Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 35

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ... —The desolation of the chief enemy of Israel is contrasted with the renewed beauty of Israel’s own inheritance. The two last words are better omitted. The three nouns express varying degrees of the absence of culture, the wild pasture-land, the bare moor, the sandy steppe.

Shall ... blossom as the rose. —Better, as the narcissus, but the primrose and the crocus (Colchicum autumnale) have also been suggested. The words paint the beauty of the chosen land flourishing once more as the garden of Jehovah (Genesis 13:10), and therefore a fit type of that which is in a yet higher sense the Paradise of God (Revelation 2:7).

The glory of Lebanon ...—The three types of cultivated beauty are contrasted with the former three of desolation. See Note on Isaiah 33:9. And over this fair land of transcendent beauty, there will shine not the common light of day, but the glory of Jehovah. (Revelation 21:23.)

Strengthen ye the weak hands ... —Here the words are obviously, as they are quoted in Hebrews 12:12, figurative and not literal, and thus suggest a similar interpretation for what follows.

Be strong, fear not: ... — The words are, of course, wide and general enough, but looking to the probable date of this section, we may perhaps connect them with the tone of Hezekiah’s speech in 2 Chronicles 32:7. Both king and prophet had the same words of comfort for the feeble and faint-hearted, and the ground of comfort is that the government of God is essentially a righteous government, punishing the oppressor, and saving the oppressed .

Then the eyes of the blind shall ... — The words are obviously to be interpreted, like those that precede them, and Isaiah 29:18, of spiritual infirmities. If they seem to find a literal fulfilment in the miracles of the Christ, it is, as it were, ex abundante, and as a pledge and earnest of something beyond themselves.