The Spirit of the Lord in Isa 40:7,13

Isa 40:7[1] and 13 do not present the Spirit of the Lord as an agent, contrary to some translations of ruach. Isa 40:7 asserts that “the wind of the Lord blows upon it”, referring to grass and flowers which thereby wither and fade. Intertextually, the word for withering (Xby) occurs in Isa 40:24 and is used of the fate of the princes and judges (v. 23). Further, the figure of a “fading flower” (lbn #yc) occurs once elsewhere in connection with a corrupt leadership (Isa 28:1). These are to be taken away by a “whirlwind” (r[s) that will blow (@Xn) upon them. This declaration echoes the action of the Lord against the Egyptians at the Red Sea,

“Thou didst blow (@Xn[2]) with thy wind (xwr), the sea covered them” (Exod 15:10).

In view of this echo, it would seem that Isa 40:7 refers to the “wind” of the Lord, which will cause the grass to wither and the flower to fade.

The choice of the expression “the wind of the Lord” receives support from Psa 147:18 which uses the same word for “blow”: “He sends forth his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow” (RSV). The possessive suffix of “his wind” matches the possession implicit in “the wind of the Lord”. The Psalm indicates that a wind is meant by ruach given the surrounding mention of snow, frost and ice.

Isa 40:13 uses a verb, !kt, in the Piel form which conveys the sense of “measurement”, and is used in this way in the preceding verse. As C. Westermann notes, the point is that “one can no more measure the Spirit of God than one can measure the sea in the hollow of one’s hand”.[3] Thus, regardless of how the Spirit is conceived here, the verb does not suggest that the Spirit of the Lord is being construed as an agent. The LXX offers an interpretation that corresponds to Paul of ti,j e;gnw nou/n kuri,ou (Rms 11:34). Westermann suggests that the Spirit here is “the power of God which works miracles”.[4] Wonsuk Ma offers the definition, “intelligence and wisdom of Yahweh”,[5] on the basis of the use of the Qal form of !kt in Prov 16:2, 24:12, “measuring the heart/mins reading reflects the quantitative figure applied td”. Our proposal would be that the measurement here implies bestowal of the Spirit, and that therefore the question is about who can evaluate and contradict God’s prophetic counsel. Thio the distribution of the Spirit in the record of Moses and the Seventy Elders.[6] As such this language is a substance metaphor.

[1] This verse is absent from the LXX and 1QIsaa, accordingly, we cannot be certain of the text. Our analysis of the MT is offered for purposes of comparison with Isa 40:13. For a discussion, see R. T. McLay, Uses of the Septuagint (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. 2003), 114-116.

[2] The verb @Xn only occurs in these two texts.

[3] C. Westermann, Isaiah 40-66 (London: SCM Press, 1969), 50; see also Wonsuk Ma, Until the Spirit Comes (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 72. 4Q511 Frag. 30.6 cites this Isaiah text.

[4] C. Westermann, Isaiah 40-66 (London: SCM Press, 1969), 50.

[5] Wonsuk Ma, Until the Spirit Comes (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 72

[6] Josephus reflects this quantitative figure in Solomon’s dedicatory prayer in Ant. 8.114, “send some portion of thy spirit to dwell in the temple”; however, the notion of “dwelling” implies a personal conception. On the other hand, Philo in Gig.27 states that the spirit is “susceptible of neither severance nor division”.