Isaiah 35
Introduction
Isaiah 35 is a vision of cosmic restoration that answers the devastation pronounced upon Edom and the nations in Isaiah 34. Where chapter 34 depicted the land becoming desolate, its streams turning to pitch, and its soil to sulfur, chapter 35 reverses every curse: the desert blooms, the blind see, the lame leap, and streams break forth in the wilderness. The two chapters form a deliberate diptych -- judgment and salvation, curse and blessing -- that mirrors Isaiah's own larger arc.
The chapter is entirely poetic and eschatological in orientation, describing the return of God's ransomed people to Zion along a highway of holiness. Its imagery draws on the exodus tradition -- God once again leading his people through the wilderness to their home -- while reaching forward to a reality that exceeds any historical return from exile. The New Testament writers recognized this when Jesus pointed to the fulfillment of these very signs (the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking) as evidence that the messianic age had dawned (Matthew 11:5, Luke 7:22). The author of Hebrews also echoes this chapter's language of strengthening weak hands and feeble knees (Hebrews 12:12).
The Wilderness Transformed (vv. 1--2)
1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. 2 It will bloom profusely and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.
1 The wilderness and the parched land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. 2 It will burst into bloom and rejoice -- yes, with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.
Notes
The chapter opens with a reversal. The מִדְבָּר ("wilderness") and צִיָּה ("dry land" or "parched ground") -- words that evoke the barren wasteland described in Isaiah 34:9-15 -- will now יְשֻׂשׂוּם ("be glad" or "rejoice"). The verb is from the root שׂוּשׂ, which conveys deep, spontaneous joy. The עֲרָבָה ("desert plain" or "steppe") will rejoice and blossom like the חֲבַצֶּלֶת. This word is traditionally rendered "rose," but most modern scholars identify it as a type of crocus, narcissus, or meadow saffron -- a bulb flower that springs up suddenly in arid ground after rain, making it a fitting image for sudden, unexpected flourishing.
The verb תִּפְרַח ("it will blossom") from the root פָּרַח is repeated emphatically in verse 2 -- פָּרֹחַ תִּפְרַח ("it will certainly blossom" or "it will burst into bloom") -- using the Hebrew infinitive absolute construction that intensifies the action. This is no tentative budding but an explosion of life.
Three fertile and well-known regions in the land of Israel are invoked: לְבָנוֹן ("Lebanon"), known for its magnificent cedar forests; כַּרְמֶל ("Carmel"), the lush mountain promontory on the Mediterranean coast; and שָׁרוֹן, the fertile coastal plain. Their glory and majesty will be transferred to the desert. The desolation of Isaiah 33:9, where "Lebanon is ashamed and withers" and "Sharon is like a desert," is now completely undone.
The climax of these two verses is not the landscape itself but what the transformation reveals: "They will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God." The כְּבוֹד יְהוָה ("glory of the LORD") -- the visible, weighty manifestation of God's presence -- is the ultimate point. Creation's restoration is the theater of divine revelation.
Encouragement to the Fearful (vv. 3--4)
3 Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees! 4 Say to those with anxious hearts: "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you."
3 Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the trembling knees! 4 Say to those whose hearts race with fear: "Be strong, do not be afraid! Look -- your God will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God, he himself will come and save you."
Notes
The imperatives shift from description to exhortation. Someone -- the prophet, or perhaps the community of faith -- is called to strengthen those who are faltering. The יָדַיִם רָפוֹת ("weak hands" or "limp hands") and בִרְכַּיִם כֹּשְׁלוֹת ("stumbling knees" or "feeble knees") are images of people who have lost the strength to carry on, whether from exhaustion, grief, or despair. The imperatives חַזְּקוּ ("strengthen!") and אַמֵּצוּ ("make firm!" or "make steady!") echo the charge God gave Joshua: "Be strong and courageous" (Joshua 1:6).
The author of Hebrews quotes verse 3 directly in Hebrews 12:12, applying it to Christians who are weary under persecution: "Therefore strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble." The New Testament writer saw this Isaianic encouragement as still operative for God's people awaiting final redemption.
