What does Isaias Chapter 35 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The account retains the chapter’s particular images, requests and conditions. The speaker’s claims and the edition’s interpretations remain attributed. Unstated motives and general guarantees are not supplied as source facts.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 35 describes desolate, impassable land rejoicing and flowering like a lily. Libanus's glory and Carmel and Saron's beauty accompany the sight of the Lord's glory. Weak hands and feeble knees are to be strengthened; the fainthearted are told to take courage because God comes with revenge and recompense to save.

Blind eyes open, deaf ears are unstopped, the lame leap like a hart and the tongue of the dumb is free. Waters and streams arise in desert; dry land becomes a pool and thirsty land springs. Dens formerly occupied by dragons receive reed and bulrush. These images are reported as the oracle gives them, without supplying clinical diagnoses or substituting jackals and papyrus.

A pathway called holy excludes the unclean. It is straight enough that fools do not err; lion and mischievous beast are absent and the delivered walk there. The redeemed return to Sion with praise and everlasting joy, while sorrow and mourning flee. The edition heading reads this through the kingdom of Christ and his Church. That interpretation remains identified as edition material, and the passage is not converted into a contemporary promise of limitless health.

The story inside

Opening: The account retains the chapter’s particular images, requests and conditions. Development: The speaker’s claims and the edition’s interpretations remain attributed. Conclusion: Unstated motives and general guarantees are not supplied as source facts.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The account retains the chapter’s particular images, requests and conditions.
2
The speaker’s claims and the edition’s interpretations remain attributed.
3
Unstated motives and general guarantees are not supplied as source facts.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 81363–81374
35:1. The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily. 35:2. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God. 35:3. Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees. 35:4. Say to the fainthearted: Take courage, and fear not: behold your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God himself will come and will save you.
Lines 81376–81385
35:5. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 35:6. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness. 35:7. And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush.
Lines 81387–81397
35:8. And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein. 35:9. No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk there that shall be delivered. 35:10. And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.