And I will make my mountains into level paths for them. The highways will be raised above the valleys.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be exalted.
- KJV And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.
- BSB I will turn all My mountains into roads, and My highways will be raised up.
- NKJV I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated.
- NASB “I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will level mountains into roads and raise highways so His people can return home unhindered.
Overview
As in 40:3-4, God removes every obstacle to make a way for His people's return. The transformed landscape pictures the ease and certainty of the journey under His care. This prepared way anticipates the gospel road by which God brings His people home through Christ, who is Himself the way (John 14:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Isa 11:16There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
- Isa 35:8–10A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.
- Luke 3:4–5As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.
- Isa 62:10Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.
- Isa 57:14He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”
- John 14:6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
- Isa 43:19Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
- Isa 40:3–4The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
- Ps 107:7he led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.
- Ps 107:4They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city to live in.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 49:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.