Verse 4 addresses those whose hearts are נִמְהֲרֵי לֵב ("hasty of heart" or "racing with fear") -- people whose anxiety has made their hearts pound. The command חִזְקוּ אַל תִּירָאוּ ("Be strong, do not fear!") echoes one of Scripture's most repeated exhortations (cf. Deuteronomy 31:6, Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:1).
The reason for courage is stated with emphatic clarity: "Your God will come." The word נָקָם ("vengeance") and גְּמוּל ("recompense" or "retribution") connect directly back to the judgment on Edom in Isaiah 34:8 ("a day of vengeance for the LORD"). But here the same divine vengeance that destroys the enemies of God's people is the very act that saves them. Salvation and judgment are not opposed here — they are the same event seen from different sides. The pronoun הוּא ("he himself") is emphatic -- God will come in person, not through an intermediary.
Healing of the Afflicted and the Waters in the Desert (vv. 5--7)
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. 7 The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy. For waters will burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. 7 And the shimmering heat will become a pool, and the parched ground springs of water. In the lair of jackals, where they once rested, there will be grass with reeds and rushes.
Notes
The word אָז ("then") marks a dramatic temporal shift -- when God comes (v. 4), then these things will happen. Four categories of physical affliction are reversed in rapid succession: blindness, deafness, lameness, and muteness. The verbs are vivid: eyes תִּפָּקַחְנָה ("will be opened"), ears תִּפָּתַחְנָה ("will be unstopped"), the lame יְדַלֵּג ("will leap" or "will spring") like a אַיָּל ("deer" or "stag"), and the tongue of the mute תָּרֹן ("will sing for joy" or "will shout in jubilation").
These are the very signs that Jesus cited when John the Baptist's disciples asked whether he was "the one who is to come" (Matthew 11:3-5): "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear." Jesus was deliberately invoking Isaiah 35 as the program of the messianic age -- and declaring that it was being fulfilled in his own ministry.
The healing of human bodies transitions seamlessly into the healing of the land. Waters נִבְקְעוּ ("will burst forth" or "will split open") in the wilderness -- the same verb used for the splitting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21) and the rock at Horeb (Exodus 17:6). The new exodus imagery is clear: God is once again bringing water from rock and making a way through the desert.
In verse 7, the שָׁרָב ("shimmering heat" or "mirage") -- the optical illusion of water that torments desert travelers -- will become an actual אֲגַם ("pool"). What was illusion becomes reality. The צִמָּאוֹן ("parched ground") will become מַבּוּעֵי מָיִם ("springs of water"). The lair of תַּנִּים ("jackals") -- creatures associated with desolation and ruin throughout the prophets (Isaiah 13:22, Jeremiah 9:11) -- will give way to lush vegetation: חָצִיר ("grass"), קָנֶה ("reeds"), and גֹּמֶא ("papyrus" or "rushes"), the very plants that grow beside abundant water.
Interpretations
The physical healings described in verses 5--6 have been understood in different ways:
Literal/messianic reading: These describe actual physical healings that will occur when the Messiah comes. Jesus' appeal to these signs in Matthew 11:5 confirms that he understood them as literal, physical miracles that would authenticate his messianic identity. The ultimate fulfillment awaits the resurrection, when all bodily affliction will be permanently removed (Revelation 21:4).
Spiritual/metaphorical reading: The blindness, deafness, and muteness are primarily spiritual conditions -- Israel's inability to perceive God's truth (cf. Isaiah 6:9-10, Isaiah 29:18). The healings represent the spiritual awakening of God's people when he comes to save them. Many Reformed interpreters hold both the literal and spiritual dimensions together, seeing the physical healings as signs pointing to the deeper spiritual reality.
Already/not yet reading (common across evangelical traditions): The healings began with Jesus' earthly ministry (the "already"), continue in the life of the church through the Spirit's work, and will reach their consummation in the new creation (the "not yet"). This reading takes the passage as genuinely predictive of both Jesus' miracles and the final restoration.
