Isaiahchapter 11
16 verses · Isaiah · 8th century BC · The Prophets
Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.
Introduction
Isaiah, The Prophets, Isaiah Overview.
Isaiah spoke this chapter in the years when the house of David had shrunk to little under Ahaz and Assyria was cutting down the nations like a forest. Its first hearers knew how an olive or an oak sends up a green shoot from a stump that looks dead. It sets out a coming ruler, the kind of rule he brings, and the gathering of a scattered people. Listen for the family name used in place of the royal one. Notice the list of what rests on him and how he judges. Mark the signal raised for the nations. The chapter describes the kingdom the prophets kept waiting for.
Context
- Who
- Judeans watching David's house shrink to a stump under Ahaz
- What
- A prophecy of a shoot from the stump of Jesse on whom the Spirit rests, his just rule, a peace reaching the animal world, and the return of the scattered.
- Where
- The land of Israel and God's holy mountain, with exiles gathered from Assyria, Egypt and the coastlands.
- When
- Spoken about 730 to 700 BC, looking past the hearers' own time to the reign of the coming king.
- Why
- To assure a people whose dynasty seemed finished that God would raise a righteous king from David's line and gather His people.
Historical context
The image is coppicing, and every farmer knew it. Cut an olive or an oak to the ground and the root sends up a fresh shoot; the tree looks finished and is not. Isaiah has just described a forest being felled. Now he points to one stump, and calls it Jesse's, not David's. Naming the father rather than the king says the royal house is back down to a farming family in Bethlehem.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The way this ruler judges is measured against the court everyone knew. Cases were heard at the city gate, in public, and they turned on what the judge saw and what witnesses said, which meant they turned on appearance, reputation, and who had paid whom. This one does not judge by what his eyes see or what his ears hear, and the poor get a fair hearing for the first time.
The animal pictures are pastoral facts turned inside out. A wolf among lambs, a leopard by a goat, a lion at the feed trough eating straw like an ox, a nursing baby playing over a snake hole, every one of those is a shepherd's nightmare, listed and cancelled. The cause is given plainly: the earth full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
The gathering at the end is a second exodus, and the route is spelled out: a highway from Assyria like the one Israel had out of Egypt, the gulf of the Egyptian sea dried, the river split into channels a man can cross in sandals, and the scattered brought back from Assyria, Egypt, Cush, Elam, Babylon, Hamath, and the coastlands.
Significance
To hearers whose king was Ahaz, the promise was that the dynasty's ruin was not its end. The Spirit-list, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, the fear of the LORD, is a description of everything Judah's kings had lacked.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The horizon is plainly further out than any homecoming these hearers saw. Nothing in the return from Babylon looked like a lion eating straw, and the house reading takes it as it stands: a real reign of the Messiah over a healed earth, still ahead.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Isaiah 11, and no festival reading for the book. Across chapters 1 to 22 of Isaiah the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 1, 6, 7 and 9.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Ibn Ezra is quoted from the Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah, translated by M. Friedlander in 1873, which Sefaria reports as Public Domain.
Rashi reads the shoot from the stem of Jesse as the answer to a question the chapter before leaves open. Hezekiah's people have their consolation, and the reader asks about the exiles already taken to Halah and Habor. Rashi answers, "Eventually, the King Messiah shall come and redeem them" (Rashi on Isaiah 11:1:1). The shoot is "the royal scepter" (Rashi on Isaiah 11:1:2). The king judges by the wisdom of God within him, and knows "who is innocent and who is guilty" (Rashi on Isaiah 11:3:2).
At the thirteenth verse Rashi names two figures. "The Messiah, the son of David, and the Messiah, the son of Joseph, shall not envy each other" (Rashi on Isaiah 11:13:1). The second time of the eleventh verse is a redemption complete like the one from Egypt (Rashi on Isaiah 11:11:1).
Ibn Ezra reads the spirit that rests on the king as a spirit of wisdom and understanding "was assigned to Joshua" (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 11:2:2). He reads the wolf and the lamb as a figure: "The peace that will be in his days is now figuratively described" (Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 11:6:1). A Christian reader who reads this chapter of Christ shares with the classical Jewish reading the view that it speaks of the Messiah, and parts from it over who he is.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 37 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 1 in the Talmud and 36 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 68:1, Aggadat Bereshit 70:5 and Bereshit Rabbah 85:9. On verse 2 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5, Bamidbar Rabbah 13:11 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:10. On verse 3 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 21, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Toldot 20:1 and Pesikta Rabbati 12:1. On verse 4 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 45:1, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:22 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 2:12:2. On verse 5 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 19 and Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Samuel HaKatan 1:10. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Akiba, Aleph Bet of Rabbi Akiba (Version 1) 13.
