Ed Walsh
Puritan Board Senior
Can I keep my interpretation? Or do I need to look somewhere else? Help me out here.
Here is the verse that has often brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart.
Note: Green is agree - Red is disagreed.
Isaiah 35:8 [KJV]
“O Lord,” I would cry, “There is yet hope for me? For you say that ‘fools, shall not err therein.’ And I am a fool in my own eyes and my estimation, and yet you love me still. Thank you, dear Savior, for such great salvation the extends to even a fool such as I.”
However, as I thought on the word ‘fool,’ I could think of no other place where a believer was in any way called one. We need to be honest with the Scriptures and at all times teachable, so I started to compare different versions to see if my interpretation was tolerable.
[NKJV] as expected, agreed.
[ASV] was also supportive.
[ESV] also agreed.
[NASB] countered, using ‘fool’ as it is elsewhere in Scripture.
[NIV] destroys the positive view of the fool.
[YLT1898] supported by Young.
Matthew Henry - commented on the ‘fool’ in this verse
Here is the verse that has often brought tears to my eyes and hope to my heart.
Note: Green is agree - Red is disagreed.
Isaiah 35:8 [KJV]
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.
“O Lord,” I would cry, “There is yet hope for me? For you say that ‘fools, shall not err therein.’ And I am a fool in my own eyes and my estimation, and yet you love me still. Thank you, dear Savior, for such great salvation the extends to even a fool such as I.”
However, as I thought on the word ‘fool,’ I could think of no other place where a believer was in any way called one. We need to be honest with the Scriptures and at all times teachable, so I started to compare different versions to see if my interpretation was tolerable.
[NKJV] as expected, agreed.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
[ASV] was also supportive.
the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the redeemed: the wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein.
[ESV] also agreed.
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
[NASB] countered, using ‘fool’ as it is elsewhere in Scripture.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
[NIV] destroys the positive view of the fool.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
wicked fools will not go about on it.
[YLT1898] supported by Young.
Not pass over it doth the unclean, And He Himself [is] by them, Whoso is going in the way — even fools err not.
Matthew Henry - commented on the ‘fool’ in this verse
"The wayfaring men, who choose to travel in it, though fools, of weak capacity in other things, shall have such plain directions from the word and Spirit of God in this way that they shall not err therein; not that they shall be infallible even in their own conduct, or that they shall in nothing mistake, but they shall not be guilty of any fatal misconduct, shall not so miss their way but that they shall recover it again, and get well to their journey’s end. Those that are in the narrow way, though some may fall into one path and others into another, not all equally right, but all meeting at last in the same end, shall yet never fall into the broad way again; the Spirit of truth shall lead them into all truth that is necessary for them. Note, The way to heaven is a plain way, and easy to hit. God has chosen the foolish things of the world, and made them wise to salvation."
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 1145). Peabody: Hendrickson.