood and beasts of Lebanon cannot alter His will. If so, "say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God!" - one must never despair of the redemption.