Isaiah 35:1-2

The Land and Its People Are Transformed

35:1 Let the desert and dry region be happy; ¹ 

let the wilderness ²  rejoice and bloom like a lily!

35:2 Let it richly bloom; ³ 

let it rejoice and shout with delight! ⁴ 

It is given the grandeur ⁵  of Lebanon,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the grandeur of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

Isaiah 35:7-10

35:7 The dry soil will become a pool of water,

the parched ground springs of water.

Where jackals once lived and sprawled out,

grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow.

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.

35:9 No lions will be there,

no ferocious wild animals will be on it ⁹  –

they will not be found there.

Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

35:10 those whom the Lord has ransomed will return that way. ¹⁰ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ¹¹ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ¹²  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ¹³ 

Isaiah 41:18-19

41:18 I will make streams flow down the slopes

and produce springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will turn the desert into a pool of water

and the arid land into springs.

41:19 I will make cedars, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees grow in the wilderness;

I will make evergreens, firs, and cypresses grow together in the desert.

[35:1]  ¹ tn The final mem (ם) on the verb יְשֻׂשׂוּם (yÿsusum) is dittographic (note the initial mem on the following noun מִדְבָּר [midbar]). The ambiguous verbal form is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel). The jussive is used rhetorically here, not as a literal command or prayer.

[35:1]  ² tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); NAB, NIV, TEV “desert.”

[35:2]  ³ tn The ambiguous verb form תִּפְרַח (tifrakh) is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel).

[35:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and let it rejoice, yes [with] rejoicing and shouting.” גִּילַת (gilat) may be an archaic feminine nominal form (see GKC 421 §130.b).

[35:2]  ⁵ tn Or “glory” (KJV, NIV, NRSV); also a second time later in this verse.

[35:8]  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 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  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.

[35:8]  ⁸ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[35:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “will go up on it”; TEV “will pass that way.”

[35:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

[35:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[will be] on their head[s].” “Joy” may be likened here to a crown (cf. 2 Sam 1:10). The statement may also be an ironic twist on the idiom “earth/dust on the head” (cf. 2 Sam 1:2; 13:19; 15:32; Job 2:12), referring to a mourning practice.

[35:10]  ¹² tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

[35:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”