Isaiah 35:6

Hebrew Bible

3 Strengthen the hands that have gone limp, steady the knees that shake. 4 Tell those who panic, “Be strong! Do not fear! Look, your God comes to avenge; with divine retribution he comes to deliver you.” 5 Then blind eyes will open, deaf ears will hear. 6 Then the lame will leap like a deer, the mute tongue will shout for joy; for water will burst forth in the wilderness, streams in the arid rift valley. 7 The dry soil will become a pool of water, the parched ground springs of water. Where jackals once lived and sprawled out, grass, reeds, and papyrus will grow. 8 A thoroughfare will be there—it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it;it is reserved for those authorized to use it—fools will not stray into it.

Acts 3:7

New Testament

1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time for prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful Gate” every day so he could beg for money from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple courts, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked directly at him (as did John) and said, “Look at us!” 5 So the lame man paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, stand up and walk!” 7 Then Peter took hold of him by the right hand and raised him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. 8 He jumped up, stood and began walking around, and he entered the temple courts with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

 Notes and References

"... Fitzmyer observes how this story teaches of the abundance and restoration of blessings that Jesus came to bring. He emphasizes how Luke’s description of healing is portrayed as a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. He notes how “Luke describes the complete cure of the beggar and his consequent reaction in almost the same way that Isaiah once proclaimed the restoration of Zion: ‘Then shall the lame one leap like a deer’ (Isaiah 35:6).” He is referring to the messianic prophecy of divine intervention that we are familiar with from the beautiful oratorio by Handel. Israel is promised: “Your God will come with vengeance; ... he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isaiah 35:4–6). The day of salvation is made visible with the signs of healing associated with the Messiah. Fitzmyer argues that by describing the lame man “leaping up,” the language of Isaiah “makes it clear that Luke sees this miracle as a fulfillment of the prophet’s utterance, an event of salvation history. The lame man’s praise of God is duly noted. So he passes from paralysis to joyful activity, from begging to praising God within the Temple.” The healing of the lame man witnesses that a new day had dawned—that God had come to save ..."

Lane, Jennifer C. Healing, Wholeness, and Repentance in Acts 3 (p. 151–68) BYU and Deseret Book Company, 2014

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