This chapter is a prediction of the glory and flourishing estate of the Gospel church, and of the blessings received by it from Christ. Its flourishing state is expressed by the fruitfulness of the desert, being made like to Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon; and by the inhabitants of it seeing the glory…

The wilderness, and the solitary place, shall be glad for them Either for the wild beasts, satyrs, owls, and vultures, that shall inhabit Edom or Rome, and because it shall be an habitation for them: or they shall be glad for them, the Edomites, and for the destruction of them; that is, as the…

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing A redundancy of words, to express the very flourishing estate of the church, and the great joy there shall be on that occasion, as well as because of the destruction of their enemies, and deliverance from them: the glory of Lebanon…

Strengthen ye the weak hands These are the words of the prophet, as the Targum, “the prophet said, strengthen the weak hands;” or rather of God, by the prophet, to the converted Gentiles, to those who saw the glory of the Lord; particularly to the ministers of the Gospel, who have to do with weak…

Say to them that are of a fearful heart Or, “hasty of heart” [[21]]; are at once for flying from the enemy; “hasty” in drawing black conclusions upon themselves and their state; “inconsiderate” of the promises made unto them; ready to doubt of, and call in question, the performance of the above…

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened Which was literally fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, (John 9:1, John 9:30) and spiritually, both among Jews and Gentiles; especially the latter, under the ministry of the apostles, when those who were blind as to spiritual things had no knowledge…

Then shall the lame man leap as an hart. &c.] As the lame man did healed by Peter, (Acts 3:1, Acts 3:8) there were many instances of such persons cured by Christ when here on earth, (Matt. 15:30, Matt.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water Such persons who have been like the parched earth, barren and unfruitful, or like the earth scorched with the sun, filled with a sense of divine wrath, and thirsting, like the dry earth, after the grace of God,…

And an highway shall be there, and a way Not two ways, but one; the way shall be a highway, a way cast up, raised, and “elevated” [[23]]; this is to be understood principally of Christ, the only way of life and salvation; and of the lesser paths of duty and ordinances: and the meaning is, that in…

No lion shall be there That is, in the way before described; no wicked persons, comparable to lions for their savage and cruel dispositions towards the people of God; for those who have been as such, as Saul before conversion, yet when brought into this way become as tame as lambs.

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return The same with the “redeemed” in these shall return, or be converted, as the Vulgate Latin version; they are in the same state and condition with other men by nature, but, by virtue of their being ransomed by Christ, they are by the grace of God turned from…