Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

“Isaiah also alludes to him: "There shall go forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall grow up from his root." The same also when he says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." He refers to him when he enumerates the healings that were to proceed from him, saying, "Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear. Then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall be eloquent." Him also, when he sets forth the virtue of patience, saying, "His voice shall not be heard in the streets; a bruised reed shall he not destroy, and the smoking flax shall he not quench."”

“And Isaiah went on to tell of other marvels and showed how Christ cured the lame, how he made the blind to see, and the mute to speak: "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, then will the ears of the deaf hear." And thereafter he spoke of the other marvels: "Then will the lame man leap like a stag, and the tongue of those with impediments of speech will be clear and distinct." And this did not happen until his coming.”

“"God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," and the Creator himself was wearing the creature which was to be restored to the image of its Creator. And after the divinely miraculous works had been performed, the performance of which the spirit of prophecy had once predicted, "then shall the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly."”

“the eyes of the blind shall be opened Those who were blind, not to recognize (lit., from recognizing) their fear (sic) ([Warsaw:] this fear;) ([mss.] My fear) upon them. and the ears of the deaf Who did not hearken to the voice of the prophets until now, will be opened and unstopped, for I will give them a proper spirit to fear Me. He says this concerning Israel, whom he called blind and deaf, as the matter is stated (infra 42:18) “You deaf ones, hearken, etc.””

“The desert shall rejoice, etc. In this part he sets down the effect of the prosperity following upon the Jews from the destruction of their enemies: and it is divided into two. In the first is set down a consoling promise; in the second an encouraging exhortation, "Strengthen ye the hands," etc. Concerning the first, three things. First he sets down the gladness of men, which he compares to a flowering meadow, which is also called laughing, and which indeed has beauty in its flower: hence he says: "the desert," that is, the land of the Jews, which before, the Assyrians laying it waste, was of this kind — by metonymy, that is, the men themselves — "like the lily," which is the most beautiful flower, and lasts long. Ecclesiasticus 39: "flourish, ye flowers," etc.; it has also beauty in the bud: hence he says, "budding," etc., Proverbs 11: "the just as one flourishing," etc.: for as the bud comes from the flower, so exterior gladness comes from the joy of the heart. Secondly he promises the fertility of the land: "the glory of Lebanon," etc., that is, the fertility of diverse things, which is the glory of these places, will be in the land of promise. Hosea, last chapter: "he shall be as the olive tree," etc. Thirdly, the nearness of both: "themselves," that is, it will not be deferred to the times of the sons. Above, 33: "the king in his beauty," etc. Strengthen ye. Here is set down the encouraging exhortation: and concerning this three things. And first is set down the injunction of the office for exhorting: "strengthen ye the hands," in which is weakness for working; "the trembling knees," in which is weakness for sustaining. Hebrews 12: "the hands that hang down," etc. Secondly is set down the encouragement itself: "say to the faint-hearted," etc. Luke 12: "fear not, little," etc. Thirdly the reason for the encouragement is assigned: and first as to the removal of evils, by freeing from enemies, "behold your God"; Deuteronomy 32: "the blood of the servants," etc.; and by healing from infirmities, "then shall be opened." And these are metaphorical expressions, if they are referred to the time after the destruction of the Assyrians, so that spiritual defects are understood, as above. Or literally, if they are referred to the coming of Christ in the flesh, as is said Matthew 11: "the blind see," etc. Secondly as to the conferring of four goods. First as to the abundance of waters, because "the waters are broken" (metaphorically) for consolations. Or because it will rain much, so that there is great fertility. Psalm 106: "he turned the desert into pools," etc. Secondly the beauty of the fields: "in the dens," that is, the land, which before was desert, so that these animals might dwell there, will be cultivated. "The green of reed and rush," which arise in green places. Job 40: "he sleeps under the shadow," etc. Thirdly as to the restoration of the ways, setting down the holiness of the way: "and there shall be there," in the land of Judah, a path leading to the temple. "The polluted," the gentile, as before. Or mystically, concerning the Church militant or triumphant. Apocalypse 21: "there shall not enter into it," etc.; he also sets down its straightness: "and this shall be"; "the foolish," that is, however simple, shall not err, because of the multitude of those passing by. Jeremiah 31: "I will bring them by the torrents," etc.; he also sets down the security of the way: "there shall not be there," etc. Above, 11: "they shall not hurt nor kill," etc.; and he sets down the frequenting of the ways: "and the redeemed," etc., from the aforesaid dangers. Baruch 4: "behold, thy sons come," etc. Fourthly he promises them the gladness of hearts: "everlasting gladness." Above, 25: "he shall take away the tear," etc.; is also shown the condition of the gladness of the saints in the fatherland: that it is everlasting; that it is full, "they shall obtain"; that it is pure, "sorrow shall flee." Apocalypse 21: "God shall wipe away every tear," etc. The saints are compared to lilies: because of the height of the stem, from which comes constancy in adversities. Canticle 2: "as the lily among thorns," etc.; because of the sweetness of scent, from which comes good fame. Ecclesiasticus 39: "flourish, ye flowers, as the lily," etc.; because of the greenness of its moisture, from which comes strength of mind. Ecclesiasticus 50: "as lilies by the course of water." Because of connection, from which comes the charity of the saints. Canticle 7: "thy belly is like," etc. These lilies, Christ: he clothes them as to the gifts of the virtues. Matthew 6: "consider the lilies of the field," etc.; he gathers them unto eternal rewards. Canticle 6: "my beloved is gone down into the garden," etc.; he rests in them through good pleasure. Canticle 2: "my beloved to me," etc.; and therefore he himself the lily. Canticle 2: "I am the flower of the field," etc.”