The Highway of Holiness (vv. 8--10)
8 And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it -- only those who walk in the Way -- and fools will not stray onto it. 9 No lion will be there, and no vicious beast will go up on it. Such will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk upon it. 10 So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.
8 And a highway will be there -- a road -- and it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not pass along it; it is for those who walk the way, and fools will not wander onto it. 9 No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast go up on it; they will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there, 10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will come to Zion with singing, and everlasting joy will be upon their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Notes
The chapter's climax centers on the מַסְלוּל ("highway" or "raised road") -- a prepared, elevated path through the wilderness. Isaiah has already introduced this concept in Isaiah 11:16 (a highway for the remnant) and will develop it further in Isaiah 40:3 ("prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness") and Isaiah 62:10 ("build up the highway"). The road is given a name: דֶּרֶךְ הַקֹּדֶשׁ ("the Way of Holiness"). This is not merely a geographical path but a theological one -- a way defined by the character of the God who prepared it.
The Hebrew of verse 8 is notoriously difficult. The clause וְהוּא לָמוֹ is ambiguous and has been translated in various ways: "it is for them" (i.e., for God's people), "he [God] will be with them," or "it belongs to the one who walks the way." The essential meaning is that this highway is exclusively for God's redeemed people. The טָמֵא ("unclean") -- those ritually or morally defiled -- will not pass along it, and אֱוִילִים ("fools") -- those who reject wisdom and God's ways -- will not wander onto it.
Verse 9 adds that no אַרְיֵה ("lion") or פְּרִיץ חַיּוֹת ("ferocious beast") will threaten travelers on this road. In the ancient Near East, lions and predators were a genuine danger on wilderness roads (cf. 1 Kings 13:24, 2 Kings 17:25). The absence of danger evokes the Edenic peace described in Isaiah 11:6-9, where the wolf lies down with the lamb. Instead of predators, the גְּאוּלִים ("redeemed ones") will walk there -- those who have been reclaimed by a kinsman-redeemer, bought back from bondage.
Verse 10 brings the chapter to its conclusion with a near-verbatim repetition of Isaiah 51:11, suggesting that these verses became a beloved refrain in Israel's worship. The פְּדוּיֵי יְהוָה ("ransomed of the LORD") are those purchased by God's own payment -- the verb פָּדָה implies a ransom price paid for liberation, used of God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:8) and from exile (Jeremiah 31:11). They יְשֻׁבוּן ("will return") -- a word that means both physical return and spiritual repentance -- and will come to צִיּוֹן ("Zion") with רִנָּה ("singing" or "joyful shouting").
The final image: שִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם ("everlasting joy") will be "upon their heads" like a crown. שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה ("gladness and joy") will יַשִּׂיגוּ ("overtake" or "catch up to") them, while יָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה ("sorrow and sighing") will נָסוּ ("flee away"). The personification is worth noting: joy chases them down and captures them; grief turns and runs. This is not a temporary happiness but an עוֹלָם ("everlasting," "age-enduring") condition -- the final state of God's people.
Interpretations
The identity of the "ransomed" and the nature of their "return" have been understood differently:
Historical/post-exilic reading: The primary referent is the return of Jewish exiles from Babylon, traveling through the desert back to Jerusalem. The "highway" is the route from Mesopotamia to Judah. The joy described reflects the celebration of return after decades of captivity. This reading sees the passage as encouragement for the exiles of the sixth century BC.
Eschatological/new creation reading: The language of everlasting joy, the abolition of sorrow and sighing, and the complete transformation of the natural world point beyond any historical return to the final consummation. Revelation 21:4 echoes this verse directly: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain." On this reading, the highway is the way into the new creation, and the ransomed are all of God's redeemed people across history.
Typological reading (common in Reformed and evangelical traditions): The historical return from exile is a genuine but partial fulfillment that foreshadows the greater reality. The exodus from Egypt, the return from Babylon, and the final gathering of God's people form an escalating pattern of redemption, each pointing to and being surpassed by the next. Christ's first coming inaugurated the fulfillment; his second coming will consummate it.