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 wi... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GLORY OF LEBANON... — The three types of cultivated beauty are contrasted with the former three of desolation. See Note on Isaiah 33:9. And over this fair land of transcendent beauty, there will shine not the common light of day, but the glory of Jehovah. (Comp. Isaiah 30:26; Revelation 21:23.)... [ Continue Reading ]
STRENGTHEN YE THE WEAK HANDS... — Here the words are obviously, as they are quoted in Hebrews 12:12, figurative and not literal, and so far suggest a like interpretation for what follows.... [ Continue Reading ]
BE STRONG, FEAR NOT:... — The words are, of course, wide and general enough, but looking to the probable date of this section, we may perhaps connect them with the tone of Hezekiah’s speech in 2 Chronicles 32:7. Both king and prophet had the same words of comfort for the feeble and faint-hearted, an... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE EYES OF THE BLIND SHALL... — The words are obviously to be interpreted, like those that precede them, and Isaiah 29:18, of spiritual infirmities. If they seem to find a literal fulfilment in the miracles of the Christ, it is, as it were, _ex abundante,_ and as a pledge and earnest of someth... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PARCHED GROUND... — The Hebrew word is essentially what we know as the _mirage,_ or _fata morgana,_ the silvery sheen which looks like a sparkling lake, and turns out to be barren sand. Instead of that delusive show, there shall be in the renewed earth the _lake_ itself. IN THE HABITATION OF DR... [ Continue Reading ]
AN HIGHWAY SHALL BE THERE. — The raised causeway, as distinct from the common paths. (See Judges 5:6.) We are still in the region of parables, but the thought has a special interest as a transition, at the close of the first volume of Isaiah’s writings, to the opening of the second. The use of the r... [ Continue Reading ]
NO LION SHALL BE THERE... — We have to remember that the lion had not ceased to haunt the valley of the Jordan, as it had done in the days of Samson (Judges 14:5), and David (1 Samuel 17:3; 2 Samuel 23:20). The recent depopulation of the northern kingdom had probably laid the country more open to th... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH SONGS AND EVERLASTING JOY... — The first volume of Isaiah’s prophecy closes fitly with this transcendent picture, carrying the thoughts of men beyond any possible earthly fulfilment. The outward imagery probably had its starting-point in the processions of the pilgrims who came up to the Temple... [ Continue Reading ]