The peaceable kingdom of the Branch out of the root of Jesse, 1-9. The victorious restoration of Israel and vocation of the Gentiles, 10-16.
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,/
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
2 And the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon him—/
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,/
the Spirit of counsel and might,/
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD,
3 And will make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD./
And he will not judge after the sight of his eyes,/
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
4 But with righteousness he will judge the poor/
and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth./
He will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth/
and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins/
and faithfulness the girdle of his loins.
6 The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb,/
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid./
The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf shall be together,/
and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed./
Their young ones shall lie down together./
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the nursing child shall play near the hole of the asp,/
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the adder.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy/
in all my holy mountain,/
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD,/
as the waters cover the sea.
10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse/
which shall stand for an ensign of the people./
The Gentiles shall seek it./
And his rest shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day,/
that the Lord will set his hand again the second time/
to recover the remnant of his people/
which shall be left from Assyria, from Egypt,/
from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam,/
from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations,/
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel/
and gather the dispersed of Judah/
from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy of Ephraim shall also depart/
and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off./
Ephraim shall not envy Judah/
and Judah shall not distress Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west./
They shall plunder those of the east together./
They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab./
And the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea./
And with his mighty wind he will shake his hand over the river/
and will smite it in the seven streams,/
and make men go over in sandals.
16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people/
which shall be left from Assyria,/
as it was to Israel/
in the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
Matthew Henry Commentary - Isaiah, Chapter 11[➚]
[v.1] - Reference, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15; Zechariah 3:8, 6:12.
[v.5] - Paraphrased in Ephesians 6:14.
[v.10] - Quoted in Romans 15:12. The word, root, in this verse is a reference to Christ. Notice that Revelation 5:5 names the Root of David (David is the son of Jesse, Ruth 4:22). It is more plainly stated that Christ is the Root of David in Revelation 22:16, which says, "I, Jesus... am the root and the offspring of David..."