“"Then, when your God shall come, even Christ, to set up his kingdom in the world, to which all the prophets bore witness, especially towards the conclusion of their prophecies of the temporal deliverances of the church, and this evangelical prophet especially - then look for great things." I. Wonders shall be wrought in the kingdoms both of nature and grace, wonders of mercy wrought upon the children of men, sufficient to evince that it is no less than a God that comes to us. 1. Wonders shall be wrought on men's bodies (Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6): The eyes of the blind shall be opened; this was often done by our Lord Jesus when he was here upon earth, with a word's speaking, and one he gave sight to that was born blind, Mat 9:27; Mat 12:22; Mat 20:30; Joh 9:6. By his power the ears of the deaf also were unstopped, with one word. Ephphatha - Be opened, Mar 7:34. Many that were lame had the use of their limbs restored so perfectly that they could not only go, but leap, and with so much joy to them that they could not forbear leaping for joy, as that impotent man, Act 3:8. The dumb also were enabled to speak, and then no marvel that they were disposed to sing for joy, Mat 9:32, Mat 9:33. These miracles Christ wrought to prove that he was sent of God (Joh 3:2), nay, working them by his own power and in his own name, he proved that he was God, the same who at first made man's mouth, the hearing ear, and the seeing eye. When he would prove to John's disciples his divine mission he did it by miracles of this kind, in which this scripture was fulfilled. 2. Wonders, greater wonders, shall be wrought on men's souls. By the word and Spirit of Christ those that were spiritually blind were enlightened (Act 26:18), those that were deaf to the calls of God were made to hear them readily, so Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, so that she attended, Act 16:14. Those that were impotent to every thing that is good by divine grace are made, not only able for it, but active in it, and run the way of God's commandments. Those also that were dumb, and knew not how to speak of God or to God, having their understandings opened to know him, shall thereby have their lips opened to show forth his praise. The tongue of the dumb shall sing for joy, the joy of God's salvation. Praise shall be perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. II. The Spirit shall be poured out from on high. There shall be waters and streams, rivers of living water; when our Saviour spoke of these as the fulfilling of the scripture, and most probably of this scripture, the evangelist tells us, He spoke of the Spirit (Joh 7:38, Joh 7:39), as does also this prophet (ch. 32:15); so here (Isa 35:6), in the wilderness, where one would least expect it, shall waters break out. This was fulfilled when the Holy Ghost fell upon the Gentiles that heard the word (Act 10:44); then were the fountains of life opened, whence streams flowed, that watered the earth abundantly. These waters are said to break out, which denotes a pleasing surprise to the Gentile world, such as brought them, as it were, into a new world. The blessed effect of this shall be that the parched ground shall become a pool, Isa 35:7. Those that laboured and were heavily laden, under the burden of guilt, and were scorched with the sense of divine wrath, found rest, and refreshment, and abundant comforts in the gospel. In the thirsty land, where no water was, nor ordinances (Psa 63:1), there shall be springs of water, a gospel ministry, and by that the administration of all gospel ordinances in their purity and plenty, which are the river that makes glad the city of our God, Psa 46:4. In the habitation of dragons, who chose to dwell in the parched scorched ground (Isa 34:9, Isa 34:13), these waters shall flow, and dispossess them, so that, where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes, great plenty of useful productions. Thus it was when Christian churches were planted, and flourished greatly, in the cities of the Gentiles, which, for many ages, had been habitations of dragons, or devils rather, as Babylon (Rev 18:2); when the property of the idols' temples was altered, and they were converted to the service of Christianity, then the habitations of dragons became fruitful fields. III. The way of religion and godliness shall be laid open: it is here called the way of holiness (Isa 35:8) the way both of holy worship and a holy conversation. Holiness is the rectitude of the human nature and will, in conformity to the divine nature and will. The way of holiness is that course of religious duties in which men ought to walk and press forward, with an eye to the glory of God and their own felicity in the enjoyment of him. "When our God shall come to save us he shall chalk out to us this way by his gospel, so as it had never been before described." 1. It shall be an appointed way; not a way of sufferance, but a highway, a way into which we are directed by a divine authority and in which we are protected by a divine warrant. It is the King's highway, the King of Kings' highway, in which, though we may be waylaid, we cannot be stopped. The way of holiness is the way of God's commandments; it is (as highways usually are) the good old way, Jer 6:16. 