Isaiah 35:8-9 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
⁸ And a highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
    It shall be reserved for the one walking on the way;
    no one foolish will stray onto it.[1]
⁹ No lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.

The word Hebrew word (טָמֵא tame) rendered “unclean” often refers to what is not acceptable to God, according to the Mosaic Law. (Le 5:2; 13:45; Mt 10:1; Ac 10:14; Eph 5:5) The term usually refers to ceremonial or moral uncleanness. Moral uncleanness defiled God’s temple for ancient Israel and prevented one from entering the Kingdom. (1 Corinthians 5:1–6:20) The Dictionary of Biblical Languages writes, “unclean, defiled, i.e., to be ceremonially impure according to a standard set forth (Lev 5:2).”[2]

Read Ezekiel 22:3-12: The prophet Ezekiel’s words concerning the moral uncleanness of Judah have meaning for us today. To worship God acceptably, one must keep their conduct clean in all matters, which is not so easy in a morally corrupt world. – 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

God had foretold that he would clear out the way for his people to return to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile, he said: “the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.” (Isa 35:8) A small remnant returned in 539 B.C.E., arriving back in Jerusalem in 537 B.C.E., who worked wholeheartedly to restore true worship, possessing the right and holy intentions, not for political or selfish concerns. – Compare the prophecy at Zec 14:20-21.

God had rescued his people once more! They are his “redeemed” ones, and he assures them safe passage on their way back to their home. Of course, no literal elevated paved road ran from Babylon to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, God’s safeguarding his people as they traveled on their journey is so certain it would feel as though they were on such a highway.—Compare Psalm 91:1-16.

They would have also been shielded from spiritual dangers. The symbolic highway is “the Way of Holiness.” Those who disparage holy things or are unclean spiritually are not eligible to travel on it. Their presence is not wanted in the land that was to be restored. Ones who stood before God in an approved condition were rightly ambitious, encouraged, and determined. They were not returning to Judah and Jerusalem seeking out their own personal interests. Spiritually minded ones understood that the most important reason for their return was to restore pure worship of God in the land that he had provided them. – Ezra 1:1-3.

For Christians, Is Uncleanness a Sin?

Terry R. Briley writes,

35:8a The final image of the glorious future, a highway (מַסְלוּל, maslûl), anticipates the highway of 40:3 (מְסִלָּה, m^əsillāh). Although the exiles return to Judah on a literal road, Isaiah’s message that begins in chapter 40 stresses the work of God that makes it possible for the exiles to return and looks ahead to an even greater work of God. Similarly, the designation of this road as a Way of Holiness indicates an interest in something more than a means of physical transportation. God’s nature as “the Holy One of Israel” demands that his people walk in holiness. Just as God is the one who saves (v. 4b), he is also the one who provides the way. His people do not construct this highway; it will be there for them.

35:8b–9 Travel in the ancient world presented many dangers. The presence of a lion or other ferocious beast along the way could bring death to a traveler. Those seeking to follow the Way of Holiness face greater threats from the unclean and wicked fools.[3] The path God constructs, however, is open only to the redeemed.[4] God will protect those who walk in his ways from these defiling and destructive influences. In the midst of a great expression of confidence in God, the psalmist cries out, “Teach me your way, O Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors” (Ps 27:11).[5]

Albert Barnes writes,

Isaiah 35:8. And a highway shall be there. All obstructions shall be removed, and they shall be permitted to return without hindrance. This is language that is derived from the return of the Jews from captivity. The idea is that there would be easy and uninterrupted access to their own land. The more remote, though main idea in the prophet’s mind seems to have been that the way of access to the blessings of the Messiah’s reign would be open and free to all (comp. Isaiah 40:3-4).

And a way. It is not easy to mark the difference between the word way (דֶרֶךְ) and a highway (מַסְלוּל). Probably the latter refers more particularly to a raised way (from סַּלַל, to cast up), and would be expressed by our word causeway or turnpike. It was such a way as was usually made for the march of armies by removing obstructions, filling valleys, etc. The word way (דֶרֶךְ) is a more general term and denotes a path or road of any kind.

And it shall be called the Way of Holiness. The reason why it should be so called is stated;—no impure person should travel it. The idea is that all who should have access to the favor of God or who should come into his kingdom should be holy.

The unclean shall not pass over it. There shall be no idolater there; no one shall be admitted who is not a pure worshipper of Jehovah. Such is the design of the kingdom, which the Messiah sets up, and such the church of Christ should be (see Isaiah 40:3, 4; 49:11; 62:10).

It shall be reserved for the one. For those who are specified immediately, for the ransomed of the Lord. The Margin is, ‘For he shall be with them.’ Lowth reads it.

