Isaiah 35:7

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water,.... Such persons who have been like the parched earth, barren and unfruitful, or like the earth scorched with the

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

Those dry and parched deserts, in which dragons have their abode, shall yield abundance of grass, and reeds, and rushes, which grow only in moist grounds, .

Isaiah 35:7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, [shall be] grass with reeds and rushes.Ver. 7. And the parched ground, &c.] See on Isaiah 35:6.

(7) The parched ground . . .—The Hebrew word is essentially what we know as the mirage, or fata morgana, the silvery sheen which looks like a sparkling lake, and turns out to be barren sand. Instead of that delusive show, there shall be in the renewed earth the lake itself. In the habitation of dragons . . .—Better, as elsewhere, jackals, which had their lair in the sandy desert. Shall be grass with reeds and rushes.—Better, grass shall grow as (or unto) reeds and rushes, the well-watered soil giving even to common herbage an intensified fertility.

Verse 7. The parched ground - "The glowing sand"] שרב sharab; this word is Arabic, [Arabic] as well as Hebrew, expressing in both languages the same thing, the glowing sandy plain, which in the hot countries at a distance has the appearance of water. It occurs in the Koran, chap. xxiv.: "But as to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain, which the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until, when he cometh thereto, he findeth it to be nothing." Mr. Sale's note on this place is, "The Arabic word serab signifies that false appearance which in the eastern countries is often seen on sandy plains about noon, resembling a large lake of water in motion, and is occasioned by the reverberation of the sun beams: 'by the quivering undulating motion of that quick succession of vapours and exhalations which are extracted by the powerful influence of the sun.' - Shaw, Trav. p. 378. It sometimes tempts thirsty travellers out of their way; but deceives them when they come near, either going forward, (for it always appears at the Same distance,) or quite vanishing." Q. Curtius has mentioned it: "Arenas vapor aestivi solis accendit; camporumque non alia, quam vasti et profundi aequoris species est." - Lib. vii., c. 5. Dr. Hyde gives us the precise meaning and derivation of the word. "Dictum nomen Barca הברקה habberakah, splendorem, seu splendentem regionem notat; cum ea regio radiis solaribus tam copiose collustretur, ut reflexum ab arenis lumen adeo intense fulgens, a longinquo spectantibus, ad instar corporis solaris, aquarum speciem referat; et hinc arenarum splendor et radiatio, (et lingua Persica petito nomine,) dicitur [Arabic] serab, i.e., aquae superficies seu superficialis aquarum species." Annot. in Peritsol., cap. ii. "Shall spring forth"] The ה he in רבצה rebitseh seems to have been at first מ mem in MS. Bodl., whence Dr. Kennicott concludes it should be רבצים rebitsim. But instead of this word the Syriac, Vulgate, and Chaldee read some word signifying to grow, spring up, or abound. Perhaps פרצה paretsah, or פרצו paretsu, or פרץ החציר parats hachatsir, as Houbigant reads. - L.

7. the parched ground] The Hebr. word (shârâb, only again in Isaiah 49:10) is generally thought to be identical with Serâb, the Arabic name for the mirage (so R.V. marg.). Allusions to this remarkable optical phenomenon, by which even experienced travellers are often deceived, are, as might be expected, common in Arabic literature. Cf. Koran (Sura 24:39):— “The works of the unbelievers are like the mirage in the desert; The thirsty takes it for water, till he comes up to it and finds that it is nothing.” (Quoted by Gesenius.) The idea in the text, therefore, would be that the illusion which mocks the thirsty caravan shall become a reality; water shall be as common in the desert as the mirage now is. The rendering “parched ground,” however, corresponds with Jewish usage and the ancient versions; and the sense “mirage” is unsuitable in ch. Isaiah 49:10. in the habitation … rushes] A literal rendering of the Hebr. would be: “in the habitation of jackals, its lair, a court (the word rendered habitation’ in E.V. of ch. Isaiah 34:13) for reeds and rushes.” This yields no sense. The text appears to have suffered extensive mutilation.

And the parched ground shall become a pool - The idea is the same here as in the previous verse, that under the Messiah there would be blessings as great as if the parched ground’ should become a

7. And the parched ground — This means the mirage, which shall really become a pool, or lake of water, as to the traveller over the desert it appears.