Isaiah

35 The wilderness and the waterless region will exult,+ and the desert plain* will be joyful and blossom as the saffron.*+ 2 Without fail it* will blossom,+ and it will really be joyful with joyousness and with glad crying out.+ The glory of Lebʹa·non itself must be given to it,*+ the splendor of Carʹmel+ and of Sharʹon.+ There will be those* who will see the glory of Jehovah,+ the splendor of our God.*+

3 Strengthen the weak* hands, YOU people, and make the knees that are wobbling firm.+ 4 Say to those who are anxious at heart:+ “Be strong.+ Do not be afraid.+ Look! YOUR own God will come with vengeance+ itself, God even with a repayment.+ He himself will come and save YOU people.”+

5 At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened,+ and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped.+ 6 At that time the lame one will climb up just as a stag does,+ and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.+ For in the wilderness waters will have burst out, and torrents in the desert plain. 7 And the heat-parched ground will have become as a reedy pool, and the thirsty ground as springs of water.+ In the abiding place of jackals,+ a resting-place for [them],* there will be green grass with reeds and papyrus+ plants.

8 And there will certainly come to be a highway+ there, even a way; and the Way of Holiness* it will be called.+ The unclean one will not pass over it.*+ And it will be for the one walking on the way, and no foolish ones will wander about [on it].* 9 No lion will prove to be there, and the rapacious sort of wild beasts will not come up on it.*+ None will be found there;+ and the repurchased ones must walk [there].+ 10 And the very ones redeemed by Jehovah will return+ and certainly come to Zion with a joyful cry;+ and rejoicing to time indefinite will be upon their head.+ To exultation and rejoicing they will attain, and grief and sighing must flee away.+