Table of Contents
Isaiah 11
Isaiah 11
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 shall 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 shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling 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 sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
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; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and 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 together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them 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 shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Notes
Cross Reference
Commentary
Who is the branch?
King David was the son of Jesse. Also see Zechariah 6:12-13.
Rashi
Verse 1
<html><b>And a shoot shall spring forth from the stem of Jesse</b> And if you say, ‘Here are consolations for Hezekiah and his people, that they shall not fall into his hands. Now what will be with the exile that was exiled to Halah and Habor, is their hope lost?’ It is not lost! Eventually, the King Messiah shall come and redeem them. <b>a shoot</b> [This is symbolic of] the royal scepter. <b>and a twig</b> an expression of a sapling. <b>and a twig shall sprout from its roots</b> and the entire section, and at the end (v. 11), “And it shall come to pass, that on that day, the Lord shall apply His hand again…[from Assyria]…Hence, [it is obvious] that this prophecy was said to console those exiled to Assyria.</html>
Verse 3
<html><b>And he shall be animated by the fear of the Lord</b> He shall be filled with the fear of the Lord. [ed enos mera il luy in O.F., and He shall be enlivened.] <b>and neither with the sight of his eyes shall he judge</b> For, with the wisdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, which is within him, will he know and understand who is innocent and who is guilty.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>with equity</b> This is an expression of mildness and tenderness. <b>and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth</b> As the Targum states: And he shall smite the sinful of the earth. <b>and with the breath of his lips</b> Jonathan [renders:] And with the speech of his lips.</html>
Verse 5
<html><b>And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins</b> Jonathan [renders:] And the righteous shall surround him; i.e., they will cleave to him like a girdle.</html>
Verse 6
<html><b>and a fatling</b> a fattened ox [following Jonathan].</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>shall play</b> Heb. וְשִׁעֲשַׁע, shall play. <b>over the hole of an old snake</b> over a hole in the ground in which the snake makes its nest [krot in O.F.], a cave. an old snake פֶּתֶן. A snake, when it ages, becomes deaf and is called פֶּתֶן. From then on, it cannot be charmed; as it is said (Psalms 58:6): “Who will not hearken to the voice of charmers.” <b>and over the eyeball of a venomous snake</b> Jonathan renders: the eyeballs of venomous snakes [מְאוּרַת from אוֹר, light]. Menahem (Machbereth Menachem p. 32) interpreted it as an expression of a hole, namely holes in the ground. Comp. (Gen. 11:28) “The valley of the Chaldees (אוּר)”; (infra 24:15) “In the valleys (בָּאוּרִים) honor the Lord.” <b>a weaned child</b> a child weaned from his mother’s breasts. <b>shall stretch forth his hand</b> Heb. הָדָה. Jonathan renders: shall stretch forth his hands (sic). Comp. (Ezekiel 7:7) “The joyful call (הֵד) of the mountains, also (infra 16: 9) “The cry (הֵידָד),” which is an expression of raising the voice. This, too, is an expression of raising, and the final [letter] ‘heh’ appears in it as a radical which sometimes falls out, like עָשָׂה (made), בָּנָה (built), קָנָה (acquired).</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>knowledge of the Lord</b> [lit.] to know the Lord.</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>as a banner for peoples</b> that peoples should raise a banner to gather to him.</html>
Verse 11
<html><b>a second time</b> Just as he acquired them from Egypt, when their redemption was absolute, without subjugation, but the redemption preceding the building of the Second Temple is not counted, since they were subjugated to Cyrus. <b>and from the islands of the sea</b> the islands of the Kittim, the Romans, the descendants of Esau.</html>
Verse 12
<html><b>And he shall raise a banner</b> Perka, perche in O.F. [i.e., the verse is literally referring to the pole upon which the banner is attached.] And it shall be for a sign to gather to him and to bring the exiles of Israel to Him as a present.</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>Ephraim shall not envy Judah</b> The Messiah, the son of David, and the Messiah, the son of Joseph, shall not envy each other.</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>And they shall fly of one accord against the Philistines in the west</b> Heb. בְכָתֵף. Israel will fly and run of one accord against the Philistines who are in the west of Eretz Israel and conquer their land. [כָּתֵף, lit. a shoulder, is used in this case to denote unity. The word שֶׁכֶם, also lit. a shoulder, is used in a similar sense.] Comp. (Hoshea 6:9) “They murder on the way in unison (שֶׁכְמָה)”; (Zeph. 3:9) “One accord (שְׁכֶם אֶחָד).” And so did Jonathan render it: And they shall join in one accord to smite the Philistines who are in the west. <b>and the children of Ammon shall obey them</b> As the Targum states: Will hearken to them. They will accept their commandments over them.</html>
Verse 15
<html><b>And…shall dry up</b> [lit. shall cut off] to dry it, so that the exiles of Israel will pass through it from Egypt. <b>over the river</b> The Euphrates River, for the exiles from Assyria to cross. <b>with the strength of His wind</b> Heb. בַּעְיָם. This is hapax legomenon in Scripture, and according to the context it can be interpreted as “with the strength of His wind.” <b>into seven streams</b> into seven segments, for the aforementioned seven exiles: from Assyria and from Egypt, etc. Those from the islands of the sea are not from that side. <b>and He shall lead</b> the exiles within it. <b>with shoes</b> on dry land.</html>
Verse 16
<html><b>And there shall be a highway</b> in the midst of the water for the remnant of His people.</html>