God will come to their old, will avenge them o.11 placeB. Shl\11 be grass with reeds and of their spiritual enemies, rewe.rd their rushes; i.e. "shall be a. luxuriant vegota.- efforts to serve him, o.nd in the end " ee.ve" tion, like that on the banks of the Nile" them, He will oome e.nd save you; re.ther, (comp. vere. I, 2). 11e will come 1,imself to eave you. There is Ver. 8.-And e.n highwe.y shall be there, One a.lone who can ee.ve, e.nd he muat do it e.nd e. we.y (comp. eh. xxx. 21). Th~re shall himae{f, o.nd, to do it, he muat " come " to be a clear " way" marked out in which an us. The words were at once e.n announce- shall be bound to walk - a "strait and ment of the Ince.rno.tion, and a promise to narrow way" doubtless (Matt. vii. 14), but every trembling, doubting heo.rt-a promise one not readily missed. The way shall be of direct Divine e.esietn.nce, of the presence called The way of holinen. It shall be that of God within us, of help potent to save. path through the dangere and difficulties or The prodomino.nt thought of the prophet life which holiness point.a ont and requires. appears to he.ve been Messianic, and hence The unolee.n shall not pe.se over it. It is the burst of glorious prophecy which follows tempting to imagine that there is here a refer- -a burst of prophecy most inadequately ex- ence lo the famous chinvat peTetu of the Zoro- pounded of the time of the return from the astrians-the" bridge of the gatherer "-along Captivity. which all souls he.d to pass in order to reach Vere. 5, 6.-Then the eyes of the blind shall the abo<le of the blessed, but which the souls be opened. In the literal sense, our Lord of the wicked never succeeded in passing claims these prophecies to himself and his (' Ancient Monarchies,' vol. ii. p. 339). The earthly career, when he says to the disciples 'bridge of the gatherer " is, however, in the of John the Baptist, "Go and show John other world, not in this worl<l ; but Isaiah's those things which ye do hear e.nd Boe, the " high way" is here. It is that right course blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, of life, which "the unclean" do not follow, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear" though they might do so if they chose, but (Matt. xl. 4, 5) ; but they have doubtless a which the righteoua follow to their great further spiritual sense, in which they belong gain and ad vantage. :But it shall be for tothewholeperiodofhismedie.toria.lkingdom, those; rather, as in the margin, but he ,hall and are correlative to former utterances of the be with them ; God, i.e. shall be with those prophet, in which the blinded eyes and deaf who seek to walk in the way, and not to err ears and stammering tongues of God's people from it. He shall direct them, support bad been spoken of and made the subject of them, sustain their footsteps. The wayfa.ring complaint (see eh. vi. 10; xxix. 10, etc.). men; rather, they that walk in the way-that Our Lord's miracles of bodily healing, per- make up their minds to try to walk in it. formed during the three years of his ee.rthly Though fools ; i.e. however simple and un- ministry, were types and foreshadowings of learned they may be-" Ne simplicissimi qui- those far more precious miracles of spiritual dem " (Rosenmiiller). Shall not err therein ; healing, which the great Physician is ever shall not wander from the way through mere performing on the sick and infirm of his simplicity. It aha.11 be easy to find, difficult Church, by opening the eyes of their under- to miss. standings, and unstopping the deaf ears of Ver. 9.-No lion shall be there. No great their. hearts, and loosening the strings of tyrannicnl power, like Assyria (Nab. ii. 11, their tongues to hymn his praise, nnd stirring 12) or Babylon, shall arrest the energies of their paralyzed spiritual natures to active the Church, take it captive, or enslave it. exertions in hie service. Doubtless Isaiah, No ravencus beast ehall make it his prey. or the Spirit which guide1l him, intended to In proportion as the Church is holy (ver. 8) point to both these classes of miracles, !Llld it sbnll be freo from the molestation of not to one of them only, ns characteristic of bloody persecutors (see eh. xi. 9). The re- the Messiah's kingdom. deemed-those whom God hns purchased for Ver. 6.-For in the wildemeee she.11 we.ters his own (ExocL vi. 6; Hos. xiii. 14)-shall break out. The wilderness of humanity sho.11 be free to walk there, untroubleu by cruel be renovated by a large effluence of God's enemies. There is nn under-current of com- grnoe (oomp. eh. xx.x. 25; xxxii. 2; xii. parison between the blessedness of the lust 18; xliii. 19; John vii. 37, 38). times nnd the existing troubles of l~rael, still Ver. 7.-The pe.rohed ground shall beoome, threntened by Sennucherib. etc.; rather, the glistening sand. That hot Ver. 10.-The ransomed of the Lord she.11 glow of the parched desert soil, which pro- return. The blesseuness of the Inst times duces tho mirage, shall be replnced by a reo.1 would be incomplete to Jewish ideas wilbout lake of cool water. Illusivo imitntions of this crowning feature. There ha,l alr'lady goodness shall givo way to tho displBy of been a grl'nt dispersion of the faitl,J'ul (eh. i. genuine virtues and oxcellonces. In the 7-9); !hero wus (o Lo a still grouter ono habitation of dragons; or, according to some, (eh. xi. 11); lsruel coulu !Jot be <'ontcnt or of jackals-the driest and most desolu.te of hnppy until her "out,,aste" were reco.lled, 670 THE OOOK OF THE l'ROPl:IET ISA1Atl. [on. ll.xv, 1-10.
"the dispersed of Jud11,h g11tho;cd together ver, 2). Everlaeting joy upon their head•i from the four oomol'll of the earth" (oh. xi. Anointed, as it we1-e1 with." the .oil of glnd• 12 ). The return here prophesied is age.in an- ness" (Ps. xlv. 7) for ever o.nd ovor, 'Borrow 110uneed, in olmost the same words, in oh. and sighing shall flee away (comp; oh. xxv, Ii. ll. Wi\h songa (see the eommeot on 8 ; liev. vii. 17; :ui. 4). '•