Isaiah 35:10
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- וּפְדוּיֵיu·fe·du·Yeiand [the] [people] ransomed ofH6299Conj-w ¦ V-Qal-PassPrtcpl-mpVerb Qal Participle Passive Plural Masculine Constructוּandפְדוּיֵי[the] [people] ransomed of
- יְהוָהYah·wehYahwehH3068N-properNoun Proper Title
- יְשֻׁבוּןye·shu·Vunthey will return !H7725V-Qal-Imperf-3mp ¦ SfxVerb Qal Imperfect 3rd Plural Masculineיְשֻׁבוּthey will returnן!
- וּבָאוּu·Va·'uand they will comeH935Conj-w ¦ V-Qal-ConsecPerf-3cpVerb Qal Consecutive Perfect 3rd Plural common genderוּandבָאוּthey will come
- צִיּוֹןtzi·yOnZionH6726N-properNoun Proper Location
- בְּרִנָּהbe·ri·Nahwith a shout of joyH7440Prep-b ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteבְּwithרִנָּהa shout of joy
- וְשִׂמְחַתve·sim·Chatand gladness ofH8057Conj-w ¦ N-fscNoun Singular Feminine Constructוְandשִׂמְחַתgladness of
- עוֹלָםo·LamperpetuityH5769N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- עַל'al[will be] onH5921PrepPreposition
- רֹאשָׁםro·Shamtheir headH7218N-msc ¦ 3mpNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixרֹאשָׁheadםtheir
- שָׂשׂוֹןsa·SonjoyH8342N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- וְשִׂמְחָהve·sim·Chahand gladnessH8057Conj-w ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteוְandשִׂמְחָהgladness
- יַשִּׂיגוּya·Si·guthey will overtake [them]H5381V-Hiphil-Imperf-3mpVerb Hiphil Imperfect 3rd Plural Masculine
- וְנָסוּve·Na·suand they will fleeH5127Conj-w ¦ V-Qal-ConsecPerf-3cpVerb Qal Consecutive Perfect 3rd Plural common genderוְandנָסוּthey will flee
- יָגוֹןya·GonsorrowH3015N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absolute
- וַאֲנָחָהva·'a·na·Chahand sighingH585Conj-w ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteוַandאֲנָחָהsighing
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Isaiah 35:5–10. He set out his notes in a two-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
"Then, when your God shall come, even Christ, to set up his kingdom in the world, to which all the prophets bore witness, especially towards the conclusion of their prophecies of the temporal deliverances of the church, and this evangelical prophet especially - then look for great things."
I.Wonders shall be wrought in the kingdoms both of nature and grace, wonders of mercy wrought upon the children of men, sufficient to evince that it is no less than a God that comes to us.
1.Wonders shall be wrought on men's bodies (Isaiah 35:5, Isaiah 35:6): The eyes of the blind shall be opened; this was often done by our Lord Jesus when he was here upon earth, with a word's speaking, and one he gave sight to that was born blind, Matthew 9:27; Matthew 12:22; Matthew 20:30; John 9:6. By his power the ears of the deaf also were unstopped, with one word. Ephphatha - Be opened, Mark 7:34. Many that were lame had the use of their limbs restored so perfectly that they could not only go, but leap, and with so much joy to them that they could not forbear leaping for joy, as that impotent man, Acts 3:8. The dumb also were enabled to speak, and then no marvel that they were disposed to sing for joy, Matthew 9:32, Matthew 9:33. These miracles Christ wrought to prove that he was sent of God (John 3:2), nay, working them by his own power and in his own name, he proved that he was God, the same who at first made man's mouth, the hearing ear, and the seeing eye. When he would prove to John's disciples his divine mission he did it by miracles of this kind, in which this scripture was fulfilled.
2.Wonders, greater wonders, shall be wrought on men's souls. By the word and Spirit of Christ those that were spiritually blind were enlightened (Acts 26:18), those that were deaf to the calls of God were made to hear them readily, so Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, so that she attended, Acts 16:14. Those that were impotent to every thing that is good by divine grace are made, not only able for it, but active in it, and run the way of God's commandments. Those also that were dumb, and knew not how to speak of God or to God, having their understandings opened to know him, shall thereby have their lips opened to show forth his praise. The tongue of the dumb shall sing for joy, the joy of God's salvation. Praise shall be perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.