2. It shall be an appropriated way, the way in which God will bring his own chosen to himself, but the unclean shall not pass over it, either to defile it or to disturb those that walk in it. It is a way by itself, distinguished from the way of the world, for it is a way of separation from, and nonconformity to, this world. It shall be for those whom the Lord has set apart for himself (Psa 4:3), shall be reserved for them: The redeemed shall walk there, and the satisfaction they take in these ways of pleasantness shall be out of the reach of molestation from an evil world. The unclean shall not pass over it, for it shall be a fair way; those that walk in it are the undefiled in the way, who escape the pollution that is in the world. 3. It shall be a straight way: The wayfaring men, who choose to travel in it, though fools, of weak capacity in other things, shall have such plain directions from the word and Spirit of God in this way that they shall not err therein; not that they shall be infallible even in their own conduct, or that they shall in nothing mistake, but they shall not be guilty of any fatal misconduct, shall not so miss their way but that they shall recover it again, and get well to their journey's end. Those that are in the narrow way, though some may fall into one path and others into another, not all equally right, but all meeting at last in the same end, shall yet never fall into the broad way again; the Spirit of truth shall lead them into all truth that is necessary for them. Note, The way to heaven is a plain way, and easy to hit. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, and made them wise to salvation. Knowledge is easy to him that understands. 4. It shall be a safe way: No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast (Isa 35:9), none to hurt or destroy. Those that keep close to this way keep out of the reach of Satan the roaring lion, that wicked one touches them not. Those that walk in the way of holiness may proceed with a holy security and serenity of mind, knowing that nothing can do them any real hurt; they shall be quiet from the fear of evil. It was in Hezekiah's days, some time after the captivity of the ten tribes, that God, being displeased with the colonies settled there, sent lions among them, Kg2 17:25. But Judah keeps her integrity, and therefore no lions shall be there. Those that walk in the way of holiness must separate themselves from the unclean and the ravenous, must save themselves from an untoward generation; hoping that they themselves are of the redeemed, let them walk with the redeemed who shall walk there. IV. The end of this way shall be everlasting joy, Isa 35:10. This precious promise of peace now will end shortly in endless joys and rest for the soul. Here is good news for the citizens of Zion, rest to the weary: The ransomed of the Lord, who therefore ought to follow him wherever he goes (Rev 14:4), shall return and come to Zion, 1. To serve and worship God in the church militant: they shall deliver themselves out of Babylon (Zac 2:7), shall ask the way to Zion (Jer 50:5), and shall find the way Isa 52:12. God will open to them a door of escape out of their captivity, and it shall be an effectual door, though there be many adversaries. They shall join themselves to the gospel church, that Mount Zion, that city of the living God, Heb 12:22. They shall come with songs of joy and praise for their deliverance out of Babylon, where they wept upon every remembrance of Zion, Psa 137:1. Those that by faith are made citizens of the gospel Zion may go on their way rejoicing (Act 8:39); they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, and be still praising him. They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and the sorrows and signs of their convictions are made to flee away by the power of divine consolations. Those that mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted. 2. To see and enjoy God in the church triumphant; those that walk in the way of holiness, under guidance of their Redeemer, shall come to Zion at last, to the heavenly Zion, shall come in a body, shall all be presented together, faultless, at the coming of Christ's glory with exceeding joy (Jde 1:24; Rev 7:17); they shall come with songs. When God's people returned out of Babylon to Zion they came weeping (Jer 50:4); but they shall come to heaven singing a new song, which no man can learn, Rev 14:3. When they shall enter into the joy of their Lord it shall be what the joys of this world never could be everlasting joy, without mixture, interruption, or period. It shall not only fill their hearts, to their own perfect and perpetual satisfaction, but it shall be upon their heads, as an ornament of grace and a crown of glory, as a garland worn in token of victory. Their joy shall be visible, and no longer a secret thing, as it is here in this world; it shall be proclaimed, to the glory of God and their mutual encouragement. They shall then obtain the joy and gladness which they could never expect on this side heaven; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away for ever, as the shadows of the night before the rising sun. Thus these prophecies, which relate to the Assyrian invasion, conclude, for the support of the people of God under that calamity, and to direct their joy, in their deliverance from it, to something higher. Our joyful hopes and prospects of eternal life should swallow up both all the sorrows and all the joys of this present time.”

