Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Desert Shall Rejoice and Blossom
Isaiah 35:1-10
1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. · WEB
The desolation of the previous chapter answered acre for acre, and a road built so plain that fools cannot get lost on it.
The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose Isaiah 35:1.
Ten verses answering the chapter before, item for item. That one turned streams to pitch and gave a country to owls; this one waters a desert and gives it a road.
Lebanon's glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon Isaiah 35:2.
The three most fertile places in the region, all of which were stripped bare two chapters earlier Isaiah 33:9. Their glory is transferred to the wasteland.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make the feeble knees firm. Tell those who have a fearful heart, "Be strong! Don't be afraid!" Isaiah 35:3–4.
An instruction to the reader rather than a promise, and the letter to the Hebrews quotes it to a discouraged congregation Hebrews 12:12. The hands and knees named are the two that give way first in exhaustion.
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing Isaiah 35:5–6.
Four disabilities and four reversals, and Jesus sends this list back to John in prison as the answer to whether he is the one Matthew 11:5. The lame man does not merely walk; the mute does not merely speak. One leaps and the other sings, which is more than the repair required.
For waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool Isaiah 35:6–7.
The phrase describes the mirage that torments desert travelers — shimmering heat that looks like water. It becomes water.
A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called "The Holy Way". The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools shall not go there Isaiah 35:8.
The book's third highway, and this one has a name and a restriction. The Hebrew of the last clause is difficult and the English translations divide, but the plain sense is that the road is so clearly marked that even a simpleton cannot wander off it. Whatever else the way is, it does not require cleverness.
No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it Isaiah 35:9.
The road is safe as well as plain, which are the two things a traveler in that country wanted and never had.
Then Yahweh's ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away Isaiah 35:10.
The first half of the book ends here, and the last image is of people walking home on a road, singing. The four chapters that follow are narrative, and after them the book begins again with a voice telling someone to build exactly this highway.
settled What this mark means