Psalms 107:4

107:4 They wandered through the wilderness on a desert road;

they found no city in which to live.

Psalms 107:7

107:7 He led them on a level road, ¹ 

that they might find a city in which to live.

Isaiah 35:8-10

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ² 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ³  –

fools ⁴  will not stray into it.

35:9 No lions will be there,

no ferocious wild animals will be on it ⁵  –

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. ⁶ 

They will enter Zion with a happy shout.

Unending joy will crown them, ⁷ 

happiness and joy will overwhelm ⁸  them;

grief and suffering will disappear. ⁹ 

Jeremiah 50:4-5

50:4 “When that time comes,” says the Lord, ¹⁰ 

“the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together.

They will come back with tears of repentance

as they seek the Lord their God. ¹¹ 

50:5 They will ask the way to Zion;

they will turn their faces toward it.

They will come ¹²  and bind themselves to the Lord

in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ¹³ 

[107:7]  ¹ sn A level road. See Jer 31:9.

[35:8]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[35:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “will go up on it”; TEV “will pass that way.”

[35:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return.”

[35:10]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “will overtake” (NIV); NLT “they will be overcome with.”

[35:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “grief and groaning will flee”; KJV “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

[50:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[50:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together. They shall go, weeping as they go, and they will seek the Lord their God.” The concept of “seeking” the Lord often has to do with seeking the Lord in worship (by sacrifice [Hos 5:6; 2 Chr 11:16]; prayer [Zech 8:21, 22; 2 Sam 12:16; Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:4]). In Hos 7:10 it is in parallel with returning to the Lord. In Ps 69:6 it is in parallel with hoping in or trusting in the Lord. Perhaps the most helpful parallels here, however, are Hos 3:5 (in comparison with Jer 30:9) and 2 Chr 15:15 where it is in the context of a covenant commitment to be loyal to the Lord which is similar to the context here (see the next verse). The translation is admittedly paraphrastic but “seeking the Lord” does not mean here looking for God as though he were merely a person to be found.

[50:5]  ¹² tc The translation here assumes that the Hebrew בֹּאוּ (bo’u; a Qal imperative masculine plural) should be read בָּאוּ (ba’u; a Qal perfect third plural). This reading is presupposed by the Greek version of Aquila, the Latin version, and the Targum (see BHS note a, which mistakenly assumes that the form must be imperfect).

[50:5]  ¹³ sn See Jer 32:40 and the study note there for the nature of this lasting agreement.