Isaiah 42:16

42:16 I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way; ¹ 

I will guide them down paths they have never traveled. ² 

I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,

and level out the rough ground. ³ 

This is what I will do for them.

I will not abandon them.

Isaiah 45:2

45:2 “I will go before you

and level mountains. ⁴ 

Bronze doors I will shatter

and iron bars ⁵  I will hack through.

Hebrews 12:12-13

12:12 Therefore, strengthen ⁶  your listless hands and your weak knees, ⁷  12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, ⁸  so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but be healed.

¹ tn Heb “a way they do not know” (so NASB); NRSV “a road they do not know.”

² tn Heb “in paths they do not know I will make them walk.”

³ tn Heb “and the rough ground into a level place.”

⁴ tc The form הֲדוּרִים (hadurim) makes little, if any, sense here. It is probably a corruption of an original הָרָרִים (hararim, “mountains”), the reduplicated form of הָר (har, “mountain”).

⁵ tn That is, on the gates. Cf. CEV “break the iron bars on bronze gates.”

⁶ tn Or “straighten.”

⁷ sn A quotation from Isa 35:3. Strengthen your listless hands and your weak knees refers to the readers’ need for renewed resolve and fresh strength in their struggles (cf. Heb 10:36-39; 12:1-3).

⁸ sn A quotation from Prov 4:26. The phrase make straight paths for your feet is figurative for “stay on God’s paths.”