What Does Isaiah 35:9 Mean?
No lion is there, and no loathsome beast climbs onto it or is found there. But those bought back walk there.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:THE KEY
The reclaimed are not merely escorted past danger: the force that breaks through is absent from the path they walk.
THE MEANING
The way before you is not defined by the threat that once dominated it. The reclaimed walk there while the violent force is absent. Safety belongs to the restored path itself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliverance only gets you out while danger keeps ownership of the road ahead.
THE ROOT
גְּאוּלִים
ge'ulim
GROWS FROM
גאל
ga'al
To reclaim, redeem, or act as a kinsman-redeemer.
“those bought back” in this verse is ge'ulim. גְּאוּלִים names people reclaimed, with the family-redeemer image still audible in the word family. The verse’s final image is not a crowd merely surviving a route; it is a people restored to a place where they can walk.
ALSO GROWS
go'el: Kinsman-redeemer; one who reclaims or protects a relative’s claim.
גֹּאֵל
This branch shows the relational force inside redemption: the reclaimed are brought back into belonging.
ge'ullah: Redemption or reclaiming.
גְּאֻלָּה
This branch names the act that makes the redeemed person’s restored place possible.
פָּרִיץ
parits
GROWS FROM
פרץ
parats
To break through, burst open, or make a breach; the derived word can describe a violent person or force.
“loathsome beast” in this verse is parits. The Hebrew word פָּרִיץ carries the image of force breaking through. The safety here is not the travelers overpowering the threat; the breaching violence has no place on their path.
ALSO GROWS
parats: To break through or burst forth.
פָּרַץ
Its forceful movement sharpens the contrast with the redeemed walking freely.
perets: A breach or break in a wall.
פֶּרֶץ
This branch gives the threat a concrete shape: a breach through which danger enters.
THE PATTERN
Restoration removes the threats that make a place unlivable, so the reclaimed can inhabit it in safety.
They will not do harm and will not ruin in all my set-apart mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowing of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.And I will cut for them a covenant of wholeness, and I will stop the harmful beasts from the land. They will dwell in the wilderness leaning their full weight, and sleep in the forests.And God wipes away every tear from their eyes, and there is no more death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the first things have gone away.THE THREAD
Therefore the ransomed of the LORD will turn back, and come to Zion with ringing cries and joy of the ages upon their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and groaning will flee away.Both verses use גְּאוּלִים, the reclaimed, for the people who return. Isaiah 35 shows them walking safely; Isaiah 51 opens that destination further as Zion, where sorrow and sighing flee.
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