The Desert Shall Blossom — Isaiah 34–35
Two chapters, one picture shown twice. Chapter 34 turns a land to pitch and hands it to owls; chapter 35 turns the same ground to pools and lays a road across it. In between, Isaiah tells the reader to check his work in the book.
“Rolled Together as a Scroll”
Chapter 34 does not open on Edom. It opens on everyone: “Come near, ye nations, to hear … let the earth hear” (Isaiah 34:1). Then the sky itself gives way: “the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree” (34:4).
John saw it at the sixth seal. The figs fall, and “the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together” (Revelation 6:13–14). Section 88 turns the picture around: “the curtain of heaven be unfolded, as a scroll is unfolded after it is rolled up, and the face of the Lord shall be unveiled” (D&C 88:95). Isaiah and John show the scroll rolling up; the Doctrine and Covenants shows why, for the covering comes off so that He can be seen.
Then verse 5: “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea.” Idumea is the Greek form of Edom, and the man who comes up from its capital Bozrah in red garments has his own page, Red in His Apparel.
Who is Idumea? The Lord answered that in His preface to the Doctrine and Covenants. Section 1 borrows Isaiah 34 near its start — “his sword is bathed in heaven, and it shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth” (D&C 1:13) — and again near its end, where the Lord “shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world” (D&C 1:36).
Idumea, OR THE WORLD — the Lord glosses the name Himself, so chapter 34 is not a grudge against one small kingdom south of the Dead Sea. Edom was Israel’s brother and oldest rival, and Isaiah uses it the way he used Babylon: for the whole world that sets itself against God.
Without Form, and Void
What does the judgment do? It undoes creation. Streams turn to pitch and dust to brimstone, and “none shall pass through it for ever and ever” (34:9–10). The land goes to the cormorant and the bittern, the owl and the raven, with thorns in the palaces, “an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls” (34:11–13). The dragons are tannim, jackals.
Verse 11 hides the key: “he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.” In Hebrew that is qav tohu and avne bohu, the two words of Genesis 1:2, “without form, and void.” And the line is the qav the drunkards mocked in chapter 28 (Line upon Line). The Lord stretches His builder’s line over Edom, and what it measures is chaos. The world that would not have God gets the world before God spoke.
“Seek Ye Out of the Book of the LORD”
Then, in the middle of the owls and vultures, Isaiah turns to the reader.
“Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.”
What are “these”? In context, the creatures just listed; the vultures gather “every one with her mate” (34:15). The prophecy is exact down to the birds.
But look at the command. “Seek” is dirshu, search, and “the book” is sepher — the same word as the scroll of verse 4. The heavens roll up like a sepher, and twelve verses later Isaiah tells us to unroll the sepher of the LORD and read. He wrote his words down expecting them to be checked. Hold the fulfilment against the page, he says, and see whether a single word fell.
Few readers notice that the book commands its own study. The Lord gave the Nephites the same command: “search these things diligently; for great are the words of Isaiah.” Why? Because “all things that he spake have been and shall be, even according to the words which he spake” (3 Nephi 23:1–3). Isaiah said it of the vultures, and the Lord said it of everything.
One more word. “GATHERED” is qibbetsan, the verb Isaiah 11:12 uses for the dispersed of Judah. The Spirit that gathers birds to a ruin gathers Israel home, and the next chapter shows the road.
One Picture, Turned Over
Read the two chapters side by side. Chapter 35 takes the images of chapter 34 and reverses them, often in the same Hebrew words:
Isaiah 34 and Isaiah 35 — antithetic parallel
34:8 “the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences”
35:4 “your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you”
34:9 “the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch”
35:6 “in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert”
34:13 “an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls”
35:7 “in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass”
34:10 “none shall pass through it for ever and ever”
35:8 “an highway shall be there … the unclean shall not pass over it”
Our arrangement from the repeated words: naqam, neveh tannim, and the verb avar recur in both chapters. Test it.