On verse 6 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 26:6:1, Midrash Shmuel 19:5 and Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 2 2. On verse 7 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Vayishlach 1:3 and Shemot Rabbah 15:21. On verse 8 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 43:34:5 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 49:17:3. On verse 9 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 75:1 and Bava Batra 74b:10. On verse 10 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 98:9 and Bereshit Rabbah 99:8.
On verse 11 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:5. On verse 12 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:14 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 49:10:4. On verse 13 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 64:2 and Aggadat Bereshit 79:6. On verse 14 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:1 and Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 24:17:2. On verse 15 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:2:1 and Midrash Tehillim 92:1.
On verse 16 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 13:20.
The corpus file also carries three locators anchored to verses this chapter does not have, and they are left out of the list above. Pesikta Rabbati 9:1 is anchored at Isaiah 11:23. Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 6:20 is anchored at Isaiah 11:25. Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 2:12:5 is anchored at Isaiah 11:30. The chapter has 16 verses in the Berean Standard Bible as the store holds it.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Isaiah 11:1:1 to 11:16:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Isaiah 11:2:1 to 11:7:2, Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873, reported Public Domain; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/isaiah/11.json, the 37 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Isaiah 11: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A Shoot Out of the Stump of Jesse
Isaiah 11:1-2
Then a shoot will spring up: The shoot springs from the stump of chapter 10, named from Jesse. The Spirit rests on Him in three pairs, wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and the fear of the LORD. It is the fullest description of the Spirit resting on any single figure in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 11:1
“And there shall come forth a rod - In the previous chapter, the prophet had represented the Assyrian monarch and his army under the image of a dense and flourishing forest, with all its glory and grandeur. In opposition to this, he describes the illustrious personage who is the subject of this chapter, under the image of a slender twig or shoot, sprouting up from the root of a decayed and fallen tree. Between the Assyrian, therefore, and the person who is the subject of this chapter, there is a most striking and beautiful contrast.”
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Isaiah 11:1
“The stem - Or, stump: for the word signifies properly a trunk cut off from the root. By which he clearly implies, that the Messiah should be born of the royal house of David, at that time when it was in a most forlorn condition, like a tree cut down, and whereof nothing is left but a stump or root under ground.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 11:1
“The Messiah was thus to begin his estate of humiliation, for submitting to which he should be highly exalted, and would thus give early notice that his kingdom was not of this world. The Chaldee paraphrase reads this, There shall come forth a King from the sons of Jesse, and the Messiah (or Christ) shall be anointed out of his sons' sons.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
ConnectionsIsaiah 11:10, Isaiah 9:6, Jeremiah 23:5, Micah 5:2, person/david, Revelation 22:16
The Spirit is named with three pairs, wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and fear of the LORD. The Greek and Latin add piety, and Bede counted from them the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Cyril of Jerusalem read one Spirit with diverse operations.
Isaiah 11:2
“And the Spirit of the Lord - The Spirit of Yahweh. Chaldee, ‘And there shall rest upon him the spirit of prophecy from before Yahweh.’ In the previous verse, the prophet had announced his origin and his birth. In this, he proceeds to describe his extraordinary endowments, as eminently holy, pure, and wise. There can be no doubt that reference is here had to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the sacred Trinity, as descending upon him in the fullness of his influences, and producing in him perfect wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:2
“Wisdom - It is not needful, exactly to distinguish these two gifts; it is sufficient that they are necessary qualifications for a governor, and a teacher, and it is evident they signify perfect knowledge of all things necessary for his own and peoples good, and a sound judgment, to distinguish between things that differ.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 11:3-5
He will not judge by: y what His eyes see," a standard no human judge can keep. With righteousness He judges the poor and with equity decides for the lowly, the case Assyria's boasting kings never made. Righteousness is the belt around His hips and faithfulness the sash around His waist.
the rod of His mouth: is His word. Paul uses the breath of His lips in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 of the Lord slaying the lawless one. Houbigant proposed reading blast for rod, and Clarke reported the conjecture.
