Isaiah Chapter 11

From The Open Bible Project

11:1 A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.

• (a) Because the captivity of Babylon was a figure of the spiritual captivity under sin, he shows that our true deliverance must come by Christ: for as David came out of Jesse, a man without dignity, so Christ would come of a poor carpenter’s house as out of a dead stock, (Isaiah 53:2).

11:2 The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.

11:3 His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears;

11:4 but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

• (b) All these properties can agree to no one, but only to Christ: for it is he who touches the hearts of the faithful and mortifies their concupiscence: and to the wicked he is the favour of death and to them who will perish, so that all the world will be smitten with his rod, which is his word.

11:5 Righteousness will be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his waist.

11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat; The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.

• (c) Men because of their wicked affections are named by the names of beasts, in which the same affections reign: but Christ by his Spirit will reform them, and work in them such mutual charity, that they will be like lambs, favouring and loving one another and cast off all their cruel affections, (Isaiah 65:25).

11:7 The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.

11:8 The nursing child will play near a cobra's hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.

11:9 They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea.

• (d) It will be in as great abundance as the waters in the sea.

11:10 It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.

• (e) He prophecies of the calling of the Gentiles.
• (f) That is, the Church which he also calls his rest, (Psalms 132:14).

11:11 It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

• (g) For God first delivered his people out of Egypt and now promises to deliver them out of their enemies hands as from the Parthians, Persians, Chaldeans and them of Antioch among whom they were dispersed and this is chiefly meant of Christ, who calls his people being dispersed through all the world.

11:12 He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

11:13 The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won't envy Judah, and Judah won't persecute Ephraim.

• (h) Here he describes the consent that will be in his Church and their victory against their enemies.

11:14 They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them.

11:15 Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.

• (i) Meaning a corner of the sea that enters into the land and has the form of a tongue.
• (k) That is, Nile, the great river of Egypt which enters into the sea with seven streams.

11:16 There 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.