35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –
it will be called the Way of Holiness. 6
The unclean will not travel on it;
it is reserved for those authorized to use it 7 –
fools 8 will not stray into it.
1 tn Heb “and it will be in that day.” The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
2 tn Traditionally, “great” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT); CEV “loud.”
3 tn Or “the ones perishing.”
4 tn Or “the ones driven into.”
5 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
6 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.
7 tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.
8 tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.