Isaiah 35:1

Isa 35:1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

Ver. 1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.] The Edomites, and other enemies, have had their part. It hath been sufficiently said, "Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." And now the prophet is bidden to say to the righteous, to tell him so from the Lord, that it "shall be well with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." {Isa 3:10-11} The "wilderness" and the "desert," that is, the poor people of God that have been oppressed and slighted in this world, shall be restored into a happy and flourishing estate. The Church shall have her halcyon days under Hezekiah, but especially under Christ, she shall have it both in temporals and spirituals. {Isa 35:2}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa_35:1-10

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them

The blessings of the Gospel

The thirty-fourth and the thirty-fifth chapters of Isaiah are by the best scholars supposed to constitute one entire and complete prophecy, not connected specially, or at least organically, with what goes before or follows.

It is a masterpiece of poetry. A single poem divided into two parts; in the first part, the prophet sets forth in lurid colours the universal judgments of God upon all the nations of the earth which have arrayed themselves against Him and oppressed His people. As an instance of what shall come upon all, he selects a single nation, that of the Edomites, and shows forth in them what shall come upon all. This awful storm of wrath passes away; and we see in the clear shining after rain the beautiful prospect which is opened up to both earth and man, when Gods enemies cease from troubling and His people are gathered unto Himself. The almost universal habit of spiritualising this, and all like prophecies, and allegorising them into an exclusive application to present Gospel blessings, has served to hide the chief significance of the passage from the eyes of the ordinary reader. The promise of this glorious chapter is without doubt primarily and chiefly to the Jews, referring to their final restoration to their own land in the last days. That it has a preliminary reference to the return from the Babylonian captivity is possible, but it looks far beyond that time to the return from the dispersion which the Jews are now suffering. Even the joy of that first return did not fulfil the glorious promises of this vision. Gods day of vengeance, and the year of His redeemed, are thus set side by side. (Compare with 61:2; and 63:4, with Mat_24:27-31; Luk_21:25-28.)

I. THE REJOICING CREATION. It is almost impossible not to associate the magnificent opening words of this chapter with the hope held out to the whole creation which groaneth and travalleth in pain together until now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, when it shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom_8:19-23). The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. This is a beautiful picture of the sympathy of the earth with man. Not only do the beautiful parts of the earth rejoice with the home-coming of man from his wanderings from God, but the very wilderness and solitary places rejoice and are glad for them, because also in mans redemption the creation which was cursed for mans sake is set free from that curse. The gladness which is here ascribed to the inanimate creation corresponds with the songs and everlasting joy which crown the redeemed of the Lord on their return. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto them and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. Two other things are ascribed to the creation. They are represented as consciously participating in the great goodness of God to man. They rejoice even with joy and singing; and they see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. It is the habit of our prophet thus to invest nature with consciousness and intelligence. It is the habit of-all scriptural writers to put man and nature into close sympathy with each other, declaring that God is the maker of both. There is a great spiritual as well as poetic truth in this. How powerfully are we affected by plastic nature! How responsive the soil, the fruits of earth, and trees of the forest to the loving touch and sympathy of man! Who does not know how wonderfully different all nature seemed to us when we were first converted to God. What a world of beauty this will be when the curse is removed and man and nature, so manifestly made for each other, shall rejoice and be glad together!

II. THE BLESSINGS OF SALVATION. The outline of blessing which the prophet sets before us is not complete, but simply consists of a few bold strokes, serving to fill us with the hope of perfect and complete recovery to God.

1. Men shall see God. The vision of God has already been ascribed in a metaphorical sense to the inanimate creation. It is certainly true that, among the chiefest blessings of salvation, is the vision of God When Jesus came into the world, we are told that in Him we beheld the glory of God, full of grace and truth We are also told that the first effect of the new birth is the ability of the sinner to see God. The purification of the heart which comes with the new life of God in the soul, carries with it the promise of seeing God (Joh_1:14; Joh_3:3; Mat_5:8; 2Co_3:18). But there is manifestly something more than this meant. They shall see the glory of Jehovah and the excellency of our God. This can refer to nothing else than that beatific vision of God spoken of by Paul in 1Co_13:12; by John in the Rev_22:4. Yet again, if we are to include the saints of the Church in this prophecy, then we shall also have to look for a more literal fulfilment still. When the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven in power and great glory (Mat_26:64; Dan_7:13; Joh_1:51; 1Th_4:16; Rev_1:7), then the scattered Jews shall see their long-rejected Lord, as Saul of Tarsus saw Him on the way to Damascus (Act_9:3), and be instantly converted, and start on their homeward way, greeted by all the smiling and rejoicing flowers and trees and pools and newly fertilised wildernesses and waste places of the earth. During all these dark centuries the veil has been over the eyes of the Jews, but in this time the veil shall be taken away and they shall see the face, the glory, the excellency of Jehovah-God.

2. They shall strengthen and encourage each other. This is most probably a retrospective exhortation. In view of this promise and the certain coming of Jehovah and their restoration, they are exhorted to strengthen and encourage each other. There are those whose hands are weak, whose knees are feeble. They cannot fight the good fight of faith with courage, they cannot run with patience the race that is set before them. The long delays and afflictions experienced during the time of waiting has taken not only the courage out of many, but has filled them with despair. Therefore they were to say to those of a fearful heart or of a hasty tendency to unbelief:

Be strong, fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance; even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Thus the prophet calls upon the strong to impart theft strength to the weak and their faith and courage to the faint-hearted. The new Testament writers transfer the spirit, and in part, the very words of this exhortation to the saints of the Church of God. We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak Rom_15:1).

3. Infirmities shall be removed. Not only shall the earth be restored to primitive beauty, clothed with redemption glory, and tided with an almost conscious sympathy and joy, but all the infirmities which sin has entailed on our poor sinful human nature shall be removed. In view of this entire deliverance from all the consequences of sin, along with the people of Jehovah, the sore spots of earth shad be healed too. Waters in the wilderness, streams in the desert, pools covering the parched sand, and springs bursting out of thirsty lands; no longer a mirage thrown up from a few turfs of dried herbage, but veritable grass with reeds and rushes shall greet the returning and healed pilgrims. The beginning of this marvel of redemption came when Jesus was first here, opening blind eyes, healing lame limbs, unlocking deaf ears, and loosing silent tongues. Surely, if we have the will to do the will of God, we shall know of this doctrine whether it be of God.

III. THE WAY HOME. Now follows a wondrous picture of the way of the return for the long absent wanderer. The way of the transgressor is hard, and the world away from God is a barren and thirsty land; but so soon as the face is set toward God and heaven, heavens God makes the way of return easy and sure. The dispersion of the Jews was a way of misery. In the return of the Jews to God and their own land we behold the truth of the spiritual way which God has prepared for every sinner to return to Him, and by Him to heaven.

1. It is a highway. An highway shall be there. A broad and open way, cast up and distinguished from all ether roads and tracks. It has both breadth and narrowness. Broad enough for all the world to travel over,--and He will have all men to be saved,--and yet m the highway there is a narrow way, in which every man must walk for himself, alone and yet not alone--alone in that he must believe for himself; not alone, in that others are walking with him on the same terms and surrounded by the same conditions.

2. It is a way of holiness. That is, it is a way clean in itself, and only for the clean to traverse. The unclean shall not pass over it. Drunkards, liars, adulterers, fornicators, covetous, idolaters, and extortioners may not walk in that way. For none of these sins shall see or enter into the kingdom of heaven. When the scoffer points to such characters in the visible Church, the sufficient answer is that the Church is not the way, but Jesus Himself is the Way, and all that are in Christ Jesus are new creatures, old things having passed away and all things having become new (2Co_5:17).

3. God is with them in the way. For such is the meaning of the expression. It shall be for those. Gods children have in a sense to walk alone, and entering this way, they have to break with many who in the days of their flesh were their companions, but the presence and companionship of God with them in the way will more than compensate. No man who knows the fellowship of God and the saints ever misses the company of the world.

4. It is a way of perfect plainness. No one need fear getting lost in this way. It is so simple and straightforward, so guarded and marked, that the simple and unlearned need not err therein. He that followeth Me, said Jesus, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Besides, God has promised to hold us by our right hand, and to keep us from falling Isa_41:13; Jud_1:24).

5. It is a safe way. No lion or any ravenous beast shall be there, nor be permitted to go up thereon. God has cleared the way of enemies, so far as their ability to harm us is concerned. It was only when Christian turned out of the way that he met the devil and had to fight him, and even when the lions fiercely growled at him, he discovered that, by keeping in the middle of the path, they could not approach him, being chained.

IV. SAFE AT HOME. What a picture is here presented to the poor outcasts of Israel! There had been a dispersion and a home-coming from Babylon. There was to be yet another far wider and more prolonged dispersion, and then at last a final homecoming. In view of this the prophet bursts out with a triumphant exclamation of victory, in which he sets all the redeemed singing for joy. He sees the wanderers and outcasts gathering from every quarter of the earth (Isa_11:12; Isa_51:3). They come with songs of everlasting joy on their lips, bursting from their glad and happy hearts. It has been a long night to them, but joy has at last come with this thriceblessed morning. Is not this a blessed picture, too, of the triumphant entrance into the presence of God of those who have fought a good fight, kept the faith, and finished their course? (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

Transformation

The prophecy before us is one of those in which the so-called secondary meaning is, in truth, the primary. The spiritual takes precedence of the natural.

I. THE SAD CONDITION OF THE LOCALITIES ON WHICH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS INTENDED TO OPERATE. Let us gather into one cluster all that is said of them. A wilderness, a solitary place, parched ground, thirsty laud, a habitation of dragons. With the exception of the last-mentioned, all the desolation seems to turn upon the absence of one element--water. What simile could so vividly depict the moral barrenness and desolation, whether of the individual, or of the world at large, apart from the glorious Gospel of the blessed God? What a wilderness the heart is, that has not God dwelling in it! The idea of solitariness may seem to disappear when this word habitation comes into view. But what a habitation it is! A habitation of dragons. That, and that only, was wanting to complete the picture--the foul serpent brood, with their huge encircling folds, prepared to crush the life out of every creature that may cross their dreaded path. To a heart which has within it that well of water springing up into everlasting life, there is no sadder scene than the unutterable desolateness of these moral wastes presented by hearts that are unchanged. What is true of the individual is equally true of the aspect presented by the world at large. It may, perhaps, be imagined that the one element which is wanting to turn all this desolation into smiling fertility is Civilisation. That has been already weighed in the balances and found wanting. What the wilderness, and the solitary place, and the desert, and the parched ground, and the thirsty land require is--the Water of Life, gushing from the smitten rock, Christ Jesus.

II. THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THE KINGDOM OF JESUS. Even to us, in a country where water is plentiful, the beauty and appropriateness of the image are at once apparent. What a charm it adds to the landscape, whether in the form of the great ocean, bearing on its bosom the treasures of the world, or of the river winding through the pleasant meadows, which drink in fertility and beauty from the living stream! The like with its mirror-like surface basking in the sun, suggests, too, the theme of the prophets song. But it was with an appreciation more intense that the inhabitants of these Eastern lands regarded this emblem of the life that is in Jesus Christ. Water spoke to them of deliverance from death. Hence, wherever this glad Gospel is spoken of, we find this emblem employed to bring before the mind the joy-giving results of the kingdom of Christ. Note the results as these are brought before us in our text.

1. Gladness. It requires no great effort of imagination to realise the glad aspect of nature refreshed by copious rains, after a heat that has scorched the grass, and dwarfed the corn. Fitting emblem, this, of the great joy which the Gospel of Jesus brings with it to human hearts.

2. Fertility. It shall blossom abundantly. This fertility not only stands connected with life, it is the outcome of its existence. The desert is always barren. But the mighty power of the Gospel of Jesus converts this moral wilderness into a fruit-bearing garden of the Lord.

3. Beauty. It shall blossom as the rose. One has only to picture to himself a part of this earths surface, parched, desert, and barren, and to think of the marvellous change which would be produced upon it were he, on revisiting the scene, to find it covered with the fairest flowers that our gardens know. The first and most striking impression made upon the mind would be that of surpassing beauty. Even so is it with the marvellous moral transformation which the prophecy before us contemplates. The glorious annals of missionary effort render it unnecessary to draw on the imagination. What a beauty is unfolded in a Christ-like life!

4. Glory and majesty. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel. To live under the power of Jesus is the true secret of a noble life. Whatever the sphere of life which the man occupies, he is in closest alliance with the majesty of heaven, and in virtue of that alliance is raised to regal dignity.

5. A vision that extends into the Holy of holies. They shall see the glory of Jehovah, and the excellency of our God. (J. Kay.)

The transformative field and force of the Gospel

I. THE SPHERE IN WINCH THE GOSPEL OPERATES.

1. The condition of depraved humanity is that of solitude. It is in a state of awful isolation. It is away from God and from fellowship with all holy spirits. Between corrupt souls there is no true fellowship, and there cannot be.

2. The condition of depraved humanity is that of wildness. It is a wilderness. Depraved souls are productive, but it is the productiveness of the wilderness.

II. THE TRANSFORMATION WHICH THE GOSPEL EFFECTS.

1. The Gospel makes the sphere joyous. The wilderness shall be glad, &c. What gladness the Gospel brings into the soul when received in full faith, the gladness of gratitude, love, hope, communion with infinite goodness.

2. The Gospel makes this sphere beautiful. It shall blossom as the rose. The Gospel imparts to the soul beauty of the highest kind--moral beauty, the beauty of the Lord.

3. The Gospel makes the sphere grand. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it. As Carmel and Lebanon tower above the plains of Palestine, so the soul into which the Gospel enters is raised above its unconverted contemporaries. Christliness makes man great in moral strength, elevation, and majesty.

4. The Gospel makes the sphere glorious. They shall see the glory of the Lord. (Homilist.)

Christianity finally triumphant

I. THE CERTAINTY THAT THE NEEDED DIFFUSION OF TRUE RELIGION WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED. Man is always animated to the performance of duty by the hope of success; and in the onerous duties to which Christians are summoned, we must be animated by the assurance, proceeding from the highest authority, that our efforts shall be crowned with success. Before stating the grounds upon which the certainty as to the diffusion of our religion is founded, we shall notice some matters which have appeared to render it equivocal, but which do not really interfere with it.

1. The certainty of this diffusion is not interfered with by the obstacles against which religion in its advancing progress has to contend. The obstacles are numerous and formidable; arising from the long-indulged defects of its own disciples; the varieties existing amongst men, of language, of national character, and of social habits; the public jealousies and antipathies which so often bar intercourse, and which have sometimes been kindled into desolating wars; the inveterate depravity of the human heart, nursed into rancorous maturity by the impostures, whether barbarous or refined, which have so long prevailed, and by the malignant influence of the god of this world. To many agencies such obstacles as these would be undoubtedly fatal. But our religion possesses resources which elevate it far above and beyond them.