II.The Spirit shall be poured out from on high.
There shall be waters and streams, rivers of living water; when our Saviour spoke of these as the fulfilling of the scripture, and most probably of this scripture, the evangelist tells us, He spoke of the Spirit (John 7:38, John 7:39), as does also this prophet (ch. 32:15); so here (Isaiah 35:6), in the wilderness, where one would least expect it, shall waters break out. This was fulfilled when the Holy Ghost fell upon the Gentiles that heard the word (Acts 10:44); then were the fountains of life opened, whence streams flowed, that watered the earth abundantly. These waters are said to break out, which denotes a pleasing surprise to the Gentile world, such as brought them, as it were, into a new world. The blessed effect of this shall be that the parched ground shall become a pool, Isaiah 35:7. Those that laboured and were heavily laden, under the burden of guilt, and were scorched with the sense of divine wrath, found rest, and refreshment, and abundant comforts in the gospel. In the thirsty land, where no water was, nor ordinances (Psalm 63:1), there shall be springs of water, a gospel ministry, and by that the administration of all gospel ordinances in their purity and plenty, which are the river that makes glad the city of our God, Psalm 46:4. In the habitation of dragons, who chose to dwell in the parched scorched ground (Isaiah 34:9, Isaiah 34:13), these waters shall flow, and dispossess them, so that, where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes, great plenty of useful productions. Thus it was when Christian churches were planted, and flourished greatly, in the cities of the Gentiles, which, for many ages, had been habitations of dragons, or devils rather, as Babylon (Revelation 18:2); when the property of the idols' temples was altered, and they were converted to the service of Christianity, then the habitations of dragons became fruitful fields.
III.The way of religion and godliness shall be laid open:
it is here called the way of holiness (Isaiah 35:8) the way both of holy worship and a holy conversation. Holiness is the rectitude of the human nature and will, in conformity to the divine nature and will. The way of holiness is that course of religious duties in which men ought to walk and press forward, with an eye to the glory of God and their own felicity in the enjoyment of him. "When our God shall come to save us he shall chalk out to us this way by his gospel, so as it had never been before described." 1. It shall be an appointed way; not a way of sufferance, but a highway, a way into which we are directed by a divine authority and in which we are protected by a divine warrant. It is the King's highway, the King of Kings' highway, in which, though we may be waylaid, we cannot be stopped. The way of holiness is the way of God's commandments; it is (as highways usually are) the good old way, Jeremiah 6:16. 2. It shall be an appropriated way, the way in which God will bring his own chosen to himself, but the unclean shall not pass over it, either to defile it or to disturb those that walk in it. It is a way by itself, distinguished from the way of the world, for it is a way of separation from, and nonconformity to, this world. It shall be for those whom the Lord has set apart for himself (Psalm 4:3), shall be reserved for them: The redeemed shall walk there, and the satisfaction they take in these ways of pleasantness shall be out of the reach of molestation from an evil world. The unclean shall not pass over it, for it shall be a fair way; those that walk in it are the undefiled in the way, who escape the pollution that is in the world. 3. It shall be a straight way: The wayfaring men, who choose to travel in it, though fools, of weak capacity in other things, shall have such plain directions from the word and Spirit of God in this way that they shall not err therein; not that they shall be infallible even in their own conduct, or that they shall in nothing mistake, but they shall not be guilty of any fatal misconduct, shall not so miss their way but that they shall recover it again, and get well to their journey's end. Those that are in the narrow way, though some may fall into one path and others into another, not all equally right, but all meeting at last in the same end, shall yet never fall into the broad way again; the Spirit of truth shall lead them into all truth that is necessary for them. Note, The way to heaven is a plain way, and easy to hit. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, and made them wise to salvation. Knowledge is easy to him that understands. 4. It shall be a safe way: No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast (Isaiah 35:9), none to hurt or destroy. Those that keep close to this way keep out of the reach of Satan the roaring lion, that wicked one touches them not. Those that walk in the way of holiness may proceed with a holy security and serenity of mind, knowing that nothing can do them any real hurt; they shall be quiet from the fear of evil. It was in Hezekiah's days, some time after the captivity of the ten tribes, that God, being displeased with the colonies settled there, sent lions among them, 2 Kings 17:25. But Judah keeps her integrity, and therefore no lions shall be there. Those that walk in the way of holiness must separate themselves from the unclean and the ravenous, must save themselves from an untoward generation; hoping that they themselves are of the redeemed, let them walk with the redeemed who shall walk there.
