Highway

Highway (usually מסַלָּה, mesillah', or [Isa 35:8] מִסלוּל, meslul', a raised road, SEE CAUSEWAY for public use; elsewhere simply אֹרִח, o'rach, a path. or דֶּרֶך, de'rek, ὁδός, a "way" in general; once [Am 5:16] חוּוֹ, chuts, outside). Travelers have frequently noticed the lack of roads in Palestine. Travel and transport being all performed on the backs of beasts of burden, which usually move in single file, the most important routes are only marked by narrow winding paths; and the soil is often so hard as to take no impression from the feet of animals, so that the eye of an unpracticed traveler there perceives, even upon a common thoroughfare, no evidence that others have passed along the same way. No repairs are ever made, no labor employed to remove obstacles. — Bastow. Hence the striking character of the figure by which the preparation for the return of the captives and the Messiah's advent are announced as the construction of a grand thoroughfare for their march (Isa 11:16; Isa 35:8; Isa 40:3; Isa 62:10). The Romans, however, during their occupancy of Palestine, constructed several substantial roads, which are laid down in the ancient itineraries, and remains of which subsist to this day. De Saulcy (Dead Sea, 1, 392) fancied he discovered traces of the old Moabitish highways (Nu 20:17). SEE ROAD.