2. The certainty of which we speak is not interfered with by the differences existing in the professing Church as to the mode in which the anticipated diffusion shall come. Some aver that the diffusion is to take place in consequence of the personal appearance of the Saviour upon the earth; others hold that it is to come by the ordinary instrumentalities already existing in the Christian system, rendered effectual by the abundant outpouring of the Spirit. How can the ignorance of a private soldier in an immense army, as to the plan of the great chieftain, argue against the fact that that plan when developed and carried out shall secure a final and glorious victory?

3. The certainty is not interfered with by obscurity as to the time at which the anticipated diffusion shall be effected. Obscurity resting over the time when the desires of the Church shall be fulfilled and when the wants of the world shall be supplied, is a direct appointment of God, not to be the object of curiosity on the one hand, nor the source of scepticism on the other.

II. THE GROUNDS OR EVIDENCE UPON WHICH WE MUST CONSIDER THAT CERTAINTY AS RESTING. It is to be deduced--

1. From general principles as to the character and government of God. Let it be admitted that God exists, that He is the moral Governor and Sovereign of the universe, that He is supremely concerned for the maintenance of His own honour, and that while powerful, and just, and holy, He is also kind and benevolent, desiring and resolved upon the well-being of His creatures, and then the conclusion which we now advocate appears to us reasonable and unavoidable. If our religion be the instrument by which He will act upon the hearts of men, so as to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, then, that religion will advance and proceed until every purpose of the Divine majesty and love shall have been conducted to delightful accomplishment.

2. From the constitution and progress of our religion itself. The religion of the Gospel is formed with capacities for, and with a direct view to, universal diffusion. It does not admit of any ceremonial restrictions; it takes no note of national preferences or peculiarities; it owns no distinction of rank, clime, or co]our; it addresses men on grand, comprehensive principles, dealing with them in the common wants and properties of their nature; it is founded on a redeeming provision of boundless sufficiency--a propitiation for the sins of the world; and its commission is universal as mankind. If, from the constitution of our religion you pass to its history, you find that history always bearing us onward to precisely the same conclusion. There is no class of obstacles over which it has not achieved triumphs, no order of beings among whom it has not acquired converts.

3. From the expressed testimony of the Sacred Volume.

III. THE RESULTS WHICH FROM THE NEEDED DIFFUSION OF OUR RELIGION WILL ARISE.

1. Happiness in the world. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, &c. By the disciples of scepticism Christianity has often been slandered as the cause of sorrow. But the true spiritual religion of the Gospel can produce nothing but what is accordant with its sublime and munificent nature. Christianity never spake a word but to utter a promise, never took a step but to bring a boon, never struck a blow but to emancipate a captive, never exerted an agency but to elevate and redeem a soul. As Christianity advances, there will be the full development of results, of which now we have instances. There will be happiness to individuals, to families, and to communities or nations. Yet, what is this to the happiness of the life which is to come?

2. Supreme honour to God. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. In connection with the diffusion of our religion God will display and magnify the majestic attributes of His nature. In connection with the display and magnifying of the Divine perfections, God will receive the homage and the highest praise of all created beings. The happiness is the happiness of gratitude. Earth, with ten thousand times ten thousand voices, will celebrate His praise; the angels of heaven and the spirits of the just made perfect will join in the long and loud acclaim, and redemption will constitute the noble theme of their noblest songs. (J. Parsons.)

Christmas blessings

I. THE WORLD WITHOUT THE GOSPEL IS A WILDERNESS, a desert, a solitary place. What though the bright promise of the spring, the warm glow of summer, the rich maturity of autumn, the quiet rest of winter, are full of beauty! What though Natures broad plains are watered by noble rivers, though her mountains rise with majesty and grandeur, though her valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing, and though a teeming population give animation to every habitable spot; yet, to the spiritual eye and apart from the Gospel, all is but a desert and a solitary place! And if it be so in our own fair land, which is the glory of all lands, what of the heathen nations? Men have broken loose from God. Sin has overspread the world. There is nothing to sustain the Divine life, nothing to insure spiritual health, nothing to promote the souls eternal welfare.

II. WHAT, THEN, IS THE CHANGE WHICH THE GOSPEL PRODUCES? It is the same in one and all when it comes with demonstration of the Spirit and of power. All things become new. The fruits of the Spirit spring up, the solitary place is made glad, the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. Conclusion--

1. Has my heart been made glad by the Gospel?

2. What am I doing to make the hearts of others glad? These are questions which demand prompt answers, because--

3. The time is short. (Josiah Batsman, M. A.)

The wilderness made glad

I. A DESERT MAY BE CONSIDERED AS BARREN AND UNCIVILISED. So, in general, are heathen countries. But, instead of unfruitfulness and barbarism, Christianity would introduce culture, civilisation, and everything which, in connection with these, tends to promote the substantial comforts of life. The Bible and the plough go together.

II. A WILDERNESS MAY BE CONSIDERED AS A PLACE OF DREARY SOLITUDE. But the Gospel would introduce the endearments of society; or, at all events, sweeten solitude itself. Among even the more numerous tribes of savages, social enjoyment is but small. They have, indeed, their feasts; but these are seasons of diabolical, rather than of human mirth. Their habitual character, undoubtedly, is retiredness, melancholy, and taciturnity. On the other hand, true religion gives birth to those feelings which prompt man with confidence to seek man; while, at the same time, it enlarges the mind, and furnishes many rational and enlivening topics on which men delight to speak out of the abundance of the heart.

III. A WILDERNESS MAY BE CONSIDERED AS A PLACE OF INHUMANITY AND CRUELTY. And such are heathen countries (Psa_74:20).

IV. When we hear of a wilderness we think of A PLACE OF COMFORTLESS SORROW. The heathen world contains not within itself the means of soothing the sad distress with which it is filled. But such a wilderness would be gladdened by the Gospel, which would bring home to the afflicted and dying the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

V. LIKE A WILDERNESS, THE HEATHEN WORLD IS A PLACE OF AWFUL DANGER. I was in perils, said the apostle Paul, in the wilderness (2Co_11:26). Where there, is no vision the people perish. Pro_29:18). Improvement--

1. Let us improve the subject as furnishing ourselves with ground of gratitude and admonition. How thankful ought we to be when we contrast our own happy situation with the state of those who sit in darkness, and in the region and shadow of death!

2. It becomes us to consider whether we have personally embraced the Gospel.

3. Let us improve the subject in reference to the heathen.

4. According to Gods wise determination human instruments are necessary (Rom_10:14-15).

5. The means of support must be furnished.

6. Already, He who is to be crowned Lord of all has gained some of His most signal triumphs in modern times, through this instrumentality. (James Foote, M. A.)

Nativity

Here are three things to be considered.

I. THE WILDERNESS ITSELF. The world before the appearance of the Gospel was dry as a wilderness, being destitute of Gods holy Spirit, which is the water of life, and the immediate cause of all righteousness. The heathen were without the good Spirit, they were exposed to the assaults of evil spirits, whose employment it is to go to and fro in the earth as wild beasts in a wilderness, seeking whom they may devour. And it has ever been the way of wicked men, agitated by those furious passions implanted in their nature, to become beasts of prey to one another, biting and devouring one another. But the beast which is noxious and cursed above all others is the serpent, in which we have the most perfect representation of the devil himself, and of all his children, who are called the seed of the serpent. In a place infested with such inhabitants there could be no real comfort; but on the contrary vexation, misery, disappointment, and despair. The evil that prevails among men who live without God renders this world a miserable place.

II. THE CHANGE THAT WAS TO BE WROUGHT UPON IT. The knowledge of Christ engrafted in the hearts of men, soon made them green and fruitful in righteousness, and they abounded in good works, even to the astonishment of their enemies.

III. THE CAUSE OF THIS BLESSED CHANGE. They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. The glory of the natural world is the sun, whose presence it is that makes the day so superior to the night. But above all, the change of the winter into the spring, shows the power and excellency of this marvellous instrument. Therefore Christ, who performs the same things in the kingdom of grace as the sun doth in nature, is all respects the Sun of Righteousness. (W. Jones, M. A.)

The desert blossoming

The desert shall blossom when Christ is in it, as the narcissus, the meadow-saffron, the rose.

1. There is a desert of separation from ordinary means of grace. I may be deprived, in Gods providence, of my Christian surroundings. I may have to travel far from the homeland and the sound of the Sabbath bells. But Jesus may dwell in my heart by faith. And then the wilderness will be a garden.

2. There is a desert of trial. Perhaps I lose my substance. Perhaps I lose my health. Perhaps I lose my friend, the half of my own soul. How desolating the affliction is! But Jesus can bless me through it. He makes the sweetening tree grow beside Marsh.

3. There is a desert of apparent disaster to the cause of God. The Church has its periods of adversity when all things seem to be against it. But Jesus teaches it to be more serious then, more patient, more devout, stronger in faith, richer in feeling, purer in aim.

4. There is a desert of death. To go out from the world which I know so well into the world which is mysterious and strange--how my heart shrinks from it v But Jesus shows me by His Word and His Spirit and His own experience, that death is the road to glory and the path to fruitfulness and the gate into life. The solitary place shall be glad. (A. Smellie, M. A.)

The rose

According to the old versions and many commentators the narcissus or the autumn crocus is the plant intended. (W. Houghton, M. A.)

The rose

The name points to a bulbous plant. (P. Delitzsch, D. D.)

Life out of death

The valley of Chambra, in India, is rich in its fertility and beauty. The cause of all this fertility is a wonderful spring of water which flows from a hillside, and furnishes water for the irrigation of the whole valley, and for the use of the people who live there. Once, says the legend, the valley was without water, and there was desolation everywhere. The plants and trees were all withering, and the people were dying of thirst. The princess of the place took the sorrows of her subjects much to heart. She consulted the oracle to learn how the constant curse of drought could be removed. The oracle said that if the princess of the land would die for the people, abundant water would be given. She hastened to give her life. Her grave was made, and she was buried alive. Then forth from her tomb came a river which flowed down into the valley, restoring all languishing life in field and garden, and sending water to every door for the famishing people to drink. Ever since, the streams have continued to flow from the wonderful spring, carrying their precious benediction to every home. This old heathen legend beautifully illustrates what Christ did. The world was perishing for want of the water of life; Jesus died and was buried, and from His Cross and broken grave poured out the river of the water of life for the quenching of the world s thirst. Its streams run everywhere, and wherever they flow the wilderness has been made to blossom like a garden of roses. Beauty blooms wherever they run. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 35:1. The wilderness and solitary place, &c. — As the land of the church’s enemies, which had enjoyed many external blessings and comforts, shall be turned into a desolate wilderness, as was declared in the foregoing chapter, so, on the contrary, Emmanuel’s land, or the seat of God’s church and people, which formerly was barren and despised, like a wilderness, shall flourish exceedingly. We have more than once had occasion to observe, that by the wilderness is generally meant the Gentile world: now, it is here foretold, that, through the influence of the gospel and the grace of God, it should put on a new face, and become like a pleasant and fruitful garden; that multitudes of converts to the true religion should be made therein, and a vast number of spiritual and holy worshippers should be raised up to God in it. Some, indeed, would interpret this chapter as referring merely to the flourishing state of Hezekiah’s kingdom in the latter part of his reign, or to the cultivation of Judea again after the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon. But, as Bishop Lowth observes, that it has a view beyond any such events as these, “is plain from every part, especially from the middle of it, where the miraculous works wrought by our blessed Saviour are so clearly specified that we cannot avoid making the application. And our Saviour himself has, moreover, plainly referred to this very passage, as speaking of him and his works, Mat 11:4-5. He bids the disciples of John to go and report to their Master the things which they heard and saw; that the blind receive their sight, &c., and leaves it to him to draw the conclusion in answer to his inquiry, whether he, who performed the very works which the prophets foretold should be performed by the Messiah, was not indeed the Messiah himself. And where are these works so distinctly marked by any of the prophets as in this place? And how could they be marked more distinctly? To these the strictly literal interpretation of the prophet’s words directs us. According to the allegorical interpretation, they may have a further view; and this part of the prophecy may run parallel with the former, and relate to the future advent of Christ; to the conversion of the Jews, and their restitution to their land; to the extension and purification of the Christian faith, events predicted in Scripture as preparatory to it.” We may conclude, therefore, with certainty, that as the slaughters and desolations foretold in the former chapter look far beyond the calamities brought on Idumea and the neighbouring nations, by the Assyrians or Chaldeans; so does the bright and pleasant picture of the prosperity and happiness of God’s people, drawn in this chapter, look far beyond any felicity experienced by the Jews, either in any part of Hezekiah’s reign, or after the return from Babylon. It is undoubtedly the flourishing state of the kingdom of Christ, or of the gospel church, composed of Jews and Gentiles, which is here predicted, and especially as it shall exist in the latter days, after the destruction of all the anti-christian powers, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, and all Israel shall be saved.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

TRANSFORMATION

Isa_35:1-2; Isa_35:7. The wilderness and the solitary place, &c.

Chapters 34, 35, form one prediction, first announcing the doom of Edom, and then taking us into a new sphere where all is light, beauty, and gladness; a prediction which had a fulfilment in the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem, which they set above their chiefest joy. But the prophecy is one of those in which the co-called secondary meaning is, in truth, the primary; the spiritual takes precedence of the natural, and the fulfilment is to be looked for, not in a remnant of Israel returning to the land of their fathers, but in these grand Gospel times, in which humanity, cursed and bloated by sin, is blessed, saved, and dignified by the influences that stream from the Cross of Calvary.

I. The sad condition of the localities on which the Gospel is intended to operate.

How suggestive the descriptive symbols: a “wilderness,” a “solitary place,” “parched ground,” a “habitation of dragons.” The desolation turns mainly on the absence of water. No other similes could so vividly depict moral barrenness and death. The unregenerate heart is desolate, weary, solitary. Moreover, it is “a habitation of dragons,” a foul serpent-brood of uncontrolled passions. This true of the world as well as of the individual. Think of the great unreclaimed wastes of heathendom. Can civilisation renew them? It has been tried and found wanting [1240] Only the Water of Life, gushing from the smitten Rock, can give moral life.

[1240] The civilisation of Greece and Rome did not affect anything in the way of changing spiritual death into spiritual life. The utmost which it succeeded in effecting was to cover the frightful corruption of death with a more beautiful funeral pall—to hide the naked hideousness of sin behind a veil spangled with silver, and gold, and precious stones. But death was there none the less, and sin of such a kind that the foulest impurities of the most degraded heathen could not exceed the impurities of Athens and of Rome. The old lesson is being taught us, if we would but learn it, in our own day. It is not civilisation that can change the moral desolation of France, of Spain, of Austria. It is not civilisation, as understood by men of science and doctrinaire philosophers, that can change the moral wilderness existing in our large cities, and in much of our rural population. It will only do what it did in Greece; it will merely cover the ghastliness of death with a more decent covering.—Kay.

