Ver. 7. "_And the scorching heat of the sun becomes a pool, and the thirsty land, springs of water; in the habitation of dragons shall be their couching place, grass where formerly reeds and rushes._" "The scorching heat of the sun," stands for "places scorched by the heat" ("parched ground," English version). The passage chap. xlix. 10, forbids us to explain it by _mirage_, the appearance of water. The suffix in רבצה refers to Zion. Dragons like to make their abode especially in the waterless wilderness. The circumstance that Zion has there her couching place, supposes that it has been changed into a garden of God; while, on the contrary, in chap. xxxiv. 13, it is said of the world that "it becomes an habitation of dragons." Besides the dry land, the moor-land which bears nothing but barren reeds, shall undergo a change; nourishing _grass_ is to take its place; חציר has no other signification than this. Ver. 8. "_And a high-way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the holy way; an unclean shall not pass over it; and it shall be for them, that they may walk on it, that fools also may not err._" "The way" is the way of salvation which God opens up to His people in the wilderness of misery; comp. chap. xliii. 19: "I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert;" Ps. cvii. 4: "They wandered in the wilderness, in the desert without ways," where the pathless wilderness is the image of misery; [Pg 163] Ps. xxv. 4; xxvii. 11, where the ways of God are the ways of salvation which He reveals to His people, that they may walk in them. The way is _holy_ (comp. remarks on chap. iv. 3), because inaccessible to the profane world, to the _unclean_, who are not allowed to disturb the righteous walking on it; comp. ver. 9, which shows how entirely out of place is the remark that "the author, in his national hatred, will not allow any Gentiles to walk along with the covenant-people." It is only as converted, as fellows and companions of the saints, that the Gentiles are allowed to enter on the way, and not as unclean and their enemies. The circumstance that even the foolish cannot miss the way, indicates the abundant fulness of the salvation, in consequence of which it is so easily accessible; and no human effort, skill, or excellence, is required to attain the possession of it. Ver. 9. "_No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon, it shall not be found there; and the redeemed walk on it._" By the lion, the ravenous beast, heathenish wickedness and tyranny, the world's power pernicious to the Kingdom of God, is designated; comp. remarks on chap. xi. 7. The Lord declared that the fulfilment had taken place, when He said: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Ver. 10. "_And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. Joy and gladness they shall obtain, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away._"