I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight,
&c.] Or, "level the hilly places" F3; as pioneers do. The sense is, that he would remove all impediments and obstructions out of his way, and cause him to surmount all difficulties: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars
of iron;
with which the brasen gates were barred: in the wall that surrounded Babylon there were a hundred gates, all made of solid brass, twenty five on each side of the square; which, no doubt, are here referred to; which could not hinder the entrance of Cyrus into the city, and the taking of it; though they were not then destroyed by him, but by Darius afterwards F4 these gates of brass are mentioned by Abydenus F5, as made by Nebuchadnezzar, and as continuing till the empire of the Macedonians.