II. The effects produced by the kingdom of Jesus [1243]

[1243] See outlines on pp. 364, 365.

Even we can appreciate the value of water and the beauty of its effects. But to Orientals water is a matter of life and death. Hence as an emblem it is employed to bring before the mind the blessed and joy-giving results of the kingdom of Christ. Note these results as they are brought before us in our text.

1. Gladness. “The wilderness and the solitary place,” &c. Music of Nature after copious rains following on scorching heat. This an emblem of the joy brought to human hearts by the Gospel. The wilderness state one of sorrow; the river of the water of life running through the heart makes it glad. This is seen in cases where sin and terror are cast out of the heart by the love of God. How this result has been manifested in modern times in nations converted from idolatry to Christianity (H. E. I. 1134).

2. Fertility. “It shall blossom,” &c. The desert is barren. The Gospel changes moral wilderness into fruitful gardens; the individual, the nation.

3. Beauty. Think first of a part of the earth’s surface parched, desert, and barren, and then of it as a garden covered with the fairest flowers. The first and most striking impression made upon the mind by such a transformation would not be so much that of fertility as of surpassing beauty. So with this moral transformation. Contrast the state of a country before with its condition after having received the Gospel (H. E. I. 1126, 1127). Look at the annals of missionary effort: Madagascar, Samoa, the Fiji Islands, &c. The same change occurs in individual character.

4. Glory and majesty. “The glory of Lebanon,” &c. Symbols of all that is glorious and majestic. To live by the power of Jesus the secret of a noble life. Alliance with heaven raises men to regal dignity. The Gospel elevates the character and dignifies the pursuits of men. Our lower pursuits are ennobled by a Christian aim, whilst the higher life has the very glory of God resting on it.

5. A vision that extends into the Holy of holies. “They shall see the glory of Jehovah,” &c. Only in Christ can we see this. He is the glory of God. The Shekinah is seen above the blood-besprinkled mercy-seat.—John Kay in the Modern Scottish Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 133–143 [1246]

[1246] The civilisation of Greece and Rome did not affect anything in the way of changing spiritual death into spiritual life. The utmost which it succeeded in effecting was to cover the frightful corruption of death with a more beautiful funeral pall—to hide the naked hideousness of sin behind a veil spangled with silver, and gold, and precious stones. But death was there none the less, and sin of such a kind that the foulest impurities of the most degraded heathen could not exceed the impurities of Athens and of Rome. The old lesson is being taught us, if we would but learn it, in our own day. It is not civilisation that can change the moral desolation of France, of Spain, of Austria. It is not civilisation, as understood by men of science and doctrinaire philosophers, that can change the moral wilderness existing in our large cities, and in much of our rural population. It will only do what it did in Greece; it will merely cover the ghastliness of death with a more decent covering.—Kay.

This chapter is an anticipation of the great prophecy of the restoration (40–66) The firm confidence in God, the boundless hopefulness, the glowing visions of the future, the vigour and joyousness that spread so broad a splendour over that famous Scripture are here in a brief compendium. It has been assigned to the state of Judah under Hezekiah, to the return from the exile, to the Christian dispensation, to a future condition of Palestine, to some future state of the Church or of the world, as well as to some other occasions. Two plain facts are before us—

1. At no period of Jewish history was there any approach to a perfect realisation of the magnificent promises of this and allied predictions.

2. God has already given to us so substantial a foretaste of the blessings here promised, that we may rest assured that the one satisfying fulfilment of the prophecy will be in the triumph of the kingdom of heaven through the power of the Gospel of Christ.

Let us look at the picture in the light of its growing fulfilment.

I. THE OLD SCENE OF THE GARDEN.

We are not independent of things around us. Christianity has a transforming influence over our earthly surroundings. It is the most beneficent factor in material civilisation, the truest patron of art, science, literature, commerce (H. E. I. 1124–1131, 1134). But behind this lies a deeper truth. By transforming our hearts the Gospel changes all things to us. This transforming influence is shown in various relations.

1. The wilderness of old bad things is cleared, and gives place to new and better things. The axe must come before the plough.

2. The solitary place and the desert. It is not all weeds and bushes. The task of fertilising the desert with irrigation not less difficult than that of clearing the wilderness.

(1.) So there are souls that seem to have lost all soil for spiritual life.

(2.) Then there are deserts of ruin, the remains of old withered hopes and joys and loves.

II. THE NEW CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GARDEN.

1. Life. This is the first and most important thing. Christ, the one Saviour of society, was the greatest of iconoclasts. But He was also the greatest founder, originator, constructor. He sows seed, gives increase, brings life.

2. Beauty. The desert blossoms as the rose. The garden is not to be solely utilitarian. The Church is the bride of Christ, and as such she is to be adorned with every grace.

3. Gladness. Life and beauty bring joy. The Church not a prison-house of melancholy devotion.

4. Varied accessories. The garden will not only produce its own seedlings, but plants from all quarters are to be carried into it. Lebanon gives his cedars; Carmel his woods for the lower slopes; Sharon his far-famed rose. Christians are heirs of all things. “All things are yours.”

In conclusion, observe two important points:—

1. This wonderful transformation will be brought about by the power of God (Isa_35:4). We have tried long enough to reform the world by merely human agency. The Hebrew prophets promised Divine help. Christ fulfils that promise. He comes with life-giving power. Seek Him in faith and obedience.

2. All this is a picture of the future. Christ has done much for the weary world. But the old promises are as yet fulfilled in but a small part. The Hebrews set the golden age not in the past, but in the future. We too must assume their attitude of faith, and hope, and patience (H. E. I. 3421). Are we ready to cry, “Why tarry the wheels of His chariot?” Let us remember that God has all eternity to work with. Meanwhile, let us do what we can to convert our little corner of the vast wilderness into some beginnings of the garden of the Lord.—W. F. Adeney, M.A.: Clerical World, i. 231.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE TIMID

Isa_35:3-4. Strengthen ye the weak hands, &c.

The Christian ministry addresses itself to men of various character in various states. It must be adapted to all. Sometimes warning and denunciation, sometimes tenderness, but always love. The text is addressed to the officers and leading men of Jerusalem in a time of general alarm. The prophet declares that the power of the enemy shall be broken, and that instead of desolation there shall be gladness. The timid and weak were to be encouraged. God’s strength is made perfect in man’s weakness.

I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS ENCOURAGING MESSAGE IS ADDRESSED.

“The weak hands,”—“the feeble knees,”—“them that are of a fearful heart.” Timidity has paralysed them. After a desolating war the nation might thus lose heart. A timid woman who sees insuperable difficulty always in the way. A man in a storm at sea lies lamenting that he ventured on the waters. Some characters shrink from every touch. They are well-intentioned, but their faint hearts bar every effort; and they pass through life purposing and projecting, but never accomplishing anything (H. E. I. 2053, 2054).

This timid and feeble disposition may be manifested in spiritual as well as in other things. For instance—

1. In relation to Christian experience. It is the privilege of believers in Christ to know their salvation. But many fail to attain it. They do not doubt His sufficiency, but their own interest in it. They fear their sins are not forgiven, their spiritual experience not genuine. Sometimes this is the result of a tendency to view every subject in its darker aspects. Sometimes it is the result of disease. Sometimes of unwatchfulness, negligence, and sin. Sometimes of defective conceptions of the Gospel. Sometimes of a microscopic self-scrutiny which exposes failings and defects with severe faithfulness. The victim of such fears is like one who wishes to reach the city but is never sure that he is in the right way.

2. In relation to Christian enterprise. Christians are not converted merely for their own safety. There is a work to do. Sinful habits, dispositions, tempers to be overcome. The dark mass of humanity to be brightened. The Gospel is to be carried to the destitute. This work requires the gifts and opportunities in the hands of Christians. But the weak and faint-hearted tremble at every undertaking. To them the missionary enterprise is a hopeless expenditure of money and life. The time for useful labour in the Church never arrives. If it is commenced, it is abandoned when difficulties present themselves. These weak brethren do nothing themselves and repress the plans and efforts of bolder and more enterprising Christians (H. E. I. 2057, 2058). Among your fears let there be the fear lest by your fears you should hinder the cause of Christ!

II. ITS NATURE AND IMPORT.

It is intended to strengthen and confirm the feeble. God’s messengers are to speak words by which faith and courage may be reanimated. They contain—

1. An assurance of deliverance. The deliverance of the Jewish people included the punishment of their enemies. God saves in a way suitable to each case. If your own resources are inadequate, the Divine resources are equal to the emergency. He will save you from your spiritual fears. Has He not sent His Son? Has not Jesus died? Does He not intercede? Does not His Spirit work? His willingness to save is equal to His ability. What wondrous love to man in the work of redemption! Do you fear that you will be eventually rejected, or that you will fail in the service to which He calls you? (Joh_6:37; Mat_28:20). The message is addressed to your faith. It reminds you of God’s power and grace in Christ. It casts you on the all-sufficiency of God.

2. A rebuke of fear. “Fear not.” Hope is the opposite of fear and the accompaniment of courage. The fear of the unaccustomed sailor is dissipated when the captain announces that the storm is passing away. The little child alone in a dark room is afraid, although she knows not why. But the mother comes and says there is nothing to fear; there is no fear where she is. So let God’s presence and promise drive away all fear respecting our spiritual condition and our Christian work (P. D. 1248, 1257, 1258).

3. An incitement to labour. “Be strong.” When God’s work calls, we must neither yield to fear nor indolence. The father leads his child to the post of duty where his life-work must be done. He sees something of the complicated work of the manufactory, and fears that he will never be equal to it. His father says, “Be a man; face your work, and strength for it will come.” So God says, “Be strong.” Here is work in the Church and the world. You are weak. Use the strength He gives. It will grow by use. “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” “Strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”

Thus God sends the message of encouragement. Weak hands are strengthened. Feeble knees are confirmed. Fearful hearts are rendered courageous. And His encouragement is necessary to comfort in the Christian life, performance of duty, endurance of suffering and reproach. And it helps to recommend the Gospel.—J. Rawlinson.

Presumption and fear are the Scylla and Charybdis of the Christian life, and it requires Divine guidance, together with all our own watchfulness, to steer safely between them. On the one hand, many are inclined to indulge in vain confidence, and take to themselves the Christian name and hope when not entitled to them; and on the other, many are fearful and disposed to shrink back from duties and privileges which really belong to them. It demands much wisdom on the part of a pastor so to speak as not to encourage false hopes, nor discourage weak and timid piety, especially in reference to a public profession of religion. My object is, to suit the case of those who are well entitled to hope for the Divine mercy through Christ Jesus, but are disquieting themselves, or are disquieted by the enemy, with needless fears. In meeting their wants I will state, and reply to, the reasoning by which I know that many disturb their own peace.

1. “I cannot indulge the hope that I am a Christian, because I have never passed through the same religious exercises and experiences that others profess to have felt and enjoyed.” It is not necessary to dwell at large upon this difficulty. God has brought many sons to glory, but no two of them have been led thither in precisely the same way, or have been exercised with precisely the same feelings. If, in the main, our experiences correspond with the Word of God in the great points of faith and love, it need not disquiet us though we never heard of another case exactly like our own (H. E. I. 1410–1429).

2. “If I were truly a child of God, sin would not prevail against me as I find it does.” Answer:—Sin is never perfectly subdued in our hearts as long as we remain upon earth. Some boast of having attained to sinless perfection, but they seem to be labouring under a sort of hallucination, like that of one in an insane asylum, amid his straw and rags, who fancies himself a king, when he is indeed but a poor pitiable object. “The righteous falleth seven times a day,” &c. Read St. Paul’s experience in the last part of the 7th of Romans and be encouraged thereby (H. E. I. 329, 1057, 2313, 2861, 4571–4573).

3. “I find that sin not only prevails against me, but I seem to be worse than when I first strove against it; my heart appears to grow more wicked, my corruptions stronger, and my strength to resist to be less.” Answer:—To perceive more of our sin than usual does not always prove that we are more sinful, but often the reverse, just as when one cleanses a room, though the air is filled with dust floating in the sunbeams, there is no more of it actually there than before, and there will soon be less of it as the operation goes on. We do not know the strength of our evil passions until we begin to oppose them. It is also undoubtedly true that when one is making a special effort to lead a Christian life, that then he is especially tempted and hindered, and that the motions of sin are then more violent. And further than this, when any are endeavouring to break away from the dominion of Satan, then he assails them with his most powerful temptations (H. E. I. 1060–1062, 1066–1068, 2524, 2525).

4. Another class of disquieted ones affirm that they cannot hope they are true Christians, because they seem to love everything else more than God. But in estimating our love to God compared with our love to earthly things, we are not to conclude that we love that most which most excites our affections. It has been well remarked “that a man may be more moved when he sees a friend that has long been absent, and seem to regard him more for the moment than he does his own wife and children, and yet none would think that the friend was loved the most;” so neither must we conclude because when we are abroad in the world we find our affections vehemently stirred towards its various objects, that therefore they are supreme in our hearts. We should judge of our comparative affection by asking ourselves soberly which of the two objects we should prefer to part with (H. E. I. 3365, 3366, 4188, 4189).

5. “A person may in appearance be like a Christian, and yet be really destitute of any true piety.” Answer:—Fear is usually the best remedy against the thing feared, and none are farther from the danger of making a false profession than those who are most afraid of it (H. E. I. 339, 2050–2053).

6. Some again have fears that they are not true Christians, because they come so far short of the attainments of some eminent Christians of their acquaintance. We reply that the worst part of the character of those exalted saints may not be known to us, or they may not have our hindrances, or they may have been long in growing up to that state, while we are only, as it were, babes in Christ (H. E. I. 2508–2526).

7. Another class say that they cannot think any real Christian ever was so tempted and distressed with evil thoughts as they are. We reply, Job was tempted to curse God, and Christ Himself to worship Satan. We may have very wicked thoughts entering our minds, but if we strive against them and they are painful to us, they are no evidence against us. Christ had thoughts as vile as these suggested to Him, but He remained sinless (H. E. I. 4767–4779).

8. Another class say that they have doctrinal difficulties, that certain things in the Bible do not appear clear to them, and they fear to make any public confession of Christ till these things are made plain. We reply that the best way to solve doctrinal difficulties is to engage in practical duties. Any one perplexed upon points of doctrine should read but little on those points, but engage earnestly in all acts of obedience which the Bible enjoins, praying fervently and humbly to be guided into all truth. One day’s labour in the field of charity, or one step onward in the path of known duty, will bring more light into the soul upon disputed points than weeks of speculation and controversy (H. E. I. 590–596, 1797). It would be endless to recount all the ways in which doubts and fears assail us. Their name is legion, and our prayer should be that Christ would command them to come out of the man who is troubled with them, and to enter no more into him.—W. E. Lewis, (404) D.D.: Plain Sermons for the Christian Year.

