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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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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.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples, unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting-place shall be glorious.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Messianic Prophecies (1)
Passages read as foretelling the Messiah, with the fulfillment reading and the counter-reading set side by side.
Cross-references (36)
Passages linked to Isaiah 11:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 15:9-12 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.” Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.” Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.” Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
- Luke 2:32 a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
- Isaiah 11:1 A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
- Matthew 2:1-2 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him.”
- Matthew 12:21 In his name, the nations will hope.”
- John 12:32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
- Matthew 8:11 I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven,
- Isaiah 32:17-18 The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
- Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
- Acts 11:18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life!”
- John 3:14-15 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- Revelation 22:16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”
- Psalms 91:1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
- Isaiah 49:22 The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
- Haggai 2:9 ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says Yahweh of Armies; ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ says Yahweh of Armies.”
- Isaiah 60:3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:7-12 and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes in that day to be glorified in his saints and to be admired among all those who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire of goodness and work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 1 Peter 1:7-9 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ— whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
- Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.
- Isaiah 66:10-12 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts; that you may drink deeply, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees.
- Acts 26:17-18 delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
- Acts 28:28 “Be it known therefore to you, that the salvation of God is sent to the nations, and they will listen.”
- Hebrews 4:1 Let’s fear therefore, lest perhaps anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his rest.
- Hebrews 4:9-16 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let’s hold tightly to our confession. For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.
- 1 Peter 5:10 But may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
- Psalms 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
- Psalms 116:7 Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you.
- Psalms 149:5 Let the saints rejoice in honor. Let them sing for joy on their beds.
- Isaiah 2:11 The lofty looks of man will be brought low, the arrogance of men will be bowed down, and Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day.
- Isaiah 28:12 to whom he said, “This is the resting place. Give rest to weary,” and “This is the refreshing;” yet they would not hear.
- Isaiah 59:19 So they will fear Yahweh’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which Yahweh’s breath drives.
- Isaiah 60:5 Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart will thrill and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you. The wealth of the nations will come to you.
- Isaiah 66:19 “I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to far-away islands, who have not heard my fame, nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations.
- Isaiah 14:3 It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,
- Jeremiah 6:16 Yahweh says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
- John 12:20-21 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast. These, therefore, came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.”
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, the Church, which he also calleth his…
That is, the Church, which he also calleth his rest, Ps. 132:14.
He prophesieth of the calling of the Gentiles.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 11:10 And in that day there shall be…
Isa 11:10 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.
Ver. 10. And in that day.] "In the day of Christ’s power, or kingdom, the people shall be willing." {Psa 110:3} "The isles shall wait for God’s law." {Isa 42:8} Multitudes of nations shall come crowding in to his greatest glory, {Pro 14:2} and for the fulfilling of old Jacob’s prophecy. {Gen 49:10}
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There shall be a root of Jesse.] See on Isa 11:1.
Which shall stand for an ensign.] Or, Standard, whereto all the elect must assemble; and hereby is meant the preaching of the gospel.
Shall the Gentiles seek.] Ferventi studio, magno desiderio, non coacti; they shall fly thereto as the clouds, and as doves scour to their windows. {Isa 60:8}
And his rest.] That is, his Church, with whom he resteth and resideth. {Psa 132:8} He "resteth also in his love to his people, and rejoiceth over them with singing." {Zep 3:17; {See Trapp on "Zep 3:17"}
Shall be glorious.] Heb., Glory; sc., per sanctitatem {Isa 4:5}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain A root; a branch growing upon the root; of…
A root; a branch growing upon the root; of which see on Isa 11:1.
Shall stand for an ensign; shall grow up into a great and high tree, shall become a visible and eminent ensign. Of the people; which not only the Jews, but all nations may discern, and to which they may and shall resort.
