Isaiah 35
1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
2 It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Lebanon’s glory will be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They will see Yahweh’s glory, the excellence of our God.
3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong. Don’t be afraid. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the habitation of jackals, where they lay, grass with reeds and rushes will be.
8 A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not pass over it; but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wayfaring men, yes fools, will not err therein.
9 No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.
10 The ransomed of Yahweh will return, and come with singing to Zion. Everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 35 Commentary
Chapter Overview
Isaiah 35 is the joyful answer to the desolation of Isaiah 34. The wilderness that seemed abandoned blossoms, weakened people receive strength, impaired bodies are restored, and a safe highway carries the redeemed home. Judgment is not God’s final purpose; he removes evil so that life, worship, and gladness can flourish.
The chapter looks back to Israel’s deliverance from bondage, speaks hope to people facing exile, and reaches forward to the Messiah’s saving work and the renewal of creation. Its images belong together: God comes, the land changes, people are healed, the dangerous road becomes secure, and sorrow gives way to everlasting joy in Zion.
Key Themes
The wilderness does not revive through improved human planning. It rejoices because God acts. Throughout Isaiah, barren land pictures conditions in which ordinary resources cannot create a future. When the desert blossoms, the transformation announces grace: the Lord can bring beauty, fruitfulness, and praise from circumstances that appear exhausted beyond recovery.
Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon were associated with impressive forests, fertile slopes, and rich pasture. Verse 2 says their glory will be given to the desert. The point is more than agricultural abundance. Places once marked by barrenness will display a beauty comparable to the finest regions known to Isaiah’s hearers.
The renewed land will reveal “Yahweh’s glory” and “the excellence of our God.” Creation becomes a witness to its Creator. The chapter therefore does not invite people merely to admire nature; it teaches them to recognize the Lord whose presence makes restoration possible. His beauty is the source of every lesser beauty.
Verses 3–4 address the faithful community before describing further miracles. Strong believers are told to strengthen weak hands and steady feeble knees. Hope is not meant to remain private. Those able to stand are responsible to support those whose courage is failing, a command echoed in Hebrews 12.
The fearful are not scolded for feeling afraid. They are given a reason for courage: “Behold, your God will come.” Biblical encouragement does not deny danger or demand cheerful feelings without evidence. It directs frightened hearts away from the apparent strength of the threat and toward the certain coming of God. This same announcement, “Behold, your God,” opens the comfort of Isaiah 40.
God comes with vengeance and retribution, yet the sentence ends, “He will come and save you.” The same arrival means judgment for oppressors and deliverance for those they harm. Divine vengeance here is not uncontrolled anger or permission for personal revenge. It is God’s just intervention to end evil and rescue its victims.
Blind eyes, deaf ears, lame legs, and mute tongues represent comprehensive restoration. Conditions that prevent people from seeing, hearing, moving, or singing are reversed. The images also answer the spiritual blindness and deafness repeatedly exposed earlier in Isaiah. God heals both human brokenness and the inability to respond rightly to him.
When John the Baptist asked whether Jesus was the promised one, Jesus pointed to works including sight for the blind, hearing for the deaf, and walking for the lame in Matthew 11. His miracles showed that Isaiah’s promised salvation had begun to arrive in the Messiah, even though its complete renewal still awaits his final victory.
Waters breaking out in the wilderness recall God providing for Israel in the desert and anticipate later promises such as Isaiah 41 and Isaiah 43. The new deliverance resembles a new exodus, but it is greater: the wilderness itself is transformed rather than merely crossed.
The “burning sand” may describe ground shimmering like water in the heat. What looked like a pool but offered nothing will become real water. God replaces deceptive hope with genuine provision. The thirsty ground, jackals’ habitat, and empty wilderness become springs, reeds, and rushes—visible evidence that the curse is being reversed.
A highway appears through the renewed landscape and is named the Way of Holiness. Ancient travelers feared losing the path, encountering robbers, or being attacked by animals. God’s road removes those threats. More importantly, it leads a sanctified people toward Zion, showing that restoration includes ordered access to God’s presence and worship.
The unclean do not travel this highway, but the statement should not be used to portray God as unwilling to receive repentant sinners. The travelers are themselves “the redeemed” and “the ransomed.” Their holiness is the result of God’s saving claim on them, and the road expresses the new life appropriate to those he has rescued.
The wording about wayfaring people and fools is difficult, but its force is reassuring: those appointed to the road will not wander away. The route is so clearly provided and divinely guarded that even inexperienced travelers reach their destination. Salvation depends on God’s reliable guidance, not on exceptional human skill.