THE HEALER AND JOY-GIVER

Isa_35:5-6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, &c.

This beautiful prophecy is not exhausted by the first fulfilment of the promise which immediately precedes. However great the political deliverance, it did not include the literal giving of sight to the blind or hearing to the deaf. Nor is it only poetic imagery. It points to something in the time of the Messiah, to whose manifestation the scheme of Old Testament history and prophecy is subordinate. We find in this text—

I. THE BLESSINGS CHRIST IMPARTS.

1. We find in the life of Christ a literal fulfilment of the text, which compels us to regard it as fulfilled in Him (Mat_20:30-34; Mar_7:32-35; Joh_5:5-9, &c.) Now these are historical facts. Useless to say they are miracles, therefore incredible, because a miracle is impossible. Who taught you that a miracle is impossible?. You are assuming what you are bound to prove. The testimony of the writers of this history is worth as much as that of any other historical writers (H. E. I. 3527–3529). Many things have occurred in the world the like of which we have never seen. Moreover, the power of God must be taken into account in deciding whether a thing is possible or not. Is it not astounding presumption for a man to measure Divine power by his own; to say, because neither himself nor any man at present can work a miracle, therefore God cannot and never has? After all the argument, he fact remains.

2. We find that the coming of Christ is identified with improvements in the general character and condition of mankind, such as may be shadowed forth in these physical blessings. Where Christianity comes, the intellectual, moral, and material standard rises. Savage peoples become civilised; civilised nations reach a higher plane. The influence of personal Christianity commonly improves the social position of the individual.

3. But beyond this we find that the coming of Christ is identified with the bestowment of spiritual blessings and the effectuation of spiritual changes as remarkable as the miracles it wrought in the physical region. The spiritual disease of sin, analogous to the physical diseases it has caused, is cured by the Gospel. Take a case. One thoroughly imbued with hatred to Christ. Not content with simple indifference to Him, or rejection of His claims, he throws all the energy of an unusually energetic nature into the active measures that were adopted for the suppression of His cause. But the saving power of Christ finds him in a way unexpected and unusual. He surrenders on the spot, and puts himself under the command of Christ to do whatsoever He wills. He becomes a missionary of the cross. He is sent to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” And this case is a type of multitudes whose spiritual diseases have been healed, some of them the most virulent and malignant. It is a work within their souls, which the power of God alone can effect. It is a change of the heart’s deepest principles and affections under the influence of spiritual considerations only. It is a moral revolution. The blind eyes are opened to the glory of Christ’s truth. The deaf ear listens to His voice. The dumb tongue is eloquent of His salvation, and sings His praise. And the lame man gladly walks in the way of His commandments.

II. THE JOY HE CREATES.

Gladness runs through the text. Leaping and singing are expressions of joy. The blessings of salvation find the soul in the condition of a traveller in the sandy desert, weary, footsore, lame, and silent, who unexpectedly finds a springing well, and begins to talk, and sing, and leap for joy. Joy arises in the heart—

1. From the supply of a conscious need. Imagine the joy of those whom Christ healed, when the blind saw the light and became interested in the objects around him, when the deaf heard the sound of the human voice, when the dumb was able to make himself understood, when the lame recovered the use of his limbs. What joy was brought into many a home! And when He comes to the heart with His forgiving, cleansing, healing love, what gladness He brings! It is the beginning of days. It is the enjoyment of life. Christians have sources of happiness of which the world knows nothing. “Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory” (H. E. I. 3041).

2. From the manifestation of a compassionate Saviour. His healing miracles illustrate His character. Beneficence, tender sympathy with human suffering, love to man marked His steps. It brought Him down from heaven. It nailed Him to the cross. And He is still the same. He is personally interested in His people (H. E. I. 952–957). He is the object of Divine love, and therefore joy.

3. From the satisfaction of settled faith. Faith connects the soul with Him. But it is often assailed. It needs support even where it exists. The disciples sometimes wavered, then some new confirmation was afforded. John the Baptist in prison doubted, therefore received the message (Mat_11:4-6). Jesus used His miracles in evidence. Nor must we surrender their evidential power. And there is the confirmatory evidence of experience. This is always fresh.

1. This subject calls for grateful love. Give evidence of your cure by getting the spirit of Christ’s compassionate love, and by being His instruments for the cure of others.

2. You too are still in the power of the disease; come to Him for healing.—J. Rawlinson.

THE CURSE DONE AWAY

Isa_35:5-6. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, &c.

The years of fulfilment linger, and faith is weak and faint. The picture of hopeless helplessness is painted in the context (Isa_35:3-4). If we fail, God’s promise cannot (Isa_35:1-2). The transformation of the desert, the planting of Eden there, and the coming of God with vengeance and recompense are one. They signify one vast display of gracious power. It is no abstract salvation that we wait and hope for, but a Saviour. The text describes the blessings of Messiah’s kingdom.

I. “Is not this poetry?” Yes, but is poetry the opposite of truth? Have not prophets ever been poets? Is not poetry the sweetest or strongest or sublimest expression of man’s noblest conceptions of truth? This poem of Isaiah is an expression of God’s realities. The poetry, the prophecy has its answering reality in history. The age of Christ spake back to it, and both speak on to us. Nothing shall be wanting to complete the scene. The glorious in nature shall but typify the more glorious in man’s body, mind, morals, and spiritual satisfaction and joy.

II. Spiritual and physical evil are intimately connected.

1. They are cause and effect. The physical is the sign of the spiritual. Something radical was wrong before the wrong things could come. This doctrine is philosophic as well as biblical.

2. It is not meant that any and every special personal affliction is the result of any given or particular personal transgression. A man is not blind because he or his parents are sinners, but because of sin. We are living in a violated order.

III. The cessation of physical evil can only follow the cure of evil that is spiritual. God’s life, God’s health, God’s gladness must be poured into the dumb before his tongue can sing. The spirit of the blind must be thrilled with a heavenly vision before his eye can open on the outer world. God must come and save before the cripple can bound as the deer.

1. Man’s sin must be cured, then his sorrow. The miracles of healing in the Gospels teach us this. We can never overlook the moral element in them. It was when Christ saw faith He said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mat_13:58).

2. Health and soundness could not be given to mankind by a mere miracle power apart from spiritual considerations. No mere almightiness could effect it. Pentecostal gifts, if repeated, would probably produce similar signs and wonders; still miracles can never be more than periodic and intermittent The progressive life of the Spirit of God must achieve in the race what they in the individual only foretoken. Physical healing must keep pace with moral. The body must protest against sin.

3. Any philanthropy springing from other hope lacks truth and wisdom, and must fail. It proceeds upon a mistaken conception of human nature. It only deals with symptoms. All true philanthropy must begin at the Cross. The Cross is the sign that God has come for vengeance and for recompense.

CONCLUSION.—Learn counsel and courage.

1. Counsel as to life’s mysteries, burdens, sufferings, and sorrows.

2. Courage to endure them, and strive with them in manful faith and hope.

(1.) Broken health, pains, malformations, insanities, idiocies, and all bodily and mental degeneracies and anomalies are the dreadful issue of spiritual depravity and alienation from the life of God.

(2.) Sin’s destined Victor is in the combat, and with His own shield and spear will take the throne. The world in which He reigns will be a world where evil is not, but good is all in all.—William Hubbard: Christian World Pulpit, xvi. 232.

BEAUTIFUL VISIONS EXCHANGED FOR REALITIES

Isa_35:7. And the parched ground shall become a pool.

Read for “parched ground” mirage [1249] and it suggests the inquiry, what would be the feelings of a wearied traveller if the mirage he was vainly pursuing should suddenly become a pool? It would be new life to him; if the vision became a reality, it would be enough. But it is not only the traveller in southern deserts beneath the burning sky that sees visions of beauty floating before his gaze. Countless thousands thirst for something better and nobler than they have. So it has been from the beginning; and 2500 years ago the prophet declared that in the days of the Messiah the soul’s desires should be satisfied, that that which had been only a vision should become a reality, the mirage should become a pool.

[1249] The word sharab, “parched ground,” A.V., more exactly “looming sand-waste,” refers to the mirage, of which it is the Arabic name. The vain shadows of the world, which deceive and never satisfy, are to be replaced by the enduring joys of the kingdom of God.—Birks.

Some years ago we were riding over a desert in intense and almost distressing heat. We could but lie still and endure it. We turned our eyes to the south, and, lo! in the horizon there suddenly appeared a beautiful lake, which appeared studded with islands of palms! But it was only appearance, there was no water; and had we been perishing from thirst, the beautiful vision would but have mocked our need.—Clemance.

No one can imagine, without actual experience, the delight and eager expectation (when the vision first is seen), or the intense and bitter disappointment which the appearance of a mirage occasions to travellers, specially when their supply of water is spent.

“Still the same burning sun! No cloud in heaven!

The hot air quivers, and the sultry mist Floats o’er the desert, with a show

Of distant waters mocking their distress.”

—Kitto.

The primary sense of sharab, giving the key to both applications, is the dazzling, vibrating, noonday heat. Thence it is here taken as a name for its effect, or the mirage in the desert caused by the intense meridian rarefaction and refraction. It is a well-known delusive appearance, arising from the motions of the heated atmosphere, taking great varieties of form, but especially suggesting pictures of grove and fountain scenery—lakes, rivers, green valleys, waving trees, cool and sequestered shades, with every image most grateful to the imagination of the wearied traveller. These often seem so vivid as to be mistaken for realities.

The very common use of the same word (sarab) by the Arabian poets, in this mirage sense, makes certain the real meaning here. It gives it, too, a glorious significance of which our translation, though etymologically correct, and, to a certain extent, quite plausible, falls far short. It should be rendered: “The mirage shall become a lake (a real lake, not a mere mockery of one), and the thirsty land springs of water.” For the expressive meaning of the word rendered “thirsty land,” see Deu_8:15—“that great and terrible wilderness.” So Gesenius, very happily: Et desertum aquœ speciem referens commutabitur in lacum—in veram. aquam. (And the desert having the appearance of water shall be changed into a lake—into true water.)

The spiritual idea which the passage, thus interpreted, suggests is most striking, whilst at the same time commending itself as having a solid basis, and far removed from the character of an arbitrary sentimentalism. It has a substantial philological support, and comes so directly from the peculiar word employed, that we are compelled to regard it as entering into the prophet’s conception.

“The shadows are gone, truth has come.” Mohammed seems to have, in some way, caught a spark from the prophetic inspiration, when he represents the righteous saying this, as they lift up their heads in the morning of the resurrection. In the Arabic, as in the Hebrew, the power comes from the graphic mode which both languages possess, in so high a degree, of picturing the future in the present, and even in the past. “Joy and triumph are overtaking them, sorrow and sighing have fled away.” This is not the land of reality. The idea comes down from the pilgrim language of the patriarchs, who so pathetically declared themselves to be but “travellers and sojourners upon the earth.” They were looking for “the better country,” the real home, the “city which hath foundations,” firm and everlasting. Something of the same idea, and from the same early source, perhaps, may be traced in the most ancient Arabian poets who lived before the days of Mohammed. From them he most probably borrowed the strikingly similar figure we find in the Koran (Sura xxiv. 29), entitled “Light.” It has the same word (sharab), and in other respects is immediately suggestive of the passage in Isaiah: “As for the unbelieving, their works are like the sarab, the mirage of the plain. The thirsty traveller thinks there is water there; but lo, he comes and finds it nothing.” The latter parts remind us of the description in Job_6:17, which may be cited, too, as one of the examples of its Arabian imagery. It is a picture of the thirsty traveller sustained by the hope of finding the refreshing wady stream; but instead of the imagined reality, nothing meets the eye but the dried-up bed whose waters have vanished, “gone up to tohu,” the formless void, as the Hebrew so graphically expresses it

“What time they shrink deserted of their springs,

As quenched in heat they vanish from their place;

’Tis then their wonted ways are turned aside:

Their streams are lost, gone up in emptiness.

The caravans of Tema loo for them;

The companies of Sheba hope in vain;

Confounded are they where they once did trust;

They reach the spot and stand in helpless maze.”

Another very striking passage, where the same word is used, may be found in the Koran (Sura lxxviii. 20): “When the hills are set in motion, and become like the sarab”—the vanishing mirage. It is a description of the day of judgment, when the world will be found to have been a sarab, a departing dream. Or it may represent its exceeding transitoriness, like that other name ajalun, the rolling, hastening, passing world, which the Koran and the early Arabian poets give to this present mundane system as compared with the reality of Paradise. Hence the word sarab becomes a common or proverbial expression, pro reevanida, for anything light, transient, and unsubstantial. There is a beautiful allusion to it in the very ancient poem of Lebid (Moallaka de Lebid, De Sacy’s ed., p. 294). See also the account of the phenomenon as given by Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii. ch. 50. It differs, however, from the picture usually presented by the Arabian poets, in that the appearances are those of animals and wild beasts, rather than of rivers and fountains. The particular kind of phantoms, however, would depend very much on the kind of imagination possessed by the travellers, and the circumstances by which it was excited. It is, in any way, an apt representation of a delusive world, whether in its images of terror or of attraction. That the word is thus frequently used in the Arabic, and that it corresponds well to its ancient Hebrew etymology, is sufficient to warrant us in thus interpreting the idea the prophet so impressively sets forth.—Tayler Lewis.

I. Past prediction has become actual fact: in Christ ideal visions have become realities.

1. In bygone days some nobler souls dreamed dreams of a perfect human character. The “Phædo” of Plato is an illustration of this. But the dream remained a dream until Jesus of Nazareth lived among men. In Him all excellences that were scattered were localised, focussed, centralised; and in Him we see of what nobleness our nature is capable.

2. The yearning of some is for truth, pure truth, stripped of all human accretions and confusions. How earnestly search has been made for it! In this search philosophy and theology have been traversed and ransacked. But it is to be found only in Christ. He Himself declared, not vainly, “I am the truth.” In Him are “hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

3. In others, conscience is the most active faculty. Sin is to them a burden and a torment. They yearn for peace of conscience. No suffering seems to them too great if this can be attained. But they never find it until they seek it in Christ. Coming to Him, they are filled with “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” The vision has become a reality; the reality goes beyond the vision.

4. There are others led on by visions of a strong virtue and a noble life. They struggle against their passions and the allurements of the world. But alas! how numerous and lamentable are their defects! They never learn the secret of victory until they come to Christ; but when they have done this, presently they find that with truth they can say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.”

5. Happiness. Who has not had visions of it? Who has not sought it?. But, alas! the confession to which we are all brought is that of Solomon: “Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!” And yet even this thirst is satisfied in Christ—profoundly, exultantly satisfied. In Him we find a happiness that breaks forth in song, and triumphs over the pains and sorrows of this mortal life. The mirage has become a pool.

