Isaiah 35:3-10

35:3 Strengthen the hands that have gone limp,

steady the knees that shake! ¹ 

35:4 Tell those who panic, ² 

“Be strong! Do not fear!

Look, your God comes to avenge!

With divine retribution he comes to deliver you.” ³ 

35:5 Then blind eyes will open,

deaf ears will hear.

35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

the mute tongue will shout for joy;

for water will flow ⁴  in the desert,

streams in the wilderness. ⁵ 

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 

[35:3]  ¹ tn Heb “staggering knees”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “feeble knees”; NIV “knees that give way.”

[35:4]  ² tn Heb “Say to the hasty of heart,” i.e., those whose hearts beat quickly from fear.

[35:4]  ³ tn The jussive form וְיֹשַׁעֲכֶם (vÿyosha’akhem), which is subordinated to the preceding imperfect with vav conjunctive, indicates purpose.

[35:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “burst forth” (so NAB); KJV “break out.”

[35:6]  ⁵ tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); KJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT “desert.”

[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.”