No lion or ravenous beast threatens the travelers. The promise reverses the dangers associated with wilderness and exile. In Isaiah 11, hostile creatures live peacefully under the Messiah’s rule; here they are absent from the highway. Both pictures communicate security created by God’s reign.
“Redeemed” and “ransomed” use the language of release from bondage or recovery from another’s possession. God does not abandon people claimed by oppression, sin, or exile. He acts as their rightful Redeemer, pays the necessary cost, breaks the captor’s claim, and brings his people into freedom under his own care.
The ransomed return to Zion with singing, echoing the exodus while anticipating the return from exile described in Isaiah 51 and Isaiah 52. Their destination is not merely safer territory. They come to the place associated with God’s presence, gathered worship, and the reign of his chosen King.
Everlasting joy rests “on their heads” like a crown. Gladness is no longer a brief interruption in a life ruled by fear. Sorrow and sighing flee as defeated enemies. The language reaches beyond any temporary national recovery toward the final salvation in which everything that produces grief is permanently removed.
Important Verses and Questions
Is Isaiah 35 describing a literal desert or using symbolism? The language can include real renewal of land, but it also communicates the restoration of people and creation under God’s saving rule. Isaiah often joins physical and spiritual realities. The safest reading does not force a choice: transformed landscape visibly expresses a transformed world.
What does “vengeance” mean in verse 4? It means God’s measured answer to evil and his defense of those who have suffered. The verse does not authorize believers to satisfy personal grudges. Because judgment belongs to God, fearful people can refuse both despair and revenge while trusting him to put wrongs right.
Why are healing miracles central to the promise? They show that salvation reaches embodied human life. God is not indifferent to disability, pain, or exclusion. The miracles of Jesus provided real compassion to individuals and signs of the coming kingdom, when every effect of sin and death will finally be overcome.
Did Jesus completely fulfill Isaiah 35 during his earthly ministry? He decisively inaugurated its promise through his presence, teaching, healings, death, and resurrection. Yet deserts still suffer drought, bodies still fail, and sorrow remains. Christians therefore read the chapter with both present confidence in Christ and future expectation of complete restoration.
What is the Way of Holiness? In the chapter’s imagery, it is God’s protected road for the redeemed returning to Zion. Theologically, it portrays the life and destination of people set apart for God. It is not a path by which moral achievement purchases redemption; the ransomed walk it because God has already rescued them.
How can “fools” avoid going astray? The emphasis is on the road’s clarity and God’s protection, not on praising foolishness. The Lord is able to guide ordinary, weak, and inexperienced people. No one reaches Zion by intellectual brilliance alone, and no redeemed traveler is lost because another person possesses greater ability.
Who are the ransomed of the Lord? In Isaiah’s immediate horizon, they include God’s covenant people brought home from oppression and exile. Within the Bible’s larger message, the phrase embraces all whom God redeems through Christ. Their shared identity rests not in ethnicity, achievement, or suffering, but in belonging to their Redeemer.
Is Zion only the earthly city of Jerusalem? Historical Jerusalem stands in the foreground, especially as the destination of returning exiles. Yet Isaiah also uses Zion for the restored center of God’s reign. The chapter’s everlasting joy points beyond any temporary return toward the final dwelling of God with his redeemed people.
Practical Applications
Strengthen weak hands instead of criticizing them. A fearful believer may need companionship, practical help, patient truth, or repeated reassurance. Isaiah calls the community to become an instrument of God’s encouragement, helping exhausted people continue toward the hope they cannot presently see clearly on their own.
Ground courage in God’s character and promised action. “Do not be afraid” becomes more than a slogan because it is followed by “your God will come.” Faith does not pretend that threats are harmless. It measures every threat against the justice, presence, and saving power of the Lord.
Walk in holiness as a redeemed person, not as someone trying to earn redemption. God’s highway has a moral direction, but its travelers are already called ransomed. Obedience is the fitting journey of people who belong to the Lord, sustained by gratitude and guided toward deeper fellowship with him.
Honor the chapter’s bodily hope. Christians should pray for healing, remove needless barriers, value disabled people as full members of the community, and refuse language that treats present weakness as spiritual failure. Final healing belongs to God’s kingdom, while compassion and inclusion belong to his people now.
Remember that salvation is a shared journey. The chapter pictures a company of redeemed travelers singing together, not isolated individuals inventing separate roads. Churches should help people discern the path, carry burdens, resist dangers, and practice the worship that anticipates arrival in God’s joyful presence.
Let the promised ending reshape present grief. Isaiah does not deny sorrow and sighing; he announces that they will flee. Believers may lament honestly while refusing to treat pain as permanent. The Redeemer is leading his people toward a future where holiness is safe, creation is fruitful, bodies are whole, and joy endures.