II. Actual fact is present prediction; in Christ ideal vision will become realities. The soul still thirsts—

1. For perfect purity;

2. For perfect rest from the carking cares of earth, and infinite calm in Jesus’ love;

3. For the perfect communion of saints. In vision John saw all this in the new Jerusalem; and to all who are Christ’s indeed they shall all become realities (1Co_2:9).

1. Let those to whom the prediction of our text has been fulfilled tell the glad news to others.

2. As for those who have had these visions all their lives, but up to this moment have been utterly disappointed,

(1) let them learn from the experience of others, who tell them they never knew truth and happiness until they sought them in Christ;

(2) let them listen to the voice of Christ, who promises to give them rest;

(3) let them be sure that until they do come to Christ, the parched ground will never become a pool. The soul needs more than the vision, however bright and beautiful it may be; it needs the reality, and the reality can be found only in Christ.—Clement Clemance, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. OBVERSE OF THE JUDGMENT: ISRAEL’S REDEMPTION AND RETURN HOME

Isa_35:1-10

1          1The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;

And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

2     2It shall blossom abundantly,

And rejoice even with joy and singing:

The glory of Lebanon 3shall be given unto it,

The excellency of Carmel and Sharon,

They shall see the glory of the Lord,

And the excellency of our God.

3     Strengthen ye the weak hands,

And confirm the feeble knees.

4     Say to them that are of a 4 5 fearful heart,

Be strong, fear not:

Behold, your God 6will come with vengeance,

Even God with a recompense;

He will come and save you.

5     Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

6     Then shall the lame man leap as an hart,

And the tongue of the dumb sing:

For in the wilderness shall waters break out,

And streams in the desert.

7     And the 7parched ground shall become a pool,

And the thirsty land springs of water:

8In the habitation of dragons, where each lay,

Shall be 9grass with reeds and rushes.

8     And an highway shall be there, and a way,

And it shall be called The way of holiness;

The unclean shall not pass over it; 10but it shall be for those:

The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

9     No lion shall be there,

Nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon,

It shall not be found there;

But 11the redeemed shall walk there:

10     And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

And come to Zion with songs

And everlasting joy upon their heads:

They shall obtain joy and gladness,

And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa_35:1. [The Author, like the LXX., translates the futures of this verse, (and also of Isa_35:2) as imperatives. But, as J. A. Alex. says, “there is no sufficient reason for departing from the strict sense of the future.”—Tr.]. The abnormal form יְשֻׂשׂוּם must not be regarded as an error in copying, as has been done by Lowth, Eichhorn, Hitzig, Umbreit, Olsh. (Gram.). Nor can the ending וּם be treated as a suffix, as is done by Gesenius, Rosenm., Maurer, Drechsler, who regard it as put for בָּם with reference to “the felicitous revolution of all things that is announced in the present chapter.” Such a reference would be harsh, and a departure from the analogy of the construction of verbs of rejoicing. It is better (with Aben Ezra, Kimchi. Ewald, (§ 91, b), Knobel, Delitzsch) to explain the form as an assimilation of the ן in יְשֻׂשׂוּן to the following מ: as in Num_3:49 פִּדְיוֹם מֵאֵת stands for כּדיון מ׳ and as, according to Wetstein (excursus in Delitzsch, p. 688), at the present day even in Arabic n becomes m before a labial. In Greek also τὴμ ημτέρα occurs for τὴν μητέρα. On the recurrence of ערבה ,צִיָּה ,שׂוּשׂ in Isaiah, see list.

Isa_35:2. גִילָה see list. The inf. רַנֵּן again only Psa_132:16.—כבוד י׳ and הדר see list.

Isa_35:3. The words are manifestly borrowed from Job_4:3-4. By a comparison of the Hebrew original it is seen that the first clause quite agrees with the words of Job; but the second combines elements of the two following clauses in Job, and כשׁלות is substituted for כרעות. But the two expressions חזק יד׳ רכּ׳ and כשׁלות (or כרעות) אמץ ברכים occur only in these two places.

Isa_35:4. Drechsler, Delitzsch, as some Rabbins before them, take נָקָם as acc. modalis (Drechsler: “Rächens kommt er,” i.e., as much to do vengeance, as also in vengeance, in exhibition of vengeance). But no example can be cited of designating the object of coming by the accusative, or of the use of נקם adverbially as denoting the manner of appearance, like the use of נוֹרָאוֹת ,הֶבֶל שֶׁקֶר ,בֶּטַח, etc. The parallel passages that re cited (Isa_13:9; Isa_30:27; Isa_40:10) prove only that אלהיכם can be joined to יבוא as its predicate, something that is not doubted. The accents indeed favor this connection here, but they are not binding. In an entirely similar sentence as to structure (Jer. 23:19; 30:33) they make such a distribution as I think is also the correct one here. With most expositors, therefore, I take הנה אלהיכם as first clause, which incontestibly is grammatically possible (comp. e.g. Isa_17:14; Gen_12:19), and נקם יבוא as the second. Thus by הנח, as it were with the index finger, the Prophet points to God as He draws near, and then with the following words explains His coming. Vengeance, says he (comp. on Isa_34:8), comes, divine recompense. גמול א׳ is in apposition with . אלהים ּנקם denotes not merely the author, but also the manner of the recompense; it is such as God only can visit, viz., as just in principle as it is complete in execution. The expression therefore recalls חִתַּת א׳ “the terror of God,” Gen_35:5; אַרְזֵי אֵל Psa_80:11; עֲצֵי י׳ Psa_104:16, etc.—הוא יבוא ו׳ emphasizes the coming of the Lord for a positive object.—The form וְישַׁ‍ֽעֲכֶם stands for וְישִׁיעֲכֶם as Pro_20:22 וְישַׁע for וְישִׁיעַ. The abbreviated (Jussive) form denotes that the clause is to be construed as marking intention: “that he may save you.”

Isa_35:5. חֵרֵשׁ, see list.

Isa_35:6. דִּלֵג “to spring” (Psa_18:30) and איל only here in Isaiah. כּסח comp. Isa_33:23.—אִלֵּם, see list.

Isa_35:7. אֲגַם and מבוע (Ecc_12:6), see list.—צמאון again only Deu_8:15; Psa_107:33.—Both as to sense and grammar it gives a harsh construction to take רבצה in apposition with נוה, and to refer the suffix to תנים. What need is there of saying that the נוה of the jackal is also its רבץ? Nor would I, with Drechsler refer the suffix in רבצה to מים: for רבץ is a place of repose (comp. Isa_65:10; Jer_1:6; Pro_24:15). רבצה is manifestly to be referred to Israel. It is true that in what precedes there is no word to which the suffix ַָהּ may be grammatically referred. But we know the great liberty of the Hebrew, in which verbal and nominal endings, as also suffixes are referred to ideal notions or such as are implied in the context (comp. on Isa_33:4). It is in this case to be referred to some feminine notion of the author’s mind, such as Zion or daughter of Zion. The following words, too, חציר י׳ are an echo of Isa_34:13 b (חציר לבנות י׳). Hence the latter passage seems to me to indicate what must be the explanation of the present, and that we must here also take חציר in the sense of חָצֵר. This interchange, indeed, does not occur in any other than the passages named. But grammatically it is not impossible (comp. כָּלִיט and יָגִיעַ כָּלֵט and עָתִיק ,יָגִעַ and עָתֵק, Ewald, § 149, e) and the sense demands it in Isa_34:13. For the ostrich does not eat grass. Hence I construe חציר in this place as חַצֵר and in apposition with נְוֵה ת׳.

Isa_35:8. The וְ before הוא might be taken in a causal sense (Ewald, § 333, a). But it seems to me more suitable to regard the clause והוא למו as the negative correlative of לא יעברנו טמא, and to translate וְ accordingly by “but” (Ewald, § 354, a, p. 843). Note here, too, what freedom the Prophet takes with the gender of the words. The fem. לָהּ after יקרא is immediately followed by the masculines ייזַברנו and הוא—דרך, is most commonly masculine (fem. only Deu_1:22; Psa_1:6; Psa_119:33; Ezr_8:2). But it is incredible that this interchange of gender is conditioned by the double gender of דרך, for that would not justify such interchange in one and the same passage. But לָהּ relates מסלול ,i.e., to the notion מְסִלָּה which is here in an exceptional way represented by the other word.—הלך is part, absolutum, and prepositive conditional clause. In respect to the sense comp. Isa_42:16.—אויל again only Isa_19:11.

Isa_35:9. כּריץ only here in Isaiah.—The 3 pers. fem. in תמצא is to be referred היות, for this 3 pers. fem. involves an ideal plural (comp. on Isa_34:13)—גאולים again only Isa_51:10; Isa_62:12; Psa_107:2; [but also, see list].

Isa_35:10. אנחה ,יגון ,נשׂג כּדוי, see list. שׂשׂון ושׂמחה comp. Isa_22:13; Isa_51:3; Isa_51:11; Isa_61:3.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. As in all sections of Isaiah’s prophecies, so here the perspective closes with a glorious future (comp. 11 and 12; Isa_23:15-18; Isaiah 27; Isa_33:13-24). As exile is the sum of all terrors for the Israelite, so exile’s end, return to Zion to everlasting, blessed residence there is the acme and sum of all felicity. Thus here the prospect of joyful return home is presented to Israel in contrast with the frightful judgments that (34) are to come upon the heathen, and at the same time as a transition and prelude to chapters 40–66.

The desert through which the way lies shall flourish like Carmel and Sharon (Isa_35:1-2). There all the weary and languishing shall receive new strength (Isa_35:3). The fearful and timid shall gain fresh courage at the prospect of the vengeance and deliverance from their God (Isa_35:4). The blind shall see; the deaf hear (Isa_35:5), the lame walk, the dumb speak; springs shall well up in the desert (Isa_35:6); the mirage shall become reality, the lair of the jackal will become a place of grass and water fitted for an encampment (Isa_35:7). A highway will appear that shall be a holy way. For as, on the one hand, nothing unclean shall go on it, so, on the other, the simple ones of Israel will not lose their way on it (Isa_35:8). No ravenous beast shall render it insecure. Only the redeemed of the Lord shall travel it (Isa_35:9). They shall return on it to Zion with joy. Then shall everlasting joy go in there, and sorrow and sighing flee away (Isa_35:10).

2. The wilderness—of our God.

Isa_35:1-2. These verses, as it were, prepare the theatre in general for the return of Israel. This return is to be through the desert. There is not a word to intimate that the Prophet has a definite desert in view. The march of Israel through the Arabian desert when returning from the Egyptian captivity, is as much the type for all home returns of Israel, as that first captivity is the type for all that follow. For so says Isa_11:16 : “And there shall be an highway for the remnant of her people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” The Nile and Euphrates shall be made passable by dividing their beds into seven small streams (Isa_11:15), and the desert, (according to Jer_31:21), by setting up signs and way marks, and preparing the road. Especially in Isa_43:19 sq.; Isa_48:21 it is promised that those returning home shall enjoy abundance of water in the desert. Thus then our passage sees in the wilderness the chief territory for the march of the home-returning Israelites. The desert shall conform to the blessed people that wander through it. It will change its nature. Hitherto a place of curse, abode of demons (Isa_34:14), it will become a place of blessing, a paradise. The principle of a higher, spiritual, eternal life, the principle of glorification will become operative in it. This idea of the glorification of nature is peculiar to Isaiah (see Isa_4:2; Isa_6:3; Isa_11:7 sqq.). חכצלת translated “rose,” occurs only here and Son_2:1. It is variously translated rose, lily, narcissus, crocus. That it denotes some sort of bulbous plant appears from בֶּצֶל (Num_11:5) which means “onion.” ח is often used to form quadraliterals, comp. חֲנָמָל ,חִדֶּקֶל, Gesen.,Thes., p. 436. Some suppose that the meadow-saffron, colchicum autumnale is meant, because the Syriac translates the word chamzaloito (see Gesen.,Comm. in loc.). But it seems impossible that such a poisonous weed could be meant here and Son_2:1. If a bulbous plant is meant, it may (distinguished from שׁוֹשַׁנָּה, the lilium candidum, the λείριον of the Greeks), be the lilium bulbiferum, the fire lily (comp. Plin.Hist. nat. XXI.5, 11, est et rubens lilium, quod Graeciκρίνονvocant). In fact the LXX., translate it here by κρίνον. But it might even be the narcissus, “the miraculous flower, at the sight of which gods and men wonder, that raises itself out of the earth with a hundred heads, whose fragrance rejoices heaven, sea and earth” (Viktor Hehn,Kulturpflanzen, u. Hausthiere, Berlin, 1870, p. 164). Arnold (Herz.,R.- Encycl., XI. p. 25) holds this view. [The translation “rose” is true to the poetry if not to the botany.—Barnes, J. A. Alexander]. But however this may be, the meaning is, that the entire steppe, covered with the bloom of this flower, shall appear like one single individual flower of the sort. Lebanon, (see list) Sharon (ibid.) and Carmel appear united, Isa_33:9, as types of the most glorious vegetation הֵמָּה must be referred to the gloriously adorned meadows. For just because they are honored with beholding the glory of God, they must themselves appear in adornment to suit.

3. Strengthen—the desert.

Isa_35:3-6. The Prophet Isa_35:3 addresses his own word of encouragement to the returning ones, and then Isa_35:4 prescribes to them the words with which they are to reassure any that are dismayed (see on Isa_32:4 where the word is used for hurry in judging), to whom the undertaking may seem too bold and daring. The words “be strong, fear not” are evidently borrowed from Deu_31:6 (comp. 2Ch_32:7). How can Israel fear since the Lord their God hastens to them to visit vengeance on the enemy and to redeem His people!

What is said Isa_35:5-6 of opening eyes, ears and tongues, and of the free use of members before crippled, we will need to understand as much in a spiritual as in a corporeal sense. For the “hasty of heart,” Isa_35:4, proves that also spirit and spiritual defects on the part of the returning Israelites are still to be removed. And כּקח is the specific technical term for opening the eyes generally (only once of the ears Isa_42:20) and for opening the spiritual eyes in particular (Isa_37:17; Isa_42:7). [“As Henderson justly says, there is no proof whatever that Christ refers John the Baptist to this prophecy (Mat_11:5; Luk_7:22): He employs none of the formulas which He uniformly uses when directing attention to the Old Testament (e.g., in Mat_9:16; Mat_11:10; Mat_12:17; Mat_13:14), but simply appeals to His miracles in proof of His Messiahship: the language is similar, but the subjects differ. To the question, whether this prediction is in no sense applicable to our Saviour’s miracles, we may reply with Calvin, that though they are not directly mentioned, they were really an emblem and example of the great change which is here described. So, too, the spiritual cures effected by the gospel, although not specifically signified by these words, are included in the glorious revolution which they do describe.—J. A. Alexander].