IV.The end of this way shall be everlasting joy, Isaiah 35:10.
This precious promise of peace now will end shortly in endless joys and rest for the soul. Here is good news for the citizens of Zion, rest to the weary: The ransomed of the Lord, who therefore ought to follow him wherever he goes (Revelation 14:4), shall return and come to Zion,
1.To serve and worship God in the church militant: they shall deliver themselves out of Babylon (Zechariah 2:7), shall ask the way to Zion (Jeremiah 50:5), and shall find the way Isaiah 52:12. God will open to them a door of escape out of their captivity, and it shall be an effectual door, though there be many adversaries. They shall join themselves to the gospel church, that Mount Zion, that city of the living God, Hebrews 12:22. They shall come with songs of joy and praise for their deliverance out of Babylon, where they wept upon every remembrance of Zion, Psalm 137:1. Those that by faith are made citizens of the gospel Zion may go on their way rejoicing (Acts 8:39); they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, and be still praising him. They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and the sorrows and signs of their convictions are made to flee away by the power of divine consolations. Those that mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted.
2.To see and enjoy God in the church triumphant; those that walk in the way of holiness, under guidance of their Redeemer, shall come to Zion at last, to the heavenly Zion, shall come in a body, shall all be presented together, faultless, at the coming of Christ's glory with exceeding joy (Jude 1:24; Revelation 7:17); they shall come with songs. When God's people returned out of Babylon to Zion they came weeping (Jeremiah 50:4); but they shall come to heaven singing a new song, which no man can learn, Revelation 14:3. When they shall enter into the joy of their Lord it shall be what the joys of this world never could be everlasting joy, without mixture, interruption, or period. It shall not only fill their hearts, to their own perfect and perpetual satisfaction, but it shall be upon their heads, as an ornament of grace and a crown of glory, as a garland worn in token of victory. Their joy shall be visible, and no longer a secret thing, as it is here in this world; it shall be proclaimed, to the glory of God and their mutual encouragement. They shall then obtain the joy and gladness which they could never expect on this side heaven; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away for ever, as the shadows of the night before the rising sun. Thus these prophecies, which relate to the Assyrian invasion, conclude, for the support of the people of God under that calamity, and to direct their joy, in their deliverance from it, to something higher. Our joyful hopes and prospects of eternal life should swallow up both all the sorrows and all the joys of this present time.
Historical interpretation
Five Centuries of Reception
10 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
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“Everlasting joy,” says Isaiah, “shall be upon their heads.” Well, there is nothing eternal until after the resurrection. “And sorrow and sighing,” he continues, “shall flee away.” The angel echoes the same to John: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,” from the same eyes indeed which had formerly wept and which might weep again if the loving kindness of God did not dry up every fountain of tears. And again: “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,” and therefore no more corruption, it being chased away by incorruption, even as death is by immortality.
[God] is the same one who said to Jeremiah, “Behold, I place my words in your mouth as a fire.” David, therefore, also received this tongue of fire, so that he could speak of divine knowledge while enkindled with zeal: “Make known to me my end, O Lord.” He was not here asking about his own death or about the final resurrection. He was inquiring into that end of which the apostle spoke: “For the end will come when the Lord Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father and when he destroys every principality and power and when death is the last of all things to be destroyed,” such that evil is defeated and eternal goodness is ignited. Therefore it was said, “Pain and wailing will flee.”