Isaiah 11:4
“With the rod of his mouth “By the blast of his mouth” - For בשבט beshebet, by the rod, Houbigant reads בשבת beshebeth, by the blast of his mouth, from נשב nashab, to blow. The conjecture is ingenious and probable; and seems to be confirmed by the Septuagint and Chaldee, who render it by the word of his mouth, which answers much better to the correction than to the present reading. Add to this, that the blast of his mouth is perfectly parallel to the breath of his lips in the next line.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 11:4
“For in the last days false prophets shall be multiplied, and such as corrupt the word; and the sheep shall be changed into wolves, and love into hatred: for through the abounding of iniquity the love of many shall wax cold. For men shall hate, and persecute, and betray one another. And then shall appear the deceiver of the world, the enemy of the truth, the prince of lies, [2 Thessalonians 2:3-12] whom the Lord Jesus "shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth, who takes away the wicked with His lips; and many shall be offended at Him.”
Apostolic Constitutions · written before 380 · Apostolic Constitutions (Book VII), Section 2, XXXIIpatristic
Isaiah 11:4
“Reprove - Or condemn their malicious enemies. Thy rod - With his word, which is his scepter, and the rod of his power, Psalm cx, 2, which is sharper than a sword, Heb. iv, 12, by the preaching whereof he subdued the world to himself, and will destroy his enemies, 2Thes ii, 8. This he adds farther, to declare the nature of Christ's kingdom, that it is not of this world.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Isaiah 11:4
“He as the Word of God (Re 19:13-15) comes to strike that blow which shall decide His claim to the kingdom, previously usurped by Satan, and "the beast" to whom Satan delegates his power. It will be a day of judgment to the Gentile dispensation, as the first coming was to the Jews. Compare a type of the "rod" (Nu 17:2-10).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Righteousness will be the belt around His hips: The belt around the hips holds the clothing close, and Wesley noted that a belt was also an ornament and a sign of power. Righteousness and faithfulness bind the Branch as the belt binds the hips and the sash the waist. Paul takes up the image in Ephesians 6:14.
Isaiah 11:5
At all times let us stand firm, but especially now, although many afflictions overtake us and many heretics are furious against us. Let us then, my beloved brothers, celebrate with thanksgiving the holy feast that now draws near to us, "girding up the loins of our minds," like our Savior Jesus Christ, of whom it is written, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Festal Letter 3patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 11:5
“And righteousness shall be the gridle of his loins - The sense of this verse is plain. He will always exhibit himself as a just and faithful king. “The girdle of the loins” refers to the cincture, or band, with which the ancients girded themselves. A part of their dress consisted of an outward, loose, flowing robe.”
Isaiah 11:5
“So "truth" gives firm consistency to the whole character (Eph 5:14). In Isa 59:17, "righteousness" is His breastplate.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The Wolf and the Lamb on the Holy Mountain
Isaiah 11:6-8
The wolf will live with: The wolf lives with the lamb, the leopard with the goat, and a little child leads calf and young lion together. The lion eating straw like the ox reverses the animal kingdom's violence. Gill and Barnes note that the images build by degree toward the smallest figure in the picture.
Isaiah 11:6
“The wolf - The creatures shall be restored to that state of innocency in which they were before the fall of man. Men of fierce, and cruel dispositions, shall be so transformed by the grace of Christ, that they shall become gentle, and tractable. A child - They will submit their rebellious wills to the conduct of the meanest persons that speak to them in Christ's name.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:6
“The wolf also shall, etc. “Then shall the wolf,” etc. - The idea of the renewal of the golden age, as it is called, is much the same in the Oriental writers with that of the Greeks and Romans: - the wild beasts grow tame; serpents and poisonous herbs become harmless; all is peace and harmony, plenty and happiness: - Occidet et serpens, et fallax herba veneni Occidet. Vega. Eclog. 4:24. “The serpent’s brood shall die. The sacred ground Shall weeds and noxious plants refuse to bear.” - Nec magnos metuent armenta leones. Virg. Eclog.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the lion will eat straw like the ox: The cow, the bear and the lion carry on the pairs of verse 6. Irenaeus and Papias read them of a renewed creation in the kingdom to come, and Barnes took them as an image of safety. Isaiah 65:25 repeats the lion eating straw like the ox.
Isaiah 11:7
“Such is the grace of the waters, that their calves and lions flee from them, so that this prophetic saying about the sanctity of the Church rightly applies to them: Then wolves and lambs will graze together, and lions and oxen will eat straw together. No wonder, since even in the Church, water works in the same way, that the washed-away wickedness of the thieves is compared with the innocence.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · The Six Days of Creation, 5.2.6patristic
The infant will play: The cobra and the viper are the deadliest things a child could meet, and here they do no harm. Barnes took the infant as an emblem of innocence. Gill found the meaning in verse 9, where none will harm or destroy on all the holy mountain of the LORD.
