Isaiah 35:1

CHAPTER XXXV

Flourishing state of the Church of God consequent to the awful

judgments predicted in the preceding chapter. The images

employed in the description are so very consolatory and sublime

as to oblige us to extend their fulfilment to that period of

the Gospel dispensation when Messiah shall take unto himself

his great power and reign. The fifth and sixth verses were

literally accomplished by our Saviour and his apostles: but

that the miracles wrought in the first century were not the

only import of the language used by the prophet, is

sufficiently plain from the context. They, therefore, have a

farther application; and are contemporary with, or rather a

consequence of, the judgments of God upon the enemies of the

Church in the latter days; and so relate to the greater

influence and extension of the Christian faith, the conversion

of the Jews, their restoration to their own land, and the

second advent of Christ. Much of the imagery of this chapter

seems to have been borrowed from the exodus from Egypt: but it

is greatly enlivened by the life, sentiments, and passions

ascribed to inanimate objects; all nature being represented as

rejoicing with the people of God in consequence of their

deliverance; and administering in such an unusual manner to

their relief and comfort, as to induce some commentators to

extend the meaning of the prophecy to the blessedness of the

saints in heaven, 1-10.

The various miracles our Lord wrought are the best comment on this chapter, which predicts those wondrous works and the glorious state of the Christian Church. See the parallel texts in the margin.

On this chapter Bishop Lowth has offered some important emendations. I shall introduce his translation, as the best yet given of this singular prophecy: -

1. The desert and the waste shall be glad;

And the wilderness shall rejoice, and flourish:

2. Like the rose shall it beautifully flourish;

And the well-watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice:

The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it,

The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon;

These shall behold the glory of JEHOVAH,

The majesty of our God.

3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands,

And confirm ye the tottering knees.

4. Say ye to the faint-hearted, Be ye strong;

Fear ye not; behold your God!

Vengeance will come; the retribution of God:

He himself will come, and will deliver you.

5. Then shall be unclosed the eyes of the blind;

And the ears of the deaf shall be opened:

6. Then shall the lame bound like the hart,

And the tongue of the dumb shall sing;

For in the wilderness shall burst forth waters,

And torrents in the desert:

7. And the glowing sand shall become a pool,

And the thirsty soil bubbling springs:

And in the haunt of dragons shall spring forth

The grass with the reed and the bulrush.

8. And a highway shall be there;

And it shall be called The way of holiness:

No unclean person shall pass through it:

But he himself shall be with them, walking in the way,

And the foolish shall not err therein:

9. No lion shall be there;

Nor shall the tyrant of the beasts come up thither:

Neither shall he be found there;

But the redeemed shall walk in it.

10. Yea, the ransomed of JEHOVAH shall return;

They shall come to Sion with triumph;

And perpetual gladness shall crown their heads.

Joy and gladness shall they obtain;

And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXV

Verse Isaiah 35:1. Shall be glad] יששום yesusum; in one MS. the מ mem seems to have been added; and שום sum is upon a rasure in another. None of the ancient versions acknowledge it; it seems to have been a mistake, arising from the next word beginning with the same letter. Seventeen MSS. have ישושום yesusum, both vaus expressed; and five MSS. יששם yesusum, without the vaus. Probably the true reading is, "The wilderness and the dry place shall be glad." Not for them.