I ask you to consider the condition of the other life, so far as it is possible to consider it; for no words will suffice for an adequate description. But from the things which are told us, as if by means of certain riddles, let us try and get some indistinct vision of it. “Pain and sorrow and sighing,” we read, “have fled away.” What then could be more blessed than this life? It is not possible there to fear poverty and disease. It is not possible to see any one injuring or being injured, provoking or being provoked, or angry, or envious, or burning with any outrageous lust, or anxious concerning the supply of the necessities of life, or bemoaning himself over the loss of some dignity and power. For all the tempest of passion in us is quelled and brought to nothing, and all will be in a condition of peace and gladness and joy, all things serene and tranquil, all will be daylight and brightness, and light, not this present light but one excelling this in splendor as much as daylight is brighter than a lamp. For things are not concealed in that world by night or by a gathering of clouds. Bodies there are not set on fire and burned. For there is neither night nor evening there, nor cold nor heat, nor any other variation of seasons. But the condition is of a different kind, such as only they will know who have been deemed worthy of it. There is no old age there, nor any of the evils of old age, but all things relating to decay are utterly removed, and incorruptible glory reigns in every part. But greater than all these things is the perpetual enjoyment of relationship with Christ in the company of angels and archangels and the higher powers.
What about hope? Will that be there [i.e., in heaven]? Hope will not continue when the thing hoped for is there. Certainly hope is very necessary for us in our exile. It is what consoles us on the journey. When the traveler, after all, finds it wearisome walking along, he puts up with the fatigue precisely because he hopes to arrive. Rob him of any hope of arriving, and immediately his strength for walking is broken. So the hope also which we have here is part and parcel of the justice of our exile and our journey. Listen to the apostle himself. “Awaiting the adoption,” he says, “we cannot yet say there is the bliss of which Scripture says, ‘Toil and groaning have passed away.’ ”
And in fact, if we look with the elevated gaze of our mind at the condition wherein the heavenly and supernal virtues that are truly in the kingdom of God make their home, what else should it be thought to be than perpetual and continual joy? For what belongs so much to true blessedness and so befits it as continual tranquility and everlasting joy?… “They shall receive joy and gladness; sorrow and groaning shall flee away.”
For by these tokens the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil are distinguished: and in truth if lifting up our mental gaze on high we would consider that state in which the heavenly powers live on high, who are truly in the kingdom of God, what should we imagine it to be except perpetual and lasting joy? For what is so specially peculiar and appropriate to true blessedness as constant calm and eternal joy? And that you may be quite sure that this, which we say, is really so, not on my own authority but on that of the Lord, hear how very clearly he describes the character and condition of that world. “Behold,” he says, “I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But you shall be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.” And again “joy and gladness shall be found therein: thanksgiving and the voice of praise, and there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath.” And again: “They shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” And if you want to know more definitely about that life and the city of the saints, hear what the voice of the Lord proclaims to the heavenly Jerusalem: “I will make,” he says, “your officers peace and your overseers righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in your land, desolation nor destruction within your borders. And salvation shall take possession of your walls, and praise of your gates.”
When death is swallowed up in victory, therefore, there will be no corruption of body or soul, for when all iniquity has been removed from us, no infirmity will remain. Indeed, it is about such matters that Isaiah said, “They will obtain joy and gladness; and pain and moaning will flee from them.”
The world is indeed harassed by the evil lives and statements of many people. This attack upon the good and the bad is just like when mud and an ointment are blown on the same wind; the one exhales a foul odor, while the other has a sweet fragrance. In order that everyone may understand this, I will reveal it more explicitly to you, my friend. Good and bad people are two urns, one of which contains rottenness, the other precious spices. When they are blown by the same fan, the urn that has spices gives forth a desirable fragrance, while the one that is a sewer returns an unbearable stench. Similarly, both good and bad people are troubled but are distinguished by the penetrating judgment of God. Whenever tribulation comes to the world, the good like a holy vessel thank God who has deigned to chastise them; those who are proud, dissolute or avaricious on the contrary blaspheme and murmur against God, saying, O God, what great evil have we done that we should suffer such calamities? Therefore, even if the good die in the midst of adversities, they will end a life full of labors and miseries but will receive eternal life from which “sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” Unfaithful souls refuse to believe this, and while fettered with love for this life, they cannot keep it but lose it by their infidelity.