Isaiah 11:8
“Listen to how the flesh of God becomes an antidote: The Word became flesh; He put His hand into the den of vipers, He expelled the venom, He removed sin; that is, He condemned sin in the flesh.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms, On Psalm 37.4patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:8
The cockatrice’ den - This is supposed, both by the Targum and by Kimchi, to mean the pupil of this serpent’s eye. “When,” says Kimchi, “he is in the mouth of his den, in an obscure place, then his eyes sparkle exceedingly: the child, seeing this, and supposing it to be a piece of crystal, or precious stone, puts forth his hand to take it. What would be very dangerous at another time, shall be safe in the days of the Messiah; for the serpent will not hurt the child.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
They will neither harm nor destroy: y" names the reach of the peace. The earth "will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water," and Habakkuk 2:14 echoes the clause. The word "for" ties the animal peace to that knowledge as its cause.
Isaiah 11:9
“They shall not hurt - That is, those who are designated above under the emblems of the lion, the leopard, the bear, and the adder. Nor destroy in all my holy mountain - Mount Zion; used here, as elsewhere, to denote the seat of his reign on the earth, or his church; the notes at Isa 1:8; Isa 2:4. The disposition of people, naturally ferocious and cruel, shall be changed so entirely, that the causes of strife and contention shall cease. They shall be disposed to do justice, and to promote each other’s welfare everywhere.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:9
“But now, to all the earth has gone forth their voice, and all the earth has been filled with the knowledge of God, and the disciples have made disciples of all the nations, and now is fulfilled what is written: "They shall be all taught of God." And then what was revealed was but a type; but now the truth has been manifested.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Discourses Against the Arians 1.13.8patristic
An Ensign for the Nations and a Second Gathering
the Root of Jesse will stand: "On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples," a verse Paul quotes at Romans 15:12. The Jesse named at verse 1 now stands as the banner the nations seek. Calvin reads the banner as military in origin, a standard raised to gather troops.
Isaiah 11:10
“A root of Jesse, which shall stand etc. “The root of Jesse, which standeth,” etc. - St. John hath taken this expression from Isaiah, Rev 5:5, and Rev 22:16, where Christ hath twice applied it to himself. Seven MSS. have עומד omed, standing, the present participle. Radix Isaei dicitur jam stare, et aliquantum stetisse, in signum populorum. - Vitringa. “The root of Jesse is said to stand, and for some time to have stood, for an ensign to the people.” Which rightly explains either of the two readings. Psa 110:1-7 (note) is a good comment on this verse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:10
“THE Lord Jesus Christ, who is "the root of Jesse"—"the shoot from the stock of Jesse," as the first verse of this chapter might be rendered—is the very center of all Israel! And He is also the rallying-point of the Gentiles, for He has made both Jew and Gentile to be one, having "broken down the middle wall of partition between us." And now, around the one ensign of His glorious name, all the believing hosts gather with glad accord.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2542: “Christ's Rest and Ours” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Cross references
Isaiah 11:10
- Quoted inRomans 15:12And once more, Isaiah says: “The Root of Jesse will appear, One who will arise to rule over the Gentiles; in Him the Gentiles will put their hope.”
'There shall be a root of Jesse... in him shall the Gentiles trust' ('Esaias saith')
ConnectionsRomans 15:12
Isaiah 11:11-12
the Lord will extend His hand: The Lord extends His hand "a second time to recover the remnant of His people," a second deliverance after the exodus. He raises the banner and gathers the exiles of Israel and the scattered of Judah, both kingdoms as one people. The text ties this gathering to no datable event.
Isaiah 11:11
“The second - The first time, to which this word second relates, seems to be the deliverance out of Babylon: and then this second deliverance must be in the days of the Messiah. To recover - From all places far and near, into which either the ten tribes or the two tribes were carried captives. Pathros was a province in Egypt.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Isaiah 11:11
“And it shall come to pass - The prophet having, in the previous verse, stated the effect of the reign of the Messiah on the Gentile world, proceeds to state the result on the scattered Jews. Whether it is to be a literal re-collecting of the scattered tribes to the land of their fathers, has been a subject of debate, and is still so by expositors. We may be able to determine what is the correct general interpretation after the particular phrases have been examined. In that day - That future time referred to in this whole prophecy.”
