12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Therefore ye shall go out with joy. The Prophet concludes the subject of this chapter; for, when he spoke of the mercy of God, his object was, to convince the Jews that the Lord would deliver them. He now applies to his purpose what was contained in his discourse concerning the infinite goodness of God, and shows that his thoughts are very unlike the thoughts of men. And the true way of teaching is this, that we should apply general statements for present use. Finally, he treats of the restoration of the people, which depended on the undeserved mercy of God. The mountains and hills shall break out before you. By "the mountains and hills" he means that everything which they shall meet in the journey, though in other respects it be injurious, shall aid those who shall return to Jerusalem. They are metaphors, by which he shows that all the creatures bow to the will of God, and rejoice and lend their aid to carry on his work. He alludes to the deliverance from Egypt, (Exodus 14:22) as is customary with the Prophets; for thus is it described by the Psalmist, "The mountains leaped like rams, and the hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest, and Jordan, (Joshua 3:16) that thou wast driven back? (Psalm 114:4, 5) For the restoration of the Church may be regarded as a renovation of the whole world, and in consequence of this, heaven and earth are said to be changed, as if their order were reversed. But all this depended on former predictions, by which they had received a promise of their return.
For ye shall go out with joy - This language is that which is properly applicable to the exiles in Babylon, but there can be no doubt that the prophet looks also to the future happier times of the Messiah (compare the notes at Isaiah 52:7).
The mountains and the hills - Language like this is common in Isaiah, where all nature is called on to rejoice, or where inanimate objects are represented as expressing their sympathy with the joy of the people of God (see the note at Isaiah 14:8; Isaiah 35:1-2, Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 42:10-11; Isaiah 44:23). Indeed, this imagery is common in all poetry. Thus, Virgil:
Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant,
Intonsi montes: ipsae jam carmina rupes,
Ipsa sonant arhusta.
Ec. v. 62ff.
The untill'd mountains strike the echoing sky;
And rocks and towers the triumph speed abroad.
Wrangham
Such language occurs especially in the poetry of the Orientals. Thus, when the god Ramar was going to the desert, says Roberts, it was said to him, 'The trees will watch for you; they will say, He is come, he is come; and the white flowers will clap their hands. The leaves as they shake will say, Come, come, and the thorny places will be changed into gardens of flowers.'
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands - To clap the hands is expressive of joy and rejoicing (compare 2-Kings 11:12; Psalm 47:1). Thus, in Psalm 98:8, it is said:
Let the floods clap their hands;
Let the hills be joyful together.
Among the Jews the language was sometimes used to express malignant joy at the calamity of others (compare Job 27:3; Job 34:37; Lamentations 2:15; Ezekiel 25:6). Here it is an expression of the universal rejoicing which would attend the extension of the kingdom of God on the earth.
The mountains and the hills - These are highly poetical images to express a happy state attended with joy and exultation.
Ipsi laetitia voces ad sidera jactant
Intonsi montes: ipsae jam carmina rupes,
Ipsa sonant arbusta.
Virg. Ecl. 5:61.
"The mountain tops unshorn, the rocks rejoice;
The lowly shrubs partake of human voice."
Dryden.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the (n) mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.
