truest manner, revealed and manifested himself as the Teacher of
His people.

The close of the whole of the first part of Isaiah is, in chaps.
xxxiv., xxxv. formed by a comprehensive announcement, _on the one
hand_, of the judgments upon the God-hating world, here individualized
by Edom, that hereditary enemy of Israel, who was so much the more
fitted for this representation that his enmity was the most obstinate
of all, and remained the same throughout all the phases of Israel's
oppression by the great kingdoms of the world (he always appears as he
who helped to bring misery upon his brethren); and, _on the other
hand_, of the mercy and salvation which should be bestowed upon the
Church trampled upon by the world.

On chap. xxxiv. 4;, 5, where the heaven is that of the princes, the
whole order of rulers and magistrates; the stars, the single princes
and nobles, compare my remarks on Rev. vi. 13.

The description of the salvation in store for the Church, in chap.
xxxv., is pre-eminently Messianic, although the lower blessings also
are included which preceded the appearance of Christ. The description
contains features so characteristic, that we must necessarily submit it
to a closer examination.

Ver. 1. "_The wilderness and dry land shall be glad for it, and the
desert shall rejoice and sprout like the bulb._"

The wilderness is Zion--the Church to be devastated by the world.--"For
it,"--_i.e._ for the judgment upon the world, as it was described in
chap. xxxiv. with which the changed fate of the Church is indissolubly
connected.

Ver. 2. "_It shall sprout, and rejoice with joy and shouting. The glory
of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They
shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God._"

"The glory of Lebanon," &c. is a glory like unto that of Lebanon. The
real condition of the glory of Zion, or the Church, is brought before
us in the subsequent verses only; it consists in the Lords glory being
manifested in it. The majestic, wooded Lebanon, and fruitful Carmel,
are contrasted with one another; the latter is put together with the
lovely fruitful plain of Sharon, rich in flowers; compare remarks on
Song of Sol. vii. 6. _Michaelis_ says: "The Lebanon excels among the
forests; the Carmel among the fruitful hills; the [Pg 159] Sharon among
the lovely fields or valleys."--To "see the glory of the Lord, the
excellency _of God_" means to behold Him in the revelation