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.
Wilderness and parched land, shall be glad for them,—And the waste plain, shall exult, and blossom as the lily:
It shall, blossom abundantly, and exult, Yea with exultation and shouts of triumph, The glory of Lebanon, hath been given to it, The splendour of Carmel, and Sharon,—They, shall see the glory of Yahweh, the splendour of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands,—The trembling knees, make ye firm:
Say to the hurried in heart, Be strong, Do not fear,—Lo! your God, with avenging, doth come, With the recompence of God, He, doth come to save you.
Then, shall be opened the eyes of the blind,—And, the ears of the deaf, be unstopped:
Then, shall leap as a hart the lame, Then shall shout the tongue of the dumb, For, there have broken forth—In the desert—waters, And streams, in the waste plain:
Then shall the glowing sand, become a lake, And thirsty ground—springs of water,—In the home of the wild dog—its lair, Shall be an enclosure for cane and paper—reed.
And there shall be there, a raised way—even a high road, And the Highroad of Holiness, shall it be called, There shall not pass over it one who is unclean; But He Himself, shall be one of them travelling the road, And the perverse, shall not stray [thereinto].
There shall be, there, no lion, Nor shall ravenous beast, go up thereon, It shall not be found, there,—Thus, shall travel the redeemed;
And the ransomed of Yahweh! shall return, And shall enter Zion with shouting, With gladness age-abiding, upon their head, Joy and gladness shall overtake them, And sorrow and sighing, shall flee away.