The clause Isa_35:6 b. gives a reason, not specially for the healing of the dumb, lame, etc., but in general for the exhortation to be of good cheer that is given to those returning, and to rejoice that is given to the desert itself from Isa_35:1 onwards. Abundance of water shall be given in the desert. This explains why the desert is to flourish and rejoice, and those that journey through it should be of good cheer. נכקע “to break out” (comp. at Isa_48:21) stands in the well-known metonymic sense as elsewhere (see list). But this verse forms at the same time the transition to what follows, viz.: the more particular description of the road, by which the redeemed shall return.

4. And the parched—flee away.

Isa_35:7-10. [שׁרנ it is now agreed denotes the illusive appearance often witnessed both at sea and land, called in English looming, in Italian fata morgana, and in French mirage. In the deserts of Arabia and Africa, the appearance presented is precisely that of an extended sheet of water, tending not only to mislead the traveller, but to aggravate his thirst by disappointment. “More deceitful than mirage” (or serab) is an Arabian proverb. The word (which occurs again in the Old Testament only Isa_49:10) adds a beautiful stroke to the description, not only by its local propriety, but by its strict agreement with the context. Comp. J. A. Alex., and Barnes,in loc.Herz.,R.-Encycl. XXI., p. 607. Curtius, Isa_7:5; Isa_7:3-4.—Tr.].

This torture shall not be experienced by the returning Israelites. Instead of the mocking atmospheric illusion there shall be an actual lake, and the dry region shall become a region of bubbling (מבוע) springs. Where before was only the lair of jackals, there Israel will bivouac as in a place where now is a green spot hedged in for cane and reed. The Prophet has in mind his own description Isa_34:13 b.

On רבצה and חציר see Text and Gram. By the construction defended there we see that the Prophet explains why a former lair of jackals has now become fit for a resting place. It has become a fence enclosure for reed and cane. Once dry, it is now moist; so much so that plants requiring great moisture grow there. Wherever the moisture extends these plants grow. Their station, therefore, being sharply defined, may be called really a septum, a hedge. But this is a natural fence, not artificial; depending on organic life, not on stone walls. It is well remarked by Gesenius (Thes. p. 512) that the meanings of חציר and חֵצָר hang together. For the nomadic חצר extends exactly as far as there is חציר. So also the Greek χόρτος (by which the LXX. generally translate חציר) is at once fodder, grass and fence, court (comp. hortus and chors, cors, cohors). We may then in the text take חציר as having the additional notion of the natural hedge, the district of vegetation. קנה “cane” see Isa_19:6. גמא, properly the papyrus reed (see on Isa_18:2) stands here for rushes generally (Job_8:11). Isa_35:8. The Lord’s care extends further: He will make in the desert an embanked highway, a causeway; an impossible construction for men! (= מסלה מסלולsee list) is ἅπ. λεγ. The expression “a highway and a way” is plainly a hendiadys. This way shall be holy. The Lord built it and destined it to lead to His house. It is a pilgrim way. Hence nothing unclean, neither unclean person nor thing, may come up on it; it belongs only to them, i. e., the Israelites, which notion here, as well as in רבצה (see Text and Gram.), must be regarded as ideally present. Another advantage of this via sacra is that even the simple-minded (“Thumbe”), cannot go astray on it. For whoever goes on it is a sanctified one, under God’s protection and care. הלך דרך is in contrast with לא יעברנו טמא: an unclean person will not cross the way, but as regards him who goes, i.e., who has once entered on the way,—even fools will not go astray. All that can make unclean or occasion danger will remain at a distance from the holy way. (Comp. comm. on Isa_43:20), Instead of that, redeemed, and only they shall journey on it. Hence the way will be a, or rather the way of salvation. Isa_35:10, which is identical with Isa_51:11, defines the goal of the travellers and the success of their journey.

The ransomed of the Lord will return home. The idea שׁוּב in all its modifications plays a great part in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Comp. on Isa_7:3; Isa_10:20-22; Jer_3:1; Jer_31:22. Joy and peace as the promised blessings (Deu_28:2; Deu_28:15) the redeemed shall receive, but sorrow and sighing shall flee. [On their headsmay be an expression denoting that joy is manifest in the face and aspect. Gesenius, Barnes.]

Footnotes:

[1]Be glad desert—rejoice steppe, etc.

[2]Bloom, bloom let it.

[3]is given.

[4]Hob. tasty.

[5]disconcerted

[6]vengeance comes, recompense of God! He conies that He may save you,

[7]mirage.

[8]In the habitation of jackals is their encampment, an enclosure for reeds and rushes.

[9]Or, a court for reeds, etc.

[10]Or, for he shall be with them.

[11]redeemed ones.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa_34:1-4. Because Rev_6:12-17 has express reference to this passage, some would conclude that the Prophet here has in view only that special event of the world’s judgment (the opening of the sixth seal). But that is not justified. For other passages of the New Testament that do not specially relate to the opening of the sixth seal are based on this passage (Mat_24:29; 2Pe_3:7 sqq.; Rev_14:11; Rev_19:11 sqq.). It appears from this that the present passage is, as it were, a magazine from which New Testament prophecy has drawn its material for more than one event of fulfilment.

2. On Isa_34:16. The word of God can bear the closest scrutiny. Indeed it desires and demands it. If men would only examine the Scriptures diligently and with an unclouded mind and love of truth, “whether these things are so,” as did the Bereans (Act_17:11; Joh_5:39)!

3. On Isa_35:3. “The Christian church is the true Lazaretto in which may be found a crowd of weary, sick, lame and wretched people. Therefore, Christ is the Physician Himself (Mat_9:12) who binds up and heals those suffering from neglect (Eze_34:16; Isa_61:1). And His word cures all (Wis_16:12). His servants, too, are commissioned officially to admonish the rude, to comfort the timid, to bear the weak, and be patient with all (1Th_5:14). Therefore, whoever feels weak, let him betake himself to this Bethania; there he will find counsel for his soul,” Cramer.

4. [On Isa_35:8-9. “They who enter the path that leads to life, find there no cause of alarm. Their fears subside; their apprehensions of punishment on account of their sins die away, and they walk that path with security and confidence. There is nothing in that way to alarm them; and though there are many foes—fitly represented by lions and wild beasts—lying about the way, yet no one is permitted to ‘go up thereon.’ This is a most beautiful image of the safety of the people of God, and of their freedom from all enemies that could annoy them.” “The path here referred to is appropriately designed only for the redeemed of the Lord. It is not for the profane, the polluted, the hypocrite. It is not for those who live for this world, or for those who love pleasure more than they love God. The church should not be entered except by those, who have evidence that they are redeemed. None should make a profession of religion who have no evidence that they belong to “the redeemed,” and who are not disposed to walk in the way of holiness. But for all such it is a highway on which they are to travel. It is made by leveling hills and elevating valleys; across the sandy desert and through the wilderness of this world, infested with the enemies of God and His people. It is made straight and plain, so that none need err; it is defended from enemies, so that all may be safe; because ‘He,’ their Leader and Redeemer, shall go with them and guard that way.” Barnes in loc.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 35

Restoration Glory and the Kingdom

1. Creation blest and the glory of the Lord revealed (Isa 35:1-2) 2. The spiritual and material blessings of the kingdom (Isa 35:3-9) 3. The return of the ransomed of the Lord (Isa 35:10)What follows the great judgments of the day of Jehovah, when our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven in flaming fire, is now brought forward in this final chapter of the first great part of Isaiah’s vision. The unscriptural view, that the coming of the Lord in judgment means the complete end of the world, is once more answered. After judgment ruin comes restoration glory. What that glory is we find in this chapter. Read it carefully and also the “Studies in Isaiah” which follow this analysis. The last verse shows the ransomed of the Lord returning to Zion, delivered from sorrow and sighing, filled with joy and singing salvation songs. It is the bringing back to their own land of a delivered people.

A brief word of review. Each section of Part I, chapters 1-35, foretells great judgments. Judgments upon Jerusalem, the land of Judah, the nations, the whole world. These visions were not at all fulfilled in the past judgments. The day of the Lord (“in that day” ba yom hahu, a phrase so often used by Isaiah) will bring these threatened judgments. But there are the predictions of restoration and blessing, which always follow that day. Each of the three sections end with the vision of a regathered and restored people, brought back to their land. The scope is perfect because it is divine.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35:1-10 God will come to vindicate and transform his people. Instead of being deaf, blind, and lame (see 6:10), the people will be pure, holy, and redeemed.

35:1 God’s land would become like a wasteland, spiritually desolate and physically depleted. However, God would turn the desert into a garden (see also 32:15), taking his people from exile to glory.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He prophesieth of the full restoration of the Church both of the Jews and Gentiles under Christ, which shall be fully accomplished at the last day: albeit as yet it is compared to a desert and wilderness.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

In these verses we have,

I. The desert land blooming. In the foregoing chapter we had a populous and fruitful country turned into a horrid wilderness; here we have in lieu of that, a wilderness turned into a good land. When the land of Judah was freed from the Assyrian army, those parts of the country that had been made as a wilderness by the ravages and outrages they committed began to recover themselves, and to look pleasantly again, and to blossom as the rose. When the Gentile nations, that had been long as a wilderness, bringing forth no fruit to God, received the gospel, joy came with it to them, Psa 67:3, Psa 67:4; Psa 96:11, Psa 96:12. When Christ was preached in Samaria there was great joy in that city (Act 8:8); those that sat in darkness saw a great and joyful light, and then they blossomed, that is, gave hopes of abundance of fruit; for that was it which the preachers of the gospel aimed at (Joh 15:16), to go and bring forth fruit, Rom 1:13; Col 1:6. Though blossoms are not fruit, and often miscarry and come to nothing, yet they are in order to fruit. Converting grace makes the soul that was a wilderness to rejoice with joy and singing, and to blossom abundantly. This flourishing desert shall have all the glory of Lebanon given to it, which consisted in the strength and stateliness of its cedars, together with the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, which consisted in corn and cattle. Whatever is valuable in any institution is brought into the gospel. All the beauty of the Jewish church was admitted into the Christian church, and appeared in its perfection, as the apostle shows at large in his epistle to the Hebrews. Whatever was excellent an desirable in the Mosaic economy is translated into the evangelical institutes.

II. The glory of God shining forth: They shall see the glory of the Lord. God will manifest himself more than ever in his grace and love to mankind (for that is his glory and excellency), and he shall give them eyes to see it, and hearts to be duly affected with it. This is that which will make the desert blossom. The more we see by faith of the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God the more joyful and the more fruitful shall we be.

III. The feeble and faint-hearted encouraged, Isa 35:3, Isa 35:4. God's prophets and ministers are in a special manner charged, by virtue of their office, to strengthen the weak hands, to comfort those who could not yet recover the fright they had been put into by the Assyrian army with an assurance that God would now return in mercy to them. This is the design of the gospel, 1. To strengthen those that are weak and to confirm them - the weak hands, which are unable either to work or fight, and can hardly be lifted up in prayer, and the feeble knees, which are unable either to stand or walk and unfit for the race set before us. The gospel furnishes us with strengthening considerations, and shows us where strength is laid up for us. Among true Christians there are many that have weak hands and feeble knees, that are yet but babes in Christ; but it is our duty to strengthen our brethren (Luk 22:32), not only to bear with the weak, but to do what we can to confirm them, Rom 15:1; Th1 5:14. It is our duty also to strengthen ourselves, to lift up the hands which hang down (Heb 12:12), improving the strength God has given us, and exerting it. 2. To animate those that are timorous and discouraged: Say to those that are of a fearful heart, because of their own weakness and the strength of their enemies, that are hasty (so the word is), that are for betaking themselves to flight upon the first alarm, and giving up the cause, that say, in their haste, "We are cut off and undone" (Psa 31:22), there is enough in the gospel to silence these fears; it says to them, and let them say it to themselves and one to another, Be strong, fear not. Fear is weakening; the more we strive against it the stronger we are both for doing and suffering; and, for our encouragement to strive, he that says to us, Be strong has laid help for us upon one that is mighty.

IV. Assurance given of the approach of a Saviour: "Your God will come with vengeance. God will appear for you against your enemies, will recompense both their injuries and your losses." The Messiah will come, in the fulness of time, to take vengeance on the powers of darkness, to spoil them, and make a show of them openly, to recompense those that mourn in Zion with abundant comforts. He will come and save us. With the hopes of this the Old Testament saints strengthened their weak hands. He will come again at the end of time, will come in flaming fire, to recompense tribulation to those who have troubled his people, and, to those who were troubled, rest, such a rest as will be not only a final period to, but a full reward of, all their troubles, Th2 1:6, Th2 1:7. Those whose hearts tremble for the ark of God, and who are under a concern for his church in the world, may silence their fears with this, God will take the work into his own hands. Your God will come, who pleads your cause and owns your interest, even God himself, who is God alone.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

XXXV.

(1) The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them . . .—The desolation of the chief enemy of Israel is contrasted with the renewed beauty of Israel’s own inheritance. The two last words are better omitted. The three nouns express varying degrees of the absence of culture, the wild pasture-land, the bare moor, the sandy steppe.

Shall . . . blossom as the rose.—Better, as the narcissus, but the primrose and the crocus (Colchicum autumnale) have also been suggested. The words paint the beauty of the chosen land flourishing once more as “the garden of Jehovah” (Gen_13:10), and therefore a fit type of that which is in a yet higher sense the “Paradise of God” (Rev_2:7).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. solitary place] parched land (R.V. marg.).

The words for them should be omitted; what looks like a pronominal suffix in the Hebr. being produced by an assimilation of the verbal ending to the following consonant (so already Aben Ezra).

the rose is probably the autumn crocus (R.V. marg.). Son_2:1 shews that a meadow-flower of striking beauty is meant. Many commentators prefer the narcissus, a spring flower exceptionally plentiful in the plain of Sharon. (Tristram, Nat. Hist. of the Bible, pp. 476 f.)