“The one who endures to the end will be saved.” By still referring to this the text goes on reading: “On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there anymore.” In the twelve months he suggests the idea of all times and designates eternity. Therefore where there is eternal greenness, no aridity will ever be allowed to exist. Where there is perfect and sound health, no infirmity is ever admitted, and also the prophet promises this by saying, “They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” “The tree” is the one that we read to be “planted by streams of water,” about which also Jeremiah says “that it sends out its roots by the stream,” that is, places its hope and confidence in the Lord. In another sense the river of the water of life is recognized to signify rightly the fountain itself of life, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, about whom we read, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
You are about to journey a long road, and you need many supplies. You shall arrive at the place eternal that has two regions, wherein are many mansions; one of which places God has prepared for them that love him and keep his commandments, full of all manner of good things. And they that attain to it shall live for ever in incorruption, enjoying immortality without death, where pain and sorrow and sighing are fled away. But the other place is full of darkness and tribulation and pain, prepared for the devil and his angels. In it also they shall be cast who by evil deeds have deserved it, who have bartered the incorruptible and eternal for the present world and have made themselves fuel for eternal fire.
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This verse
The ransomed of the LORD come home to Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy, while sorrow and sighing flee away from them.
“And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,”
The ransomed belong to the LORD, who paid for their freedom, and they come home from exile to him.
“and come to Zion”
The road ends at the city where God dwells among his people.
“with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads:”
They arrive singing, crowned with joy as with festival garlands, and that joy lasts for ever.
“they shall obtain joy and gladness,”
They reach and take hold of the joy they once only longed for.
“and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Grief and groaning run off like fugitives, never to come back, as Isaiah repeats at Isaiah 51:11.
The Way of Holiness and Final Joy
Isaiah 35:8–10
Summary
Isaiah sees a highway running through a desert that God has made to blossom, and he gives it a name: “The way of holiness.” It belongs to the people God has cleansed, and he makes it so plain that even the simplest traveller stays on it. Lions and every ravenous beast are kept away from it, so the redeemed walk it in safety. At the end of the road the ransomed of the LORD come home to Zion singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads, while sorrow and sighing flee away. These three verses close Isaiah 35, and they tell us that God himself makes the way home for his people, keeps them safe on it, and fills their arrival with joy that lasts for ever.
A highway through the blossoming desert
Isaiah 35 comes after long chapters of judgment (Isaiah 28–34), ending with the LORD’s judgment on Edom and the nations in Isaiah 34. Then the vision turns. The wilderness blossoms and shows the glory of the LORD (Isaiah 35:1–2), the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame leap, and waters break out in the desert (Isaiah 35:5–6). Our three verses give the road through that renewed land and the joyful arrival at its end. The chapter forms a bridge to the comfort that opens Isaiah 40.
Isaiah prophesied while Assyria threatened Judah in the eighth century BC, and he looked ahead to the exile in Babylon and the return that would follow. For a people far from home, a safe road back through the wilderness was the very thing they longed for. The journey also recalls the Exodus, when God led his people through a dangerous wilderness and kept them on the way.
The word for highway, maçlûwl, comes from a root meaning to cast up, and it describes a built-up road, a prepared thoroughfare that is clearly marked and direct. Isaiah’s hearers knew the great royal roads of the empires, built for armies on the march and for grand processions. This highway is God’s own work, made by him for his people. Isaiah adds “and a way”, using derek, the ordinary word for a road or path, so that the two words together describe a clear, well-defined route that anyone can find.
Why the road is called the way of holiness
The road is named for its character. Qôdesh, holiness, means what is set apart and dedicated to God, kept apart from common use. The phrase in Hebrew is derek haqqodesh, the way of holiness, a road consecrated to him. God called his people to share his own character: “ye shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). In Israel, purity was required to come near God’s presence in the tabernacle and the temple, and this road belongs to the same God.
So “the unclean shall not pass over it.” The word ṭâmêʼ describes someone ritually or morally impure, unfit to come near to God or to take part in his worship. God’s presence calls for holiness, as the letter to the Hebrews says: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The holy city at the end of Scripture is guarded in the same way: “there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” (Revelation 21:27).
The road is “for those”, the people God has redeemed and cleansed, whom the next verse names. Their holiness is his gift, just as the road is. He makes the highway, he purifies the travellers, and he keeps them on it. The psalmist prays for exactly this: “Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path” (Psalm 27:11). Proverbs pictures the same journey growing brighter as it goes: “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).
