Isaiah 35


Isaiah 35 is the thirty-fifth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. This chapter continues a prophecy commenced in the previous chapter, and forms the final chapter in a group which the Jerusalem Bible calls a collection of "poems on Israel and Judah". The New [King James Version] entitles this chapter "The Future Glory of Zion".

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 10 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Isaiah Scroll, Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Isaiah 35 is a part of the Prophecies about Judah and Israel . : open parashah; : closed parashah.

Analysis

This chapter shares similar imagery with later parts of Isaiah, such as:
  • God's glory
  • Opening the eyes of the blind and healing the lame

    Verse 1

This verse uses three terms for desolate places: מִדְבָּר, צִיָּה, and עֲרָבָה. A midbar is an area that receives less than twelve inches of rain per year and may have some pasturage, but often has desert-like qualities. A tsiyyah does not refer to 'a sandy desert per se', but among the three terms 'most clearly indicates a dry, desert region'. The "rift valley" includes the Jordan Valley, yet 'it still has a reputation as a dry, desolate place from its conditions near the Dead Sea and southward'.
  • "Rose": is translated from the Hebrew word ḥăḇatzeleṯ, that occurs two times in the scriptures, beside in this verse also in Song of Songs 2:1, and rendered variously as "lily", "jonquil" and "crocus"

    Verse 4

The Hebrew wording refers to those "of a hasty heart". Albert Barnes associates the word with "those who are disposed to flee before their enemies".

Verse 5

Jesus cited this verse in claiming these prophecies to himself, when he spoke to the disciples of John the Baptist as recorded in Matthew 11:4, 5. Jesus performed the miracles of giving sight to the blind people multiple times, providing the proof that 'he was the Messiah sent from God'.

Verse [|6]

  • "The lame man leap as an hart": Compared to the healing of lame men by Christ or by Peter.

    Verse 10

  • "The ransomed of the Lord shall return": from Hebrew:
ופדויי יהוה ישבון, ū- , "And_the_ransomed of_Yahweh shall_return"; in combination with the last phrase of verse 9: "and the redeemed will walk, the ransomed of the Lord will return."
  • "On their heads": from Hebrew: על־ראשם, -, " on their head"; NET: "will crown them". "Joy" here is likened to a crown, which may also be 'an ironic twist on the idiom "earth/dust on the head", referring to a mourning practice'.
  • "They shall obtain": from Hebrew: ישיגו, , "will overtake" ; NLT: "they will be overcome with"; NET: "will overwhelm them".
  • "And sorrow and sighing shall flee away" : from Hebrew: ונסו יגון ואנחה, wə- wa-, "and_shall_flee_away sorrow and_sighing or "grief and groaning will flee"; NET: "grief and suffering will disappear".
The theme of "sorrow and sighing" can be linked to the elaboration in Isaiah 65.

Uses

Music

The Catholic theologian Friedrich Dörr based an Advent song, "Kündet allen in der Not", on verses from this chapter.
Verses 5–6 of the King [James Version] of this chapter are cited as texts in the English-language oratorio "Messiah" by George Frideric Handel.

Jewish

  • Christian

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