1, 2. Joy in the desert, now transformed into a fertile and luxuriant plain. Cf. ch. Isa_41:18 f.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wilderness, and the solitary place, shall be glad for them,.... Either for the wild beasts, satyrs, owls, and vultures, that shall inhabit Edom or Rome, and because it shall be an habitation for them: or they shall be glad for them, the Edomites, and for the destruction of them; that is, as the Targum paraphrases it,

"they that dwell in the wilderness, in the dry land, shall rejoice;''

the church, in the wilderness, being obliged to fly there from the persecution of antichrist, and thereby become desolate as a wilderness; and so called, in allusion to the Israelites in the wilderness, Act 7:38 shall now rejoice at the ruin of Rome, and the antichristian states; by which means it shall come into a more flourishing condition; see Rev 12:14,

and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose; or "as the lily", as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions; and so the Targum,

"as the lilies:''

not Judea or Jerusalem, as the Jewish writers, become like a desert, through the devastations made in it by the king of Assyria's army; and now made glad, and become flourishing, upon the departure of it from them: rather the Gentile world, which was like a wilderness, barren and unfruitful, before the Gospel came into it; but by means of that, which brought joy with it, and was attended with fragrancy, it diffusing the savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place, it became fruitful and flourishing, and of a sweet odour, and looked delightful, and pleasant: though it seems best to understand it of the Gentile church in the latter day, after the destruction of antichrist, when it shall be in a most desirable and comfortable situation. These words stand in connection with the preceding chapter Isa 34:1, and very aptly follow upon it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The wilderness and the solitary place - This is evidently figurative language, such as is often employed by the prophets. The word rendered ‘solitary place’ (ציה tsı̂yâh), denotes properly a dry place, a place without springs and streams of water; and as such places produce no verdure, and nothing to sustain life, the word comes to mean a desert. Such expressions are often used in the Scriptures to express moral or spiritual desolation; and in this sense evidently the phrase is used here. It does not refer to the desolations of Judea, but to all places that might be properly called a moral wilderness, or a spiritual desert; and thus aptly expresses the condition of the world that was to be benefited by the blessings foretold in this chapter. The parallel expressions in Isa 41:17-19; Isa 44:3-4, show that this is the sense in which the phrase is here used; and that the meaning is, that every situation which might be appropriately called a moral wilderness - that is, the whole pagan world - would ultimately be made glad. The sense is, that as great and happy changes would take place in regard to those desolations as if the wilderness should become a vast field producing the lily and the rose; or as if Isa 35:2 there should be imparted to such places the glory of Lebanon, and the beauty of Sharon and Carmel.

Shall be glad for them - This is evidently a personification, a beautiful poetic figure, by which the wilderness is represented as expressing joy. The sense is, the desolate moral world would be filled with joy on account of the blessings which are here predicted. The phrase ‘for them,’ expressed in Hebrew by the affix מ (m) means, doubtless, on account of the blessings which are foretold in this prophecy. Lowth supposes, however, that the letter has been added to the word ‘shall be glad’ (ישׂשׂוּ yes'us'û), by mistake, because the following word (מדבר midbâr) begins with a מ (m). The reading of the present Hebrew text is followed by none of the ancient versions; but it is nevertheless probably the correct reading, and there is no authority for changing it. The sense is expressed above by the phrase ‘shall rejoice on account of the things contained in this prophecy;’ to wit, the destruction of all the foes of God, and the universal establishment of his kingdom. Those who wish to see a more critical examination of the words used here, may find it in Rosenmuller and Gesenius.

And blossom as the rose - The word rendered ‘rose’ (חבצלת chăbı̂tsâleth) occurs only here and in Son 2:1, where it is also rendered a ‘rose.’ The Septuagint renders it, Κρίνον Krinon ‘Lily.’ The Vulgate also renders it, Lilium - the lily. The Syriac renders it also by a word which signifies the lily or narcissus; or, according to the Syriac lexicographers, ‘the meadow-saffron,’ an autumnal flower springing from poisonous bulbous roots, and of a white and violet color. The sense is not, however, affected materially whatever be the meaning of the word. Either the rose, the lily, or the saffron, would convey the idea of beauty compared with the solitude and desolation of the desert. The word ‘rose’ with us, as being a flower better known, conveys a more striking image of beauty, and there is no impropriety in retaining it.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lily. Judea flourishes under Ezechias: but the Church does more so after the coming of Christ, to whom these expressions conduct us. (Calmet) --- The Gentiles shall be converted and flourish, as this text shews. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And as the land of God’s enemies, which was exceeding fruitful, shall be turned into a desolate wilderness, as was declared in the foregoing chapter; so, on the contrary, Emmanuel’s land, or the seat of God’s church and people, which formerly was deserted and despised like a wilderness, and which the rage and malice of their enemies had brought to desolation, shall flourish exceedingly.

For them; for the wilderness and solitary place; or,

for these things, which were prophesied in the foregoing destruction, concerning the ruin of the implacable enemies of God and his church. But that Hebrew letter which is in the end of this Hebrew verb, and is here rendered for them, is by all the ancient translators, and by divers others, neglected in their translations, as if it were only added to the verb paragogically, as grammarians speak; and therefore those two words may well be omitted.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. While Edom becomes a desert, for God's people, on the other hand, the desert places burst into bloom, the fairest parts of Palestine sharing their fertile beauty with the waste places (Isa_35:2).

7. Parched ground] RM 'mirage': this which so often deceives travellers in the desert will become a real lake.

Dragons] RV 'jackals.'

8. An highway] by which the exiles may return through the desert.

9. Cp. Isa_51:11.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. The wilderness and the solitary place — “The solitary place” spoken of in the previous chapter, but now the home of the wild beasts no longer. See on Isa_35:7. The change is described under the still-used figure of a desert, but a desert now clothed with a luxuriant growth of blooming vegetation.

Shall be glad for them — Aben Ezra, Furst, and Delitzsch deny that “for them” is a correct reading; they claim the verb to end with a strengthened form only, not with a suffix requiring “for them.” This relieves the difficulty as to the meaning. Then it reads, Desert and waste shall rejoice; desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, (or better, as the narcissus, or crocus, or the anemone.) Passing north from the Sinaitic range over the blanched and broken, yet generally level, plateau et-Tih, one is cheered on reaching the “South Land” by the sight of bulbous plants of the genera Scilla — squills, iris, narcissus, etc. — which cover frequent localities from as far south as the travel of a day and a half to Beer-sheba. The anemone blooms beautifully as the travel in March is continued northward, and this, by Tristram, is believed to be the “rose” — the “rose of Sharon.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-10. THE GLORY OF THE LAST TIMES. On the punishment of God"s enemies will follow the peace, prosperity, and glory of his Church. Previously, the Church is in affliction, waste, and desolate. Its enemies once removed, destroyed, swept out of the way, it rises instantly in all its beauty to a condition which words are poor to paint. The highest resources of the poetic art are called in to give some idea of the glory and happiness of the final Church of the redeemed.

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; rather, the wilderness, and the dry place, shall be glad. The Church, that has been long wasted and kept under by the wicked, shall, at their destruction, feel a sense of relief, and so of joy. The desert shall rejoice, and blossom. The first result of the joy shall be a putting forth of lovely products. Blossoms, beautiful as the rose or the narcissus (Kay), shall spring up all over the parched ground, and make it a parterre of flowers. The blossoms are either graces unknown in the time of affliction, or saintly characters of a new and high type.

Vers. 1-10. The glory of the Church not temporal greatness, but spiritual perfection

Amid the wealth of metaphor which Isaiah employs to depict the final prosperity, glory, and happiness of the Church, it is remarkable how little use is made of any images drawn from the conditions or circumstances of earthly grandeur. Images of natural beauty are principally employed the shady forest, the spreading cedar tree, the rich luxuriance of arable and pasture land, the choice beauty of the most lovely among flowers, the placid lake, the pellucid rill, the gushing fountain. These raise no ideas of earthly greatness or temporal dominion. They point, by what may be called the laws of prophetic language, to two main features of spiritual life,

(1) abounding grace granted to the Church freely from above a supply copious, unlimited, inexhaustible, such that the cry may be confidently raised, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat"; (Isa_55:1) and

(2) abundant fruit borne by her members in their several stations fruit of various kinds and of various degrees of excellency, but all "good fruit," spontaneously brought forth from ungrudging hearts, hearts desirous of showing forth their love and gratitude to their Maker and Redeemer. Beyond these two main characteristic features of the Church of the redeemed, we descry further first, a power of working miracles (vers. 5, 6), physical or spiritual, or both; and secondly, a gift of spiritual insight, whereby the redeemed are enabled to penetrate through the dense veil wherewith material things overlay the great realities that are behind them, and to discern through all the "glory and excellency" of the Most High (ver. 2). q he redeemed seek for no external dominion their efforts are, primarily, to walk themselves in "the way of holiness", (ver. 8); secondarily, to "strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees" of their brethren (ver. 3); and, finally, to realize to themselves, by continual meditation and study of his works, the goodness and greatness, the "glory and excellency," of their Lord and God.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-10. Glories of the Messianic age.

This is a picture of the happy and glorious condition of Israel after the return from Captivity. Nature is beheld rejoicing with man; and the whole scene is suffused with the light of a universal spiritual joy.

I THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE NATURAL WORLD. The desert will rejoice "like the narcissus," the beautiful white flower found in abundance in spring-time in the Plain of Sharon. A ringing musical cry shall break out from those solitudes. The beauty of the most favored spots, of Carmel and Sharon, shall be diffused over the whole. In poetic pathos a feeling is lent to nature, which does not really exist in her. There is a deep truth, not of the reason, but of the heart, in this mood. Inanimate Nature is incapable either of joy or of sorrow, of exultation or depression. This our reason tells us. But we are all something more than cold rationalists in this matter. We take back from Nature impressions which we have first lent to her, and suppose we have borrowed them. This has been called the "pathetic fallacy," and there is a truth in the fallacy better than that of syllogistic reasoning. To the lover Nature looks love, and whispers of love; to the desponding temper her expression is a frown, her tones are inspirations of lament; she wears a nuptial robe for the happy bridegroom, and a pall for the mourner; silent and morose to the eyes of him who is cast down in the sense of Divine wrath, it breaks forth into jubilant song for the ears of him whose heart overflows with the sense of the redeeming mercy of God. "There is not the least flower but seems to hold up its head, and look pleasantly, in the secret sense of the goodness of its heavenly Maker. This silent rhetoric, though we cannot hear, but only see it, so full and expressive, that David thought he spoke neither impropriety nor nonsense, in a strong line, when he said," even the valleys break forth into singing. It is a song of praise and thanksgiving, a song of joy and triumph in the "glory of Jehovah," the manifestations of his creative and renewing powers, the liberal effusions of his goodness, even upon the lowest parts of the creation.

II THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUMAN WORLD.

1. Weakness made strong under the figure of the nerving up of languid hands and of tottering knees. Languor, dullness, the privation of power, are symptomatic of the absence of vital energy, alike in the physical and the moral sphere. People may be seemingly weak and impotent, not because they want the organs for action, but because the inspiration to action is wanting. A life without defined activity is hardly worth the name. In the fixed light of the eye, the prompt hand, the willing foot, we see signs of the Divine afflatus upon a man. The sails have caught the favoring breeze, while others lie becalmed. But there is always some part for the will. To him that hath shall be given; and the paradox is true, power comes to those who exert it.

2. Despair exchanged for confidence. Despair unfits alike for human and Divine service. Men are moved to duty by the hope of good or by the fear of evil. These motives cannot avail one who does not believe that his state can be either bettered or worsened. The man becomes careless of his happiness, indifferent to salvation. The biblical medicine for despair is the firm insistence on the message of salvation. God is coming is on the way, to requite, to redeem, to deliver. How careful should preachers be not to force men into a "preternatural melancholy," by an unskillful handling of the Word of truth, by indiscreet severity, by dwelling too much on the dark themes of human depravity and predestination!

3. The removal of human infirmities and limitations. Blindness, deafness, lameness, dumbness, are symbolic of all obstructions in the soul to the entrance of light, and music, and power, and fluency. One great outflow of the Spirit sweeps all these hindrances to enjoyment and to activity away. Near to us is a God of infinite fullness; all about us is a world of beauty, strength, and joy; but we are "straitened in ourselves." Life is full of illusions, which tempt us forward with all the power and promise of reality. These are like the mirage of the desert a seeming sheet of water in the distance, with its offer of refreshment to the pilgrim; in fact, an optical deception. But these illusions bear a certain relation to truth. For we cannot believe that the Almighty has planted a spring of error in the very mechanism of our fancy. Our minds were made for truth and tend towards truth, even through hallucinations. "The mirage shall become a lake.

III THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION. There will be a "raised way," called "The Holy Way." It will be exempt from all that is unclean; it will be so clear and straight, that even the simple-minded cannot go astray; a secure and peaceful way, undisturbed by the furious beasts of ravening and destruction. Its every stage will be marked with joy, as singing pilgrims pass along it; and the sighs of sorrow will die away in the distance. It is a picture of true evangelical religion, as it is revived among the peoples, from epoch to epoch, and of its blessed effects. True religion is an elevating thing; nobility of manner and refinement of taste go hand-in-hand with it. It is a holy thing; and distinction of characters and classes, of tastes and pursuits, must appear wherever it comes. Its doctrine is simple, intelligible, yet sublime. "Justification by faith" can be understood and received by the humblest mind, while the most powerful intellect must exert itself to rise to the serene height of the truth. It is a way of gentleness and peace, unvexed by the furious storms of controversy, sheltering timid souls. It is a way of freedom and of joy, and it leads to a fixed destination a celestial place, an eternal kingdom, a city that cannot be removed, whose Builder and Maker is God. J.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1, 2, 5-7. Transformation by the truth.

Accepting these words as Messianic in their scope, we may treat them as descriptive of that most blessed transformation which is effected, in the individual man and in the nation, by the gospel When the truth of Christ is made efficacious by the Spirit of God, and has had time to work out its true results, there will be found

I ILLUMINATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped." Darkness of mind, deafness of soul, have prevailed; the spirit has been insensible to all that is most beautiful and harmonious, most precious, in the universe. But then shall things appear as they are. Men shall "see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." In the Father, the Friend, the Sanctifier, the Refuge of the human soul, men will recognize him who is worthy of their trust, their love, their search.

II GRATITUDE OF HEART. Instead of the "guilty silence," so often and so long maintained by men under the reign of sin, "the tongue of the dumb will sing" psalms of grateful praise to the Divine Author of all being, to the bountiful Giver of every good and perfect gift. The mouth will be full of song because the heart will be full of thankful remembrances.

III STRENGTH OF SOUL. "Then shall the lame leap as a hart." Instead of the moral feebleness and incapacity which showed itself in painful spiritual inactivity, the soul will go forth, with all its renewed and regenerated powers, to do God"s work, to bear witness to his Name, to work in his vineyard.

IV LOVELINESS AND FRUITFULNESS OF LIFE. "The desert shall... blossom the rose; ... the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel," etc.

1. Instead of bareness and unsightliness the invariable product of sin in its final outworkings there shall be spiritual beauty. There shall be "the beauty of holiness," "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit;" all that is attractive and entrancing to the changed and cultivated judgment of the good and wise.

2. Instead of fruitlessness there shall be fertility. The desert shall "blossom abundantly." Holy, devoted life will be spent in the service of a present Savior and for a sin-stricken world. We shall abound in help, in healing, in blessing.