For us, the way of holiness is a life set apart to God and shaped by his will, opened to us through faith in Jesus Christ. Our access to a holy God rests on Christ’s own holiness and his atoning sacrifice. Along the road the Holy Spirit goes on purifying us from sin and setting us apart for God’s purposes, so that day by day we grow to reflect his holiness.
How can fools walk it without going astray?
God makes this way so plain and guards it so closely that even the simple stay on it. “The wayfaring men” are travellers, people walking the road, and the word behind them is hâlak, to walk. The fool, ʼĕvîyl, is someone simple and unwise, likely to take a wrong turn. To “err”, tâʻâh, is to wander off and go astray. The promise is that the weakest and most easily confused among God’s people will reach the end, because the guidance and the keeping are his.
David says the same of his Shepherd: “he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). Jesus promised that the Spirit of truth “will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13), and in the new covenant God writes his law in the hearts of his people (Jeremiah 31:33), so that the way is known from within as well as marked out from without.
A road kept safe from lions and wild beasts
In Israel, lions and other wild beasts were a real danger to travellers, to flocks and even to towns. The lion was the most feared predator in the land, so Isaiah names it first. The word for “ravenous”, pᵉrîyts, comes from a root meaning to break forth, and elsewhere it describes a violent man, a tyrant, a destroyer or a robber. Joined to the word for a living creature or wild animal, chay, it pictures a beast that tears and destroys. Such a creature “shall go up thereon” no more than the lion will, so the raised highway is out of reach of the fiercest animal in the land. Then Isaiah says it a third time, “it shall not be found there”, to make the promise certain.
The wilderness was a place of danger, often linked with judgment, and here God turns it into a place of safety. Ezekiel gives the same promise when God makes a covenant of peace with his flock, rids the land of evil beasts, and lets his people dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods (Ezekiel 34:25). The psalmist who dwells in the secret place of the most High is covered by God’s feathers and delivered from the snare and the pestilence (Psalm 91:1–4).
The beasts also stand for every power that would devour God’s people. Peter warns that “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Temptation, oppression, moral corruption and the fears that pull at our faith belong to the same company. Christ has already disarmed these powers, triumphing over principalities and powers on the cross (Colossians 2:15). God’s keeping in this life still leaves room for hardship, and it assures us of his presence, his power and his final victory over every enemy, so that the lions on the road will fail to devour those who walk with him.
Who the redeemed and the ransomed are
Verse 9 calls the travellers “the redeemed”, and verse 10 calls them “the ransomed of the LORD”. The two words together tell us how they came to be on the road.
Gâʼal, to redeem, means to buy back, deliver or set free, and it belongs to the kinsman-redeemer, the go’el. This was usually the nearest male relative, and he had the duty to buy back a family member’s lost property, to avenge a wrong, and to marry the widow of a kinsman who had died so that the family line went on. When God redeems, he acts as his people’s nearest kinsman, stepping in to bring them back from ruin and captivity and to restore them to their inheritance and to himself.
Pâdâh, to ransom, means to sever, to release or preserve. It speaks of freedom secured by paying a price or by stepping in to set someone free. “Of the LORD” marks these people as his own: he set them free and they belong to him.
In Isaiah’s day the ransomed were the Israelites brought home from captivity in Babylon. In the fullest sense they are all whom God has set free from sin, death and spiritual bondage. Peter tells believers that they were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19). Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer, who bought us back at the cost of his own life, and so we walk the road as people he has purchased.
Coming home to Zion with songs
“Shall return” is the Hebrew shûwb, to turn back or come home. For a people facing exile, it promised a reversal of everything they had lost: the journey home to their land and, beneath it, the return to fellowship with God. Zion is Jerusalem, the place where God dwelt among his people, the centre of their worship and the heart of their life as a nation. The road of verse 8 leads there.
