“For with rejoicing you people will go forth, and with peace you will be brought in. The mountains and the hills themselves will become cheerful before you with a joyful outcry, and the very trees of the field will all clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12, 13, NW; Young; The New American Bible; Leeser.

18, 19. (a) What grand deliverance is there being described? (b) Who was to do the “rejoicing,” and how does Psalm 126:1, 2 delightfully describe their feelings?

¹⁸ Do not those prophetic words beautifully describe a thrilling deliverance of an exiled people and a homecoming with a joyful welcome! “For,” that is, in verification of what was just said by Jehovah about his exalted thoughts and ways toward his people, “with rejoicing you people will go forth.” It was from the land of Babylon that they were to be brought out, a liberated people. This deliverance was to be with rejoicing, not on the part of the Gentile nations in any show of sympathy toward Jehovah’s exiled people, but on the part of His people whom He was delivering in such a remarkable way, so contrary to what the Gentile nations expected or desired. The joyful emotion of the Israelite remnant and their devoted companions at such a marvelous release from pagan Babylon is caught up and echoed in the opening words of Psalm 126:

¹⁹ “When Jehovah gathered back the captive ones of Zion, we became like those who were dreaming. At that time our mouth came to be filled with laughter, and our tongue with a joyful cry. At that time they proceeded to say among the nations: ‘Jehovah has done a great thing in what he has done with them.’”​—Psalm 126:1, 2; 2 Chronicles 36:20-23.

23. (a) What reason did they have for confidence that they would safely reach their destination? (b) By when were they back in their homeland, and how does this give evidence that Jehovah’s word does not return to him without results?

²³ Peacefully, with good organization among themselves, they left ancient Babylon, and peacefully, under divine protection and guidance, they would reach their destination. That was what the divine infallible word assured them: “For with rejoicing you people will go forth, and with peace you will be brought in.” (Isaiah 55:12) They would be “brought in” upon their homeland that had lain desolate for seventy years. As Rabbi Leeser’s translation of the Hebrew text reads: “For in joy shall ye go out, and in peace shall ye be brought home.” Or, as The New American Bible words it: “Yes, in joy you shall depart, in peace you shall be brought back.” It proved to be even that way, and, in the seventh month (Tishri) of the year 537 B.C.E., the returned Jewish remnant and their loyal companions had taken up residence on their city sites, and they began restoring the worship of their God in their homeland.