V PREVAILING JOY. The whole strain of the passage is jubilant, and it speaks of the desert "rejoicing with joy and singing." Sin and sadness are most intimately associated; even if they are not so inseparably allied as to be always seen together, they are so essentially connected that when one appears the other is sure to follow. It is a guilty world that knows so much of disappointment, of regret, of grief, of shame. But when the truth of God has wrought its full effect on the human soul, the prevailing note, even of the earthly life, will be that of joy. The near presence of the heavenly Father, the close friendship of the Divine Redeemer, the happy service of love, the blessed work of doing good, the exulting hope of heavenly bliss, these are sources of joy which quicken and animate the soul, which make a holy human life radiant with a blessedness which anticipates the glory of the skies. C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Vers. 1, 2. Changed circumstances following the return of Divine favor.

This, which is expressed in the figures of these verses, may be further illustrated by the experience of David. His "bones waxed old through his roaring all the day long," while God hid his face from him. He sang again the old songs when God "restored unto him the joy of his salvation." "In contrast to the ruin of Edom, the prophet now describes Israel"s triumphant march home through the blossoming wilderness" (Matthew Arnold). Two points may be dwelt on.

1. God"s favor often includes improved circumstances.

2. God"s favor brings such cheer as lifts us above circumstances.

I GOD"S FAVOR OFTEN INCLUDES IMPROVED CIRCUMSTANCES. The actual removal of our difficulties or hindrances; restored relationships; business prosperities, etc.; all such things being poetically represented by the bare, dry desert becoming a watered, flowery garden. In actual fact, the weariness and danger of the long desert route were graciously mitigated and relieved for the returning exiles. Cheyne resists the reference to the exiles; but the same point may be illustrated if the picture of the text be that of the condition of desolated Judaea when God"s favor rested on the remnant that remained there. The contrast may be between desolated Edom on which rested God"s frown, and refreshed and revived Judaea on which rested God"s favor. So when God"s curse is taken off Palestine, the old blossom and beauty will return to her. We cannot always be sure that God"s smile on our souls will be followed by improvement of our circumstances; but this great comfort we may take God oftentimes does in this way seal and complete his mercies to his people.

II GOD"S FAVOR BRINGS SUCH CHEER AS LIFTS US ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES. It is very easy to say that we ought to rise above circumstances in our own strength. But we cannot do it; nobody ever really does it, however loud may be their boastings. The bond uniting body and mind, soul and life, is altogether too close and subtle to permit even the holiest man to cease to feel. What alone is possible is that God"s favor and grace may be such an inspiration and strength to a man"s spirit, or a man"s will, that he may be able to control his circumstances, and even change them through the new and masterful relation in which he stands to them. God"s favor and acceptance is man"s supreme uplifting. There is no cheer, no strength, like that which comes to the man who can say, "The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our Refuge." That man, and that man alone, can do all things, and bear all things, and make life yield to him its best. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The joyful flourishing of Christ's kingdom, ver. 1, 2. The weak he strengthens and comforts, ver. 3, 4. His miracles, ver. 5, 6. The prosperity and peace of his people, ver. 7-10.

The solitary place - Emmanuel's land, or the seat of God's church and people, which formerly was despised like a wilderness, and which the rage of their enemies had brought to desolation, shall flourish exceedingly.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Edom falls, never to rise again. Its land is turned into a horrible wilderness. But, on the other hand, the wilderness through which the redeemed Israel returns, is changed into a flowery field. "Gladness fills the desert and the heath; and the steppe rejoices, and flowers like the crocus. It flowers abundantly, and rejoices; yea, rejoicing and singing: the glory of Lebanon is given to it, the splendour of Carmel and the plain of Sharon; they will see the glory of Jehovah, the splendour of our God." מדבּר ישׂשׂוּם (to be accentuated with tiphchah munach, not with mercha tiphchah) has been correctly explained by Aben-Ezra. The original Nun has been assimilated to the following Mem, just as pidyōn in Num 3:49 is afterwards written pidyōm (Ewald, 91, b). The explanation given by Rashi, Gesenius, and others (laetabuntur his), is untenable, if only because sūs (sı̄s) cannot be construed with the accusative of the object (see at Isa 8:6); and to get rid of the form by correction, as Olshausen proposes, is all the more objectionable, because "the old full plural in ūn is very frequently met with before Mem" (Bttcher), in which case it may have been pronounced as it is written here.

(Note: Bttcher calls ûm the oldest primitive form of the plural; but it is only a strengthening of ûn; cf., tannı̄m = tannı̄n, Hanameel = Hananeel, and such Sept. forms as Gesem, Madiam, etc. (see Hitzig on Jer 32:7). Wetzstein told me of a Bedouin tribe, in whose dialect the third pers. praet. regularly ended in m, e.g., akalum (they have eaten).)

According to the Targum on Sol 2:1 (also Saad., Abulw.), the chăbhatstseleth is the narcissus; whilst the Targum on the passage before us leaves it indefinite - sicut lilia. The name (a derivative of bâtsal) points to a bulbous plant, probably the crocus and primrose, which were classed together.

(Note: The crocus and the primrose (המצליתא in Syriac) may really be easily confounded, but not the narcissus and primrose, which have nothing in common except that they are bulbous plants, like most of the flowers of the East, which shoot up rapidly in the spring, as soon as the winter rains are over. But there are other colchicaceae beside our colchicum autumnale, which flowers before the leaves appear and is therefore called filius ante patrem (e.g., the eastern colchicum variegatum).)

The sandy steppe would become like a lovely variegated plain covered with meadow flowers.

(Note: Layard, in his Nineveh and Babylon, describes in several places the enchantingly beautiful and spring-like variation of colours which occurs in the Mesopotamian "desert;" though what the prophet had in his mind was not the real midâr, or desert of pasture land, but, as the words tsiyâh and ‛arâbhâh show, the utterly barren sandy desert.)

On gı̄lath, see at Isa 33:6 (cf., Isa 65:18): the infin. noun takes the place of an inf. abs., which expresses the abstract verbal idea, though in a more rigid manner; 'aph (like gam in Gen 31:15; Gen 46:4) is an exponent of the increased emphasis already implied in the gerunds that come after. So joyful and so gloriously adorned will the barren desert, which has been hitherto so mournful, become, on account of the great things that are in store for it. Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon have, as it were, shared their splendour with the desert, that all might be clothed alike in festal dress, when the glory of Jehovah, which surpasses everything self in its splendour, should appear; that glory which they would not only be privileged to behold, but of which they would be honoured to be the actual scene.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

“Desert and waste shall rejoice (for) them, and the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” The construction of the pronoun in the first clause is obscure and doubtful. Some refer it to the animals mentioned at the close of Isaiah 34; some to the judgments there threatened against Edom; some to the Jews returning from captivity. As the pronoun is not expressed in any of the ancient versions, some explain it as a mere appendage to the verbal form, and translate simply, shall rejoice. The last word in the verse has been variously explained to mean the lily, the narcissus, the crocus, etc. The common version (rose) is not only quite as probable, but more familiar, and suggests more clearly the essential idea of beauty.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Joyful State of Christ’s Kingdom.

We have, in this chapter, a beautiful and majestic picture of the flourishing condition of Christ’s kingdom, of the glorious future awaiting those who belong to the mountain of Zion, the redeemed of the Lord.

v. 1. The wilderness and the solitary place, the desert and the steppe, shall be glad for them, that is, what formerly was a moral wilderness would he totally changed; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, the Oriental narcissus, or crocus, which rapidly covers the waste places of the steppes after the beginning of the rainy season, making the whole surface of the land appear like a carpet of flowers.

v. 2. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing, in an ecstasy of delight over the blessings of the Lord; the glory of Lebanon, with its mighty forests, shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel, the mountain famed for its beauty, and Sharon, the valley south of Carmel, famed for its luxurious vegetation, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God, namely, with the coming of the Messianic era. Therefore the prophet addresses words of cheer and comfort to the afflicted believers:

v. 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands, the reference being to the firm grasp with which the believers should hold to the hope of their calling, and confirm the feeble knees, so that they will stand upright, keeping their ground against all enemies.

v. 4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, agitated and terrified by the dangers besetting them on every hand, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, to revenge His children upon their enemies, even God with a recompense, to punish every one according to his deserts; He will come and save you, for in punishing the enemies of His people the Lord delivers and saves those that are His

v. 5. Then the eyes of the blind, said of the spiritual blindness of natural man, shall be opened, to see the beauty of the Savior, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, so that those who have never understood the sweet message of salvation will heed and believe it.

v. 6. Then shall the lame man, who by reason of his self-righteousness was unable to walk the way of God’s commandments, leap as an hart, in eager willingness to do the Lord’s bidding, and the tongue of the dumb, of him who formerly knew nothing of the Gospel and therefore confessed nothing, sing, in hymns of thanksgiving to the God of his salvation; for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert, for the grace and mercy of God in the New Testament era flows in rich streams to those who thirst for His forgiveness. Cf Psa 65:9-10.

v. 7. And the parched ground shall become a pool, the mirage shall become a real lake, that is, the civic righteousness of men, their acts and works, which now only seem good, will then truly be good because flowing from the motive of faith in Christ, and the thirsty land springs of water, made fruitful by the power of love in the Word; in the habitation of dragons, in the dens of jackals, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes, an oasis of the Lord in the midst of a world filled with enmity toward Him.

v. 8. And an highway shall be there and a way, a causeway such as was used by armies, the valleys being filled up and all obstructions removed, and it shall be called The Way of Holiness, the holy way, where the saints of the Lord were found; the unclean shall not pass over it, only those consecrated by the Lord; but it shall be for those, such as have, by the grace of God, found the way of sanctification; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, that is, even the most unlearned will he able to follow the way of salvation as set forth in the Word of God.

v. 9. No lion shall be there, the lion being named as one of the fiercest representatives of the animal world, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there, every one who walks on this way being under the special protection of God; but the redeemed shall walk there, those who have accepted the redemption of God in Christ Jesus and rely upon it in firm faith.

v. 10. And the ransomed of the Lord, those whom the Messiah has delivered from the natural slavery of sin and from the consequent condemnation of death, shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, this joy being visible in their entire aspect, especially in the appearance of their faces; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away; for the Christian religion is the most cheerful religion, the absolute religion also for this reason, that it alone announces to sinners the full and free love of God in Christ Jesus. In this manner these two chapters are in the fullest sense of the word Messianic prophecies, finding their application wherever the kingdom of Christ is established. Cf Php 4:4.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 35:8

The way of holiness is (1) a high way; (2) a strait and narrow way; (3) a plain and obvious way; (4) a safe way.

J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 399.

Reference: Isa 35:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1912.

Isa 35:10

I. "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (1) The sorrow of bodily disease shall pass away. (2) The sorrow of dying will pass away. (3) The sorrow of bereavement will pass away. (4) The sorrow of poverty will flee away. (5) The sorrows caused by the sins of others will flee away. (6) The sorrows produced by the fear of evil, by dark imaginations, and by blighted hopes, shall flee away. (7) The sorrows of this life’s illusions and delusions shall all pass away. (8) The sorrows of sin will pass away. (9) The bitterness of the heart shall flee away.

II. When shall this be? (1) It shall be to the individual saint when his earthly career terminates. (2) To the saints as a body this will be realised at the times of the restitution of all things.

III. By what signs may we be assured that our sorrows will flee away? (1) The first sign is personal faith. (2) A second sign is acknowledged and avowed citizenship in the kingdom of the Saviour. (3) A third sign is the fleeing away of sin—the being cleansed from sin. (4) Another sign is the present good effect of sorrow. (5) A fifth sign is a living hope—hope, born of faith—hope, the child of God’s promises—the hope which is the anchor of the soul. When these five signs exist—personal faith in Jesus, avowed citizenship in His kingdom, the fleeing away of sin, the present good effect of sorrow, and a living hope—then we have good reason to expect that our sorrows shall flee away, and that our sighings shall for ever subside.

S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 2.

References: Isa 36:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 646; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 283.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The wilderness and the Arabah will be glad; and the desert will rejoice

These two phrases have basically the same meaning. These places are described as being glad, like a person is glad, because they have received water and are blossoming. AT: "It will be like the wilderness and the Arabah are glad and the desert will rejoice" (See: Personification and Parallelism)

blossom

This speaks of the plants in the desert blossoming as if the desert itself were blossoming. AT: "its plants will blossom" (See: Synecdoche)

Like the rose, it will blossom abundantly

This compares the way the plants of the desert blossom to the way a rose has many blossoms. AT: "The desert will grow many new plants and trees" (See: Simile)

and rejoice with joy and singing

This speaks of the desert as if it were happy and singing like a person. AT: "it will be as though everything is rejoicing and singing" (See: Personification)

the glory of Lebanon will be given to it

This can be stated in active form. This speaks of Yahweh making the desert looks as glorious as Lebanon as if he were giving the desert Lebanon's glory. AT: "Yahweh will give it the glory of Lebanon" or "Yahweh will make it as glorious as Lebanon" (See: Active or Passive and Metaphor)

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon

This speaks of Yahweh making the desert look beautiful as Carmel and Sharon as if he were giving the desert their splendor. The understood information may be supplied. AT: "the splendor of Carmel and Sharon will be given to it" or "Yahweh will make it as splendid as Carmel and Sharon" (See: Metaphor and Ellipsis)

the glory of Yahweh, the splendor of our God

These two phrases mean basically the same thing and emphasize Yahweh's appearance. (See: Doublet)

translationWords

desert

Arabah

joy

joy

glory

Lebanon

splendor

Carmel

Sharon

Yahweh

God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

shall rejoice over them (יְשֻׂשׂוּם) This is usually the sign of the direct object, inappropriate here in the case of an intransitive verb. (like יָשׂוּשׂוּ מֵהֶם, shall rejoice from them). Comp. (Jer. 10:20) “My sons have gone away from me (יְצָאֻנִי).” Also, (I Kings 19:21) “He cooked the meat for them (בִּשְּׁלָם),” equivalent to בִּשֵּׁל לָהֶם, “He cooked the meat for them.”

Desert and wasteland Jerusalem, called ‘wasteland,’ and Zion, called ‘desert,’ they shall rejoice over the downfall of the mighty of the heathens and Persia ([Manuscripts yield:] of Edom and Bozrah). ([The Warsaw edition reads:] the mighty of Seir (and Bozrah).)

and the plain shall rejoice the plain of Jerusalem.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

יששום. Some think that the preposition ב is omitted, and that יששו בם ═ יששום they shall be glad for them: this is not right; for what would be the meaning of בם? I think that מ is here substituted for the paragogic נ, which is frequently found in verbs. Comp. פדיון ═ פִּדְיוֹם redemption (Num. 3:19).—The land of Edom alone shall be waste; but Palestine shall be the reverse. According to R. Moses Hakkohen this prophecy refers to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.