Isaiah Chapter 35 - The Wilderness Blossoms and the Highway of Holiness
A joyful reversal of desolation into healing and homecoming.
Following the devastation of Isaiah 34, Isaiah 35 promises the wilderness and solitary place will be glad and blossom abundantly as the glory of Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon is given to it.
The waste land and the dry places will be glad; the lowland will have joy and be full of flowers.
It will be flowering like the rose; it will be full of delight and songs; the glory of Lebanon will be given to it; the pride of Carmel and Sharon: they will see the glory of the Lord, the power of our God.
Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the shaking knees.
Say to those who are full of fear, Be strong and take heart: see, your God will give punishment; the reward of God will come; he himself will come to be your saviour.
Then the eyes of the blind will see, and the ears which are stopped will be open.
Then will the feeble-footed be jumping like a roe, and the voice which was stopped will be loud in song: for in the waste land streams will be bursting out, and waters in the dry places.
And the burning sand will become a pool, and the dry earth springs of waters: the fields where the sheep take their food will become wet land, and water-plants will take the place of grass.
And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.
No lion will be there, or any cruel beast; they will not be seen there; but those for whom the Lord has given a price,
Even those whom he has made free, will come back again; they will come with songs to Zion; on their heads will be eternal joy; delight and joy will be theirs, and sorrow and sounds of grief will be gone for ever.