Isaiah 55:12-13

12, 13. The comparison just drawn (Isaiah 55:10-11) is truly beautiful, but its chief point is the energy with which the divine word is realized. (Delitzsch.) On receiving the word, or Gospel, ye are as those gladdened by a joyful deliverance.

Ye shall go out with joy Possibly the allusion here is to the exodus from Egypt, or more directly from Babylon, though neither can be the primary thought of the passage. The words are used as simply illustrative of the people of God emancipated from under old Mosaic tutelage into gospel privileges under the Messiah, or Christ. They go forth, bounding with “joy,” for conquest of the whole world to Christ; and all nature all mountains, and hills, and trees take on the happy complexion of the buoyant spirit of the Church. The result shall be the world’s renewal. The regenerating effects of the Gospel shall operate on the masses of mankind. Evil shall be eradicated; a blessed civilization shall be built up: for these are what the prophet means in his favourite figure of exchange from the noxious and the forbidding to the beautiful and the useful in the world’s physical aspect. See chap. 35, ff.; Isaiah 41:18, ff.; Isaiah 44:23, Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 52:9. See also the Hebrew of the word thorn, נעצוצ , na’tsuts, only once before used, (in Isaiah 7:19,) and therefore a genuine Isaiahic word.