But he himself shall be with them, walking in the way.’

And this, it seems to me, is the more probable sense of the passage, indicating that they should not go alone or unprotected. It would be a holy way because their God would be with them; it would be safe because he would attend to and defend them.

Walking on the way. According to the translation proposed above, this refers to God, the Redeemer, who will walk in the way with his people.

No one foolish will stray onto it. Heb. ‘And fools.’ That is, the simple, the unlearned, or those who are regarded as fools. It shall be a highway thrown up, so direct, and so unlike other paths, that there shall be no danger of mistaking it.—The friends of God are often regarded as fools by the world. Many of them are of the humbler class of life and destitute of human learning and worldly wisdom. The sense here is that the way of salvation shall be so plain that no one, however ignorant and unlearned, need err in regard to it. In accordance with this, the Savior said that the gospel was preached to the poor; and he himself always represented the way to life as such that the most simple and unlettered might find it.

Isaiah 35:9. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there. Lions abounded in all the countries adjacent to Palestine. They are, therefore, often referred to by the sacred writers as objects of dread and alarm. The leading idea in the language of Isaiah in this whole passage is that of a way constructed from Babylon to Judea, so straight and plain that the simplest of the people might find it and walk in it. But such a path would lie through desert sands. It would be in the region infested with lions and other wild beasts. The prophet, therefore, suggests that there should be no cause for such dread and alarm. The sense is that all would be safe in that kingdom to which he had made reference. They who entered it should find security and defense as they traveled that road. And it is true. They who enter the path that leads to life find no cause for alarm. Their fears subside; their apprehensions of punishment on account of their sins die away, and they walk that path with security and confidence. There is nothing in that way to alarm them, and though there may be many foes—fitly represented by lions and wild beasts—lying about the way, yet no one is permitted to ‘go up there on.’ This is a most beautiful image of the safety of the people of God and of their freedom from all enemies that could annoy them.

But the redeemed shall walk there. The language here referred at first doubtless to those who would be rescued from the captivity at Babylon, but the main reference is to those who would be redeemed by the blood of the atonement or who are properly called ‘the redeemed of the Lord.’ That Isaiah was acquainted with the doctrine of redemption is apparent from his fifty-third chapter. There is not here, indeed, any express mention made of the means by which they would be redeemed, but the language is so general that it may refer either to the deliverance from the captivity at Babylon or the future, more important, deliverance of his people from the bondage of sin by the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah. On the word rendered ‘redeem,’ see Note on Isaiah 43:1. The idea is that the path here referred to is appropriately designed only for the redeemed of Jehovah. It is not for the profane, the polluted, the hypocrite. It is not for those who live for this world or those who love pleasure more than they love God. The church should not be entered except by those who have evidence that they are redeemed. None should make a profession of being dedicated to God who has no evidence that they belong to ‘the redeemed,’ and are not disposed to walk in the way of holiness. But, for all such, it is a highway on which they are to travel. It is made by leveling hills and elevating valleys, across the sandy desert and through the wilderness of this world, and through a world infested with the enemies of God and his people. It is made straight and plain so that none need err; it is defended from enemies so that all may be safe; it is rendered secure because ‘He,’ their Leader and Redeemer, shall go with and guard that way.[6]

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[1] LXX “There shall be there a pure way, and it shall be called a holy way; and there shall not pass by there any unclean person, neither shall there be there an unclean way; but the dispersed shall walk on it, and they shall not go astray.” SYR “And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; and there shall be no road beside it; fools shall not err therein.” VG^c “And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be to you a straight way, so that fools shall not err in it.”

[2] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

[3] It is possible to interpret the last line of v. 8 in the sense that the way will be so clear that even the fool can stay on it. The NIV footnote, for example, suggests the alternate translation, “the simple will not stray from it.” This rendering is unlikely, however, for this particular designation for the fool (אֱוִיל, ˒ĕwîl) “means not merely a simpleton but that morally perverse person who knowingly chooses the opposite to God’s truth” (Oswalt, Isaiah 1, p. 625).

[4] The root for “redeemed” (גאל, g’l) occurs frequently in chapters 40–66. It is the same root for the “kinsman-redeemer” (gô˒ēl), the one who acts on behalf of a next-of-kin who experiences debt (Lev 25:25) or murder (Num 35:12). God is the ultimate Redeemer. The closely related root for “ransomed” (פדה, pdh) refers to the payment of the price for that which rightfully belongs to God, such as a firstborn son (cf. Leviticus 27).

[5] Terry R. Briley, Isaiah, The College Press NIV Commentary (Joplin, MO: College Press Pub., 2000–), 72.

[6] Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: Isaiah, vol. 1 (London: Blackie & Son, 1851), 506–508.