Isaiah 40:9

עַל הַר־גָּבֹהַּ עֲלִי־לָךְ מְבַשֶּׂרֶת צִיּוֹן הָרִימִי בַכֹּחַ קוֹלֵךְ מְבַשֶּׂרֶת יְרוּשָׁלִָם הָרִימִי אַל־תִּירָאִי אִמְרִי לְעָרֵי יְהוּדָה הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם

9 Go up to a high mountain, you who bear good news to Zion, Lift up your voice with strength, you who bear good news to Jerusalem. Lift it up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah: "Look! Your God!"

עַל הַר־גָּבֹהַּ עֲלִי־לָךְ Go up to a high mountain, The verb clause עֲלִי־לָךְ lit. "Go up for yourself" presents an ethical dative which can be omitted in translation, like the middle voice in Koine Greek. The verb is a qal imperative 2nd fem. sg (עָלָה). The feminine person addressed in these verbs is the messenger "herself," both the city Jerusalem and the nation, Zion. "She" brings the message to the surrounding territory. This is language paralleling the opening verses of the book, in which the "heavens" and "earth" were called upon to listen to the Lord's accusations against the sinful nation of Israel (Isaiah 1:2-4).

The Mm list 2279 tells us that the form עֲלִי occurs six times: Num 21:17; 1 Sam 25:35; Isaiah 21:2; 40:9; Jer 22:20 and 46:11.

מְבַשֶּׂרֶת צִיּוֹן   you who bear good news to Zion, "you who bear good news" is a single piel participle. The verbal root בשׂר "make glad, bring glad tidings" does not occur outside the doubled stems, piel and hithpael (hithp. only in 2 Sam. 18:31). It often has a corresponding meaning to εὐαγγελίζω, "preach the good news," but  I can't completely agree with Pieper's assessment  (Isaiah II, p. 102). It usually refers to the proclamation of the gospel, but not always. For example, in 2 Sam. 18:31, a Cushite "brings the news" (hithpael imperfect) to David about Absalom's death. Whatever that Cushite thought his words were "good news" or not, they weren't the proclamation of the gospel.

We don't really known what Zion (צִיּוֹן) means, although Pieper suggests that it could be from צָוָה, "to be firm" > a citadel (Isaiah II, p. 100). There are words vaguely related to zion in Hebrew, such as ziun "monument," (Jer. 31:21), zii "yelping desert creature" ("desert tribes," Psalm 72:9), ziah "desert," (Psalm 63:2; Hosea 2:5), and an Egyptian word on loan to Hebrew, zih "ship" (Numbers 24:24, cf. Gesenius Hebrew Grammar, page 269 §93y). Any one of these might have significance, and judging from other Hebrew place names, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it drew from several or all of these meanings. The -on part of the word is either a Semitic plural or a place-ending. The Jebusties who named it may not have been a Semitic race; it could even be a word so old that it could be called pre-Hebrew. It's earliest occurrence is 2 Samuel 5:7, when "David captured the stronghold of Zion."

הָרִימִי בַכֹּחַ קוֹלֵךְ   Lift up your voice with strength, Hifil imperative, fem 2nd sg from רוּם, "lift" (once again, the verbs speaking to the city). "With strength" (בַכֹּחַ,  beth of manner) probably implies volume and forcefulness; we might say "with a shout" (NIV) or "mightily" (NASB). Mm 3246 informs us that this is one of four times in which בַּכֹּחַ occurs with dagesh, meaning that the word is seen to have both the inseparable preposition beth and the definite article. The four places are Exodus 15:6; Isaiah 40:9; Psalm 29:4 and 1 Chron. 26:8. The other three references are all pointed בַּכֹּחַ, but BHS and all the older editions of BH point בַכֹּחַ the way we have it here, including the 1913 printing. Either there is an error in the Mp note (a distinct possibility; there are other errors and the Masoretic apparatus is far from being divinely inspired) or else a Masorete made this judgment based on a manuscript or manuscript tradition which is lost. The suffix of קוֹלֵךְ "your voice" is again feminine; the city (=the church) is being addressed.

מְבַשֶּׂרֶת יְרוּשָׁלִָם   you who bear good news to Jerusalem. See comments on this phrase above. We also notice in the above place an Mp note telling us that this word מְבַשֶּׂרֶת occurs just twice, and in the same verse. The note guards against the accidental deletion of either phrase.

הָרִימִי אַל־תִּירָאִי  Lift it up, do not be afraid.  Once again, the hifil fem. imperative of רוּם, "lift it up." The qal jussive תִּירָאִי is expected with the negative אַל (GK 109c), expressing here that fear cannot or should not happen.

אִמְרִי לְעָרֵי יְהוּדָה הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם   Say to the cities of Judah: "Look! Your God!" This is a stunning proclamation. To a people who would be dragged and torn away into captivity, seemingly abandoned by God and lamenting their sin, the absence of God would be a hole in their lives that would grow and grow until it became an insatiable hunger and thirst for God; God who was not there. But then, the prophet says, "There he is!" It is not that the people would have suffered enough; it is not as if the people somehow satisfied the Lord's anger with enough death and suffering. It is not as if the nobility or good intentions of one man changed God's mind. The truth is that God returned to keep his promise; to restore his people because of his own compassion so that the Savior of all mankind would come at just the right time. הִנֵּה is an exclamation, "Look!" "Behold!" אֱלֹהֵיכֶם slips away from the feminine imperatives and suffixes of the chapter. The feminine 3rd plural אֱלֹהֵיהֶן does occur in the Bible (Ex. 34:16; Num. 25:2) but only when describing the false gods of other nations. That is not to say that it couldn't appear in a context describing the true God, but it doesn't happen to.

The Mp note points out that the exclamation הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם occurs twice, both times in Isaiah, in different parts of the book (35:4; 40:9).