They come “with songs”, the praise and thanks of people who have been set free. The “everlasting joy upon their heads” is a joy that crowns them and shows on them for all to see. It likely recalls the garlands and crowns worn at festivals and victory celebrations in Israel and among the nations around it, so that the redeemed arrive dressed for a feast. ʻÔwlâm, everlasting, properly means what is concealed, the vanishing point, time out of mind, and so in practice eternity. This joy outlasts every change of circumstance.
“They shall obtain joy and gladness” uses nâsag, to reach and take hold of, so the joy they once longed for is now firmly theirs. Isaiah gives this promise again in almost the same words at Isaiah 51:11, and the returning exiles sang it in their own words: “When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing” (Psalm 126:1–3).
The source of this joy is God’s presence: “in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:11). Believers taste it already, since joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and its fullness is still ahead.
Sorrow and sighing flee away
The verse ends with sorrow and sighing running away. Yâgôwn, sorrow, is deep grief and affliction, and ʼănâchâh, sighing, is the groaning of someone in pain. Both describe the anguish God’s people knew under oppression, in exile and in national humiliation. The verb nûwç means to flit, to vanish away or flee, and Isaiah pictures grief and groaning as fugitives who leave and are gone. The verse sets the two pairs side by side, joy and gladness arriving as sorrow and sighing depart.
John hears the same promise at the end of Scripture: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4). It comes in the moment when “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3), the new heavens and new earth that Isaiah himself foresees in Isaiah 65.
When is this promise kept?
The promise is kept in stages, and each stage is real. Its first fulfilment came when exiles returned from Babylon to Zion. The highway itself draws on the roads of the real world, and in this prophecy it pictures the whole journey of God’s people back to him.
Its deepest fulfilment is in Jesus Christ, who is himself the way of holiness. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Through his righteous life, his death and his resurrection he makes us holy and brings us to a holy God. Believers have already come to Zion by faith: “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22–24).
Its final fulfilment is in the new heavens and new earth, where God dwells with his people, every tear is wiped away, and every danger has been taken out of the world for ever. So the passage speaks to God’s people in every age: to the exiles going home, to us on the road now, and to all the redeemed on the day we arrive.
Walking home on God’s road
The road in these verses is God’s from start to finish. He builds it, he names it, he cleanses those who walk it and he guards them on the way. That frees us to walk it with confidence and in step with him, pursuing holiness gladly because the One who called us is holy and is keeping us. When we feel simple, weak or easily lost, the promise of verse 8 is meant for us, and the Shepherd who leads us knows the way.
The end of the road gives every step its meaning. The sorrows we carry now are real, and they are also temporary, because they are the very things that will flee away when we come to Zion. Songs and everlasting joy are waiting there, and even now we taste that joy whenever we walk with the Lord.
Isaiah 35:8
“And an highway shall be there, and a way,”
“There” is the desert God has made to blossom in the verses before. Two words, maçlûwl and derek, mark a road that is built up, clear and easy to find.
“and it shall be called The way of holiness;”
The name gives the road’s character: it is set apart to God and belongs to him.
“the unclean shall not pass over it;”
Only those God has cleansed travel it, as only the holy may enter the city at the end of Scripture (Revelation 21:27).
“but it shall be for those:”
The road is reserved for God’s own people, who are named in the next verse as the redeemed.
“the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”
Even simple and unwise travellers stay on the road, because God’s guidance on it is clear and his keeping is sure.
Isaiah 35:9
“No lion shall be there,”
The most feared predator in the land is the first danger removed.
“nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon,”
The raised highway is out of reach of every destroying beast, the pᵉrîyts that breaks out to tear and kill.
“it shall not be found there;”
The third statement of the same promise, given so that the travellers can be sure of it.
“but the redeemed shall walk there:”
After the dangers come the people. Those God has bought back as their kinsman walk the road in peace and without fear.
Isaiah 35:10 This verse
“And the ransomed of the LORD shall return,”
The ransomed belong to the LORD, who paid for their freedom, and they come home from exile to him.
“and come to Zion”
The road ends at the city where God dwells among his people.
“with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads:”
They arrive singing, crowned with joy as with festival garlands, and that joy lasts for ever.
“they shall obtain joy and gladness,”
They reach and take hold of the joy they once only longed for.
“and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Grief and groaning run off like fugitives, never to come back, as Isaiah repeats at Isaiah 51:11.
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