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,.... Which was literally fulfilled in the first coming of Christ, Mat 9:27, Joh 9:1 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 of God in Christ; nor of the way of salvation by him; nor of the plague of their own hearts; nor of the work of the Spirit of God upon the soul; nor of the truths of the Gospel; through the power of divine grace had the eyes of their understanding opened, so as to see their sinfulness and vileness; their emptiness of all that is good, and their impotency to do anything that is spiritual; their want of righteousness; their need of Christ, and the fulness and suitableness of him as a Saviour; and to have some light into the truths of the Gospel, and a glimpse of heaven and eternal glory: and this will still have a greater accomplishment in the latter day, when the blind Jews are converted, and the fulness of the Gentiles brought in: and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; which was literally true of some when Christ came in the flesh, Mat 11:5 and spiritually of many who had not ears to hear in a spiritual sense; stopped what ears they had to the charming voice of the Gospel; and, though they might externally hear, did not understand it: yet these having ears given them to hear, and their ears and hearts opened by the Spirit of God, heard the Gospel spiritually, profitably, pleasantly, comfortably, and with wonder and astonishment; and a multitude of such instances there will be in the latter day glory. Jarchi interprets it of such who were blind as to the knowledge of the fear of God, and deaf to the voice of the prophets.”

“"Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame man leap as the stag, and the tongue of the dumb man shout; for waters break out in the desert, and brooks in the steppe. And the mirage becomes a fish-pond, and the thirsty ground gushing water-springs; in the place of jackals, where it lies, there springs up grass with reeds and rushes." The bodily defects mentioned here there is no reason for regarding as figurative representations of spiritual defects. The healing of bodily defects, however, is merely the outer side of what is actually effected by the coming of Jehovah (for the other side, comp. Isa 32:3-4). And so, also, the change of the desert into a field abounding with water is not a mere poetical ornament; for in the last times, he era of redemption, nature itself will really share in the doxa which proceeds from the manifested God to His redeemed. Shârâb (Arab. sarâb) is essentially the same thing as that which we call in the western languages the mirage, or Fata morgana; not indeed every variety of this phenomenon of the refraction of light, through strata of air of varying density lying one above another, but more especially that appearance of water, which is produced as if by magic in the dry, sandy desert (Note: See. G. Rawlinson, Monarchies, i. p. 38.) (literally perhaps the "desert shine," just as we speak of the "Alpine glow;" see Isa 49:10). The antithesis to this is 'ăgam (Chald. 'agmâ', Syr. egmo, Ar. agam), a fish-pond (as in Isa 41:18, different from 'âgâm in Isa 19:10). In the arid sandy desert, where the jackal once had her lair and suckled her young (this is, according to Lam 4:3, the true explanation of the permutative ribhtsâh, for which ribhtsâm would be in some respects more suitable), grass springs up even into reeds and rushes; so that, as Isa 43:20 affirms, the wild beasts of the desert praise Jehovah.”