Yesaya 40:6-8

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ¹  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ²  “All people are like grass, ³ 

and all their promises ⁴  are like the flowers in the field.

40:7 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

when the wind sent by the Lord ⁵  blows on them.

Surely humanity ⁶  is like grass.

40:8 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

but the decree of our God is forever reliable.” ⁷ 

Matius 6:30

6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ⁸  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ⁹  won’t he clothe you even more, ¹⁰  you people of little faith?

Yakobus 1:10

1:10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ¹¹ 

[40:6]  ¹ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ² tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ³ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[40:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text has רוּחַ יְהוָה (ruakh yehvah), which in this context probably does not refer to the Lord’s personal Spirit. The phrase is better translated “the breath of the Lord,” or “the wind of [i.e., sent by] the Lord.” The Lord’s sovereign control over nature, including the hot desert winds that dry up vegetation, is in view here (cf. Ps 147:18; Isa 59:19).

[40:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the people” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “but the word of our God stands forever.” In this context the divine “word” specifically refers to his decreed promise assuring Jerusalem that her suffering is over and his glorious return imminent (vv. 1-5).

[6:30]  ⁸ tn Grk “grass of the field.”

[6:30]  ⁹ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

[6:30]  sn The oven was most likely a rounded clay oven used for baking bread, which was heated by burning wood and dried grass.

[6:30]  ¹⁰ sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.

[1:10]  ¹¹ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”