Yesaya 30:21

30:21 You ¹  will hear a word spoken behind you, saying,

“This is the correct ²  way, walk in it,”

whether you are heading to the right or the left.

Amsal 3:6

3:6 Acknowledge ³  him in all your ways, ⁴ 

and he will make your paths straight. ⁵ 

Yesaya 35:8-9

35:8 A thoroughfare will be there –

it will be called the Way of Holiness. ⁶ 

The unclean will not travel on it;

it is reserved for those authorized to use it ⁷  –

fools ⁸  will not stray into it.

35:9 No lions will be there,

no ferocious wild animals will be on it ⁹  –

they will not be found there.

Those delivered from bondage will travel on it,

[30:21]  ¹ tn Heb “your ears” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[30:21]  ² tn The word “correct’ is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[3:6]  ³ tn Heb “know him.” The verb יָדַע (yadah, “to know”) includes mental awareness of who God is and the consequential submission to his lordship. To know him is to obey him. The sage is calling for a life of trust and obedience in which the disciple sees the Lord in every event and relies on him. To acknowledge the Lord in every event means trusting and obeying him for guidance in right conduct.

[3:6]  ⁴ tn The term דֶרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) is figurative (hypocatastasis: implied comparison) referring to a person’s course of life, actions and undertakings (Prov 2:8; 3:6, 23; 11:5; 20:24; 29:27; 31:3; BDB 203 s.v. 5; cf. TEV “in everything you do”; NCV, NLT “in all you do”). This is a call for total commitment in trust for obedience in all things.

[3:6]  ⁵ tn The verb יָשָׁר (yashar) means “to make smooth; to make straight” (BDB 444 s.v.). This phrase means “to make the way free from obstacles,” that is, to make it successful (e.g., Isa 40:3). The straight, even road is the right road; God will make the way smooth for the believer.

[35:8]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and there will be there a road and a way, and the Way of Holiness it will be called.” וְדֶרֶךְ (vÿderekh, “and a/the way”) is accidentally duplicated; the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a does not reflect the repetition of the phrase.

[35:8]  ⁷ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The text reads literally “and it is for them, the one who walks [on the] way.” In this context those authorized to use the Way of Holiness would be morally upright people who are the recipients of God’s deliverance, in contrast to the morally impure and foolish who are excluded from the new covenant community.

[35:8]  ⁸ tn In this context “fools” are those who are morally corrupt, not those with limited intellectual capacity.

[35:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “will go up on it”; TEV “will pass that way.”