Isaiah 35:1-10
35 The wilderness and the waterless region will exult,+ and the desert plain* will be joyful and blossom as the saffron.*+
2 Without fail it* will blossom,+ and it will really be joyful with joyousness and with glad crying out.+ The glory of Lebʹa·non itself must be given to it,*+ the splendor of Carʹmel+ and of Sharʹon.+ There will be those* who will see the glory of Jehovah,+ the splendor of our God.*+
3 Strengthen the weak* hands, YOU people, and make the knees that are wobbling firm.+
4 Say to those who are anxious at heart:+ “Be strong.+ Do not be afraid.+ Look! YOUR own God will come with vengeance+ itself, God even with a repayment.+ He himself will come and save YOU people.”+
5 At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened,+ and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped.+
6 At that time the lame one will climb up just as a stag does,+ and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.+ For in the wilderness waters will have burst out, and torrents in the desert plain.
7 And the heat-parched ground will have become as a reedy pool, and the thirsty ground as springs of water.+ In the abiding place of jackals,+ a resting-place for [them],* there will be green grass with reeds and papyrus+ plants.
8 And there will certainly come to be a highway+ there, even a way; and the Way of Holiness* it will be called.+ The unclean one will not pass over it.*+ And it will be for the one walking on the way, and no foolish ones will wander about [on it].*
9 No lion will prove to be there, and the rapacious sort of wild beasts will not come up on it.*+ None will be found there;+ and the repurchased ones must walk [there].+
10 And the very ones redeemed by Jehovah will return+ and certainly come to Zion with a joyful cry;+ and rejoicing to time indefinite will be upon their head.+ To exultation and rejoicing they will attain, and grief and sighing must flee away.+
Footnotes
^ Or, “the Arabah.”
^ Or, “crocus; asphodel.”
^ “Our God.” Heb., ʼElo·hehʹnu.
^ “Those,” MTSyVg; LXX, “my people.”
^ “It,” fem., referring to the “desert plain” in vs 1; 12 Heb. mss, “you.”
^ “It,” fem., referring to the “desert plain” in vs 1.
^ Or, “slack; drooping.”
^ Lit., “her,” possibly referring to a wild beast.
^ “And by no means will the unclean one pass along there; no unclean way will be there. But the dispersed ones will walk on it and will by no means go astray,” LXX; Sy, “And no uncleanness will pass along in it. And there will be no way beside it, and fools themselves will not wander about there”; Vgc, “No polluted one will pass over it, and this will be for you a direct way, so that the foolish ones may not err in it.”
^ “It,” masc., referring to the “highway” (Heb., mas·lulʹ, masc.).
^ Or, “and the Holy Way.” Heb., wedheʹrekh (fem.) haq·qoʹdhesh; Lat., viʹa sancʹta.
^ “It,” fem., referring to the “Way” (Heb., deʹrekh, fem.) in vs 8.
