Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 35:8

8 And an high-way 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 way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein .

The high-way, and the way are not to be taken for two different Ways, but for one and the same Way, even a Causey or Cast-way, which is both raised Ground, as the first Hebrew Word signifies, and a Way; both signifying a convenient, prepared, plain, and common Road, or Path for Travellers, such as the Doctrine of the Gospel is, which is frequently compared to a Way, both in the Old and New-Testament, as hath been oft observed.

It shall be an holy Way, trodden by holy Men, and filled with holy Practices, The People (walking in it) shall be all, (i. e. a very great number of them, not so few as in the times of the Law) righteous, as is declared and prophesied afterward, Isa. 60. 21.

Either to disturb or defile it. Unclean Persons shall, in a good measure, be kept or cast out of my Church, by the strict exercise of good Discipline here, and hereafter not one unclean Person shall enter into my Kingdome.

But this way shall be appropriated unto those Persons above-mentioned; the Weak, and Blind, and Lame, whom God will Heal and Save, ver. 3. 4, 5, 6. The pronoun Relative is put without an Antecedent, as it is in many other places. But this, and the following Clause, is, and may well be, rendred otherwise, and he (to wit, God, who is oft designed by this Pronoun, and is easily understood out of the Context) shall be to or with them walking in the way (their Companion and Guide in their Way, which is a great felicity) that fools may not err therein.

The Way shall be so plain and straight, that even the most foolish Travellers (who are described by this Character, that They know not the way to the City, Eccles. 10. 15.) cannot easily mistake it.

Marginal references: Joel. 3. 17. Rev. 21. 27.; Or, for he shall be with them.