Isaiah 11:11
“A remnant of both, a little remnant in comparison, which shall be recovered, as it were, with great difficulty and hazard. As formerly God delivered his people, and gathered them out of all the countries whither they were scattered ( Ps. cvi. 15, 16 ), so he will a second time, in another way, by the powerful working of the Spirit of grace with the word.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
He will raise a banner for the nations: The banner answers 5:26, where God lifts a banner to summon distant nations against Judah. Here the same signal gathers the exiles of Israel and the scattered of Judah, north and south together. Aquinas read it first as the decree of Cyrus.
Isaiah 11:12
“And he shall set up an ensign - See Isa 11:10. The Messiah shall stand in view of the nations, as a standard is erected by a military leader. An ensign or standard was usually lifted up on the mountains or on some elevated place (compare Isa 18:3); and the meaning here is, that the Messiah would be the conspicuous object around which the nations would rally.”
Isaiah 11:13-14
the jealousy of Ephraim will depart: "Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart," and the old rivalry between the two kingdoms, visible through Israel's whole monarchy, is healed. The united people turn outward, swooping on the slopes of the Philistines and laying hands on Edom, Moab and the Ammonites, their old regional enemies.
Isaiah 11:13
“Of enemies they shall be made friends. The adversaries - Not the body of Ephraim, for they are supposed to be reconciled, and they shall not be cut off, but live in love with Judah, as we see by the next clause; but those few of them who continue in their enmity together with all the rest of their adversaries.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:13
“Note, Those who have been sharers with each other in afflictions and mercies, dangers and deliverances, ought in consideration thereof to unite for their joint and mutual safety and protection; and it is likely to be well with the church when Ephraim and Judah are one against the Philistines.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
They will lay their hands on Edom and Moab: Philistia, Edom, Moab and the Ammonites were the old neighbours David subdued in 2 Samuel 8. Barnes read the swoop on the slopes of the Philistines as the spread of the gospel, and noted that the Jews read it literally. Ephraim and Judah, reconciled in verse 13, now act together.
Isaiah 11:14
“But they shall fly - The design of this verse is, to show the rapid and certain spiritual conquests which would result from the conversion of the scattered Jewish people. The Jews understood this literally, as referring to the conquests over their enemies. But if the exposition which has been given of this chapter thus far is correct, the passage is to be interpreted as a figurative description of the triumph of the people of God under the Messiah. The “time” to which it refers, is that which shall succeed the conversion of the scattered Jews.”
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:14
“With united forces they shall subdue their foes (Am 9:12). fly--as a bird of prey (Hab 1:8). upon the shoulders--This expresses an attack made unexpectedly on one from behind. The image is the more apt, as the Hebrew for "shoulders" in Nu 34:11 is used also of a maritime coast ("side of the sea": Hebrew, "shoulder of the sea," Margin).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaiah 11:15-16
The LORD will devote to destruction: The LORD splits the Euphrates "for men to cross with dry sandals," recalling the Red Sea crossing. The chapter closes on "a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria," with the exodus as the pattern. The dried river and the highway make one image.
Isaiah 11:15
"The river" is the Euphrates, the obstruction to Israel's return "from Assyria" (Isa 11:16), a type of all future impediments to the restoration of the Jews. dry shod--Hebrew, "in shoes." Even in sandals they should be able to pass over the once mighty river without being wet (Re 16:12).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Isaiah 11:15
“Converts shall be brought in chariots and in litters, ch. lxvi. Some think it is the further accession of multitudes to the church that is pointed at in that obscure prophecy of the drying up of the river Euphrates, that the way of the kings of the east may be prepared ( Rev. xvi. 12 ), which seems to refer to this prophecy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
There will be a highway for the remnant of His people: The return from Assyria is modelled on the exodus from Egypt, as verse 15 strikes the Sea of Egypt and the Euphrates. Barnes compared 35:8, the highway called the Way of Holiness. Chapter 12 gives the song of that day, as Exodus 15 follows the crossing of the sea.
Isaiah 11:16
“And there shall be an highway - All obstructions shall be removed, and they shall be permitted to return without hinderance (compare the note at Isa 35:8). For the remnant of his people from Assyria - See note at Isa 11:11. Like as it was to Israel... - That is, God will remove all obstructions as he did at the Red Sea; he will subdue all their enemies; he will provide for their needs; and he will interpose by the manifest marks of his presence and protection, as their God and their friend.”
Keep studying
Studies9
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Words12
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Bede, On the Tabernacle 1:9; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 16:30; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Irenaeus, Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 33), Sections 3-4; John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah; John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON EPHESIANS 23; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Papias of Hierapolis, Against Heresies (Book V, Chapter 33), Section 4 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.