(n) Read (Isaiah 44:23, Isaiah 49:13)
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace,.... Though these words may literally respect the Jews' return from captivity to their own land, attended with joy and peace; as the preceding verse may respect the word of promise concerning it; as it is interpreted by the Targum,
"for with joy shall ye go out from among the people, and with peace shall ye be brought to your own land;''
yet they may be spiritually applied to the conversion of men, in consequence of the word being made effectual, of which the deliverance from the Babylonish thraldom was a type; when men "go out" of a state of bondage to sin, Satan, and the law; out of a state of darkness and ignorance; out of the pit of nature's misery and distress; out of themselves and their own righteousness; out of their own sinful ways, and from among the men of the world: and though here is a divine power exerted in all this, yet they go out freely, being led by the Spirit of God; who takes them by the hand as it were, and leads them in ways before unknown to them; he leads them to Christ, his person, fulness, blood, and righteousness; to the house of God, and to the ordinances of it; and from one degree of grace to another, till he brings them to glory: all which is attended with "joy and peace" to themselves; finding themselves released from bondage, in a state of light and comfort, out of the horrible pit, and on a rock; brought to Christ, and clothed with his righteousness; to the angels in heaven, who rejoice over every sinner that repenteth; to the ministers of the Gospel, who are the instruments of their conversion; and to all the saints into whose fellowship they are brought; which joy is further illustrated by the following strong figures:
the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; or the people that dwell upon them: and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands; or clap with their branches; as the Targum, the tops of them, being moved with gentle breezes of wind, bow themselves, and the branches intertwining and clasping each other like hands and arms. Kimchi observes, that "mountains and hills" may signify the kings of the nations; and "the trees of the field" the people rejoicing at the deliverance of the Jews, as they pass along: it may be as well applied to the ministers of the word, and common believers rejoicing at the conversion of sinners, in whom as wonderful a change is wrought, as in the following cases. Vitringa interprets this of the apostles and ministers of the word going forth into the Gentile world, attended with joy in themselves, and among the converts there.
go out--from the various countries in which ye (the Jews) are scattered, to your own land (Ezekiel 11:17).
led--by Messiah, your "Leader" (Isaiah 55:4; Isaiah 52:12; Micah 2:12-13).
mountains . . . trees, &c.--images justly used to express the seeming sympathy of nature with the joy of God's people. For, when sin is removed, the natural world shall be delivered from "vanity," and be renewed, so as to be in unison with the regenerated moral world (Isaiah 44:23; Psalm 98:8; Romans 8:19-22).
The true point of comparison, however, is the energy with which the word is realized. Assuredly and irresistibly will the word of redemption be fulfilled. "For ye will go out with joy, and be led forth in peace: the mountains and the hills will break out before you into shouting, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn will cypresses shoot up, and instead of the fleabane will myrtles shoot up: and it will be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting memorial that will not be swept away." "With joy," i.e., without the hurry of fear (Isaiah 52:12); "in peace," i.e., without having to fight their way through or flee. The idea of the sufferer falls back in הוּבל behind that of a festal procession (Psalm 45:15-16). In applying the term kaph (hand) to the trees, the prophet had in his mind their kippōth, or branches. The psalmist in Psalm 98:8 transfers the figure created by our prophet to the waves of the streams. Na‛ătsūts (from nâ‛ats, to sting) is probably no particular kind of thorn, such, for example, as the fuller's thistle, but, as in Isaiah 7:19, briers and thorns generally. On sirpad, see Ges. Thes.; we have followed the rendering, κόυζα, of the lxx. That this transformation of the vegetation of the desert is not to be taken literally, any more than in Isaiah 41:17-20, is evident from the shouting of the mountains, and the clapping of hands on the part of the trees. On the other hand, however, the prophet says something more than that Israel will return home with such feelings of joy as will cause everything to appear transformed. Such promises as those which we find here and in Isaiah 41:19 and Isaiah 35:1-2, and such exhortations as those which we find in Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 49:13, and Isaiah 52:9, arise from the consciousness, which was common to both prophets and apostles, that the whole creation will one day share in the liberty and glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21). This thought is dressed up sometimes in one for, and sometimes in another. The psalmists after the captivity borrowed the colours in which they painted it from our prophet (see at Psalm 96:1-13 and Psalm 98:1-9). והיה is construed as a neuter (cf., בּראתיו, Isaiah 45:8), referring to this festal transformation of the outer world on the festive return of the redeemed. אות is treated in the attributive clause as a masculine, as if it came from אוּת, to make an incision, to crimp, as we have already indicated; but the Arabic âyat, shows that it comes from אוה, to point out, and is contracted from ăwăyat, and therefore was originally a feminine.
Therefore - Ye shall be released from your bondage. Peace - Safely and triumphantly. Clap - There shall be a general rejoicing, so that even the senseless creatures shall seem to rejoice with you.
*More commentary available at chapter level.