The first pair is the hinge. Both chapters use naqam, vengeance, because it is the same day and the same God. What makes it burning for Idumea and rescue for the fearful? Where they stand when He comes.
Blossom as the Rose — Who Was It For?
“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.”
Who is “them”? Isaiah does not say, and that is one reason the verse has been fulfilled more than once. In 1831 the Lord answered Shakers who believed Christ had already returned: before the great day “Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose” (D&C 49:24). The blossoming is a people, and it is still ahead of His coming. In section 133 the chapter is spoken over the tribes from the north countries: a highway “cast up,” “pools of living water” in the barren deserts, parched ground that shall “no longer be a thirsty land,” and “songs of everlasting joy” (D&C 133:26–33). That is Isaiah 35 almost line for line.
The Saints who went west read it about themselves. President Heber J. Grant: “Through the blessings of the Lord upon their labors the desert has been subdued and made to blossom as the rose. Solitary places have been made glad because of them” (Teachings: Heber J. Grant, ch. 2).
Which reading is right? All of them. The KEY is dualism: one prophecy can land on more than one event, and each points to the last. The pioneers are a likening, not the whole of it. Was Isaiah written for some other age? Nephi would disagree.
Weak Hands and Feeble Knees
“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.”
Chapter 34 was diagnosis and prognosis. This is the prescription, and it is handed to us. Who does the strengthening? Not the desert, but the people already on their feet.
A “fearful heart” is nimhare lev, a hastened heart, the one that panics and runs. The cure is a sentence: Be strong, fear not, He will come.
Hebrews turns it into a sermon on endurance, lifting “the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” and making “straight paths” so the lame are not turned out of the way (Hebrews 12:12–13). In March 1832 the Lord gave the same charge to a new counselor in the Presidency of the High Priesthood: “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees” (D&C 81:5). It was the First Presidency’s job description before there was a First Presidency.
“Art Thou He That Should Come?”
Verse 4 ends, “he will come and save you.” Verse 5 begins with the word that matters: “THEN the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (35:5–6).
John the Baptist, in prison, sent two disciples to ask, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” How did Jesus answer? Not with a title but with a list: “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:2–5).
That is Isaiah 35’s list, with the good tidings of Isaiah 61:1 at the end. The “then” of Isaiah 35 had arrived — and the one who comes in verse 4 is “your GOD.” Few readers of Matthew 11 notice that Jesus answered the question of who He was by pointing to a chapter where the One who comes to open blind eyes is God Himself. The Mortal Messiah answered with the Millennial Messiah’s chapter, and the miracles in Galilee were the first installment.
The Way of Holiness
“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”
Edom was a land no one could cross. Now a road runs through the wilderness, and it has a name. No lion is on it (35:9). And who walks it? Wayfaring men, “though fools.” It is a road so plain that even a fool walking it will not lose his way.
What road is that? Nephi calls it “this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life,” entered by baptism and the Holy Ghost. Is all then done? “Nay,” he says; we must “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ” (2 Nephi 31:18–20). The covenant path is not for the clever. It is for whoever keeps walking.
“And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Isaiah said this one twice; Isaiah 51:11 repeats it nearly word for word. Nephi’s copy of that repeat adds a word: “everlasting joy and HOLINESS shall be upon their heads” (2 Nephi 8:11). Holiness is the name of the road in 35:8. Those who walk the way of holiness arrive wearing it.
Key References
- D&C 133:26–33 — Isaiah 35 spoken over the returning tribes.
- Matthew 11:2–6 — Jesus answers John from Isaiah 35.
A Road Built for Feeble Knees
Why does a chapter of burning sit next to a chapter of blossoming? Because they are the same day. The difference is which side of it we stand on.
And who is the road built for? Not the strong, but weak hands, feeble knees, fearful hearts, the blind, the lame, the wayfaring fool. Nobody on that highway got there alone. Someone lifted their hands, and Someone came and saved them.
If you feel more like the desert than the rose, the chapter was written for you. Search the book. Not one of these shall fail.
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