The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.
7. The grass is withered. This might be understood to relate to the beauty of the fields, which is spoiled by a single gust of wind, as it is said, (Psalm 103:16,) “As soon as the wind passeth over it, it is gone;” for we know that the wind is called “the Spirit of God” in other passages.
The time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, having come, the people of God must be prepared, by repentance and faith, for the favours designed them; and, in order to call them to both these, we have here the voice of one crying in the wilderness, which may be applied to those prophets who were with the captives in their wilderness-state, and who, when...
Commenting on Isaiah 40:3-8
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,.... And so does man, and all his glory and goodliness: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: alluding to some impetuous and blasting wind blowing upon herbs and flowers, to the withering and fading of them; see Psa 103:15, legal ordinances ceased upon the pouring forth of the Spirit.