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To it shall the Gentiles seek; as the gospel shall be preached to the Gentiles, so they shall receive it, and believe in the Messiah. His rest; his resting-place, as this word frequently signifies, as Gen 8:9; 49:15; Psa 132:8,14; Isa 34:14; Mic 2:10; his temple or church, the place of his presence and abode.
Shall be glorious; shall be filled with greater glory than the Jewish tabernacle and temple were; of which see on Hag 2:9; only this glory shall be spiritual, consisting in glorious ordinances, in the plentiful effusions of the excellent gifts, and graces, and comforts of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We have here a further prophecy of the enlargement…
We have here a further prophecy of the enlargement and advancement of the kingdom of the Messiah, under the type and figure of the flourishing condition of the kingdom of Judah in the latter end of Hezekiah's reign, after the defeat of Sennacherib.
I. This prediction was in part accomplished when the great things God did for Hezekiah and his people proved as an ensign, inviting the neighbouring nations to them to enquire of the wonders done in the land, on which errand the king of Babylon's ambassadors came. To them the Gentiles sought; and Jerusalem, the rest or habitation of the Jews, was then glorious, Isa 11:10. Then many of the Israelites who belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, who upon the destruction of that kingdom by the king of Assyria were forced to flee for shelter into all the countries about and to some that lay very remote, even to the islands of the sea, were encouraged to return to their own country and put themselves under the protection and government of the king of Judah, the rather because it was an Assyrian army by which their country had been ruined and that was not routed. This is said to be a recovery of them the second time (Isa 11:11), such an instance of the power and goodness of God, and such a reviving to them, as their first deliverance out of Egypt was. Then the outcasts of Israel should be gathered in, and brought home, and those of Judah too, who, upon the approach of the Assyrian army, shifted for their own safety. Then the old feud between Ephraim and Judah shall be forgotten, and they shall join against the Philistines and their other common enemies, Isa 11:13, Isa 11:14. 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. Then, whatever difficulties there may be in the way of the return of the dispersed, the Lord shall find out some way or other to remove them, as when he brought Israel out of Egypt he dried up the Red Sea and Jordan (Isa 11:15) and led them to Canaan through the invincible embarrassments of a vast howling wilderness, Isa 11:16. The like will he do this second time, or that which shall be equivalent. When God's time has come for the deliverance of his people mountains of opposition shall become plain before him. Let us not despair therefore when the interests of the church seem to be brought very low; God can soon turn gloomy days into glorious ones.
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II. It had a further reference to the days of the Messiah and the accession of the Gentiles to his kingdom; for to these the apostle applies Isa 11:10, of which the following verses are a continuation. Rom 15:12, There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. That is a key to this prophecy, which speaks of Christ as the root of Jesse, or a branch out of his roots (Isa 11:1), a root out of a dry ground, Isa 53:2. He is the root of David (Rev 5:5), the root and offspring of David Rev 22:16.
1. He shall stand, or be set up, for an ensign of the people. When he was crucified he was lifted up from the earth, that, as an ensign of beacon, he might draw the eyes and the hearts of all men unto him, Joh 12:32. He is set up as an ensign in the preaching of the everlasting gospel, in which the ministers, as standard-bearers, display the banner of his love, to allure us to him (Sol 1:4), the banner of his truth, under which we may enlist ourselves, to engage in a holy war against sin and Satan. Christ is the ensign to which the children of God that were scattered abroad are gathered together (Joh 11:51), and in him they meet as the centre of their unity.
2. To him shall the Gentiles seek. We read of Greeks that did so (Joh 12:21, We would see Jesus), and upon that occasion Christ spoke of his being lifted up, to draw all men to him. The apostle, from the Septuagint (or perhaps the Septuagint from the apostle, in the editions after Christ) reads it (Rom 15:12), In him shall the Gentiles trust; they shall seek to him with a dependence on him.
3. His rest shall be glorious. Some understand this of the death of Christ (the triumphs of the cross made even that glorious), others of his ascension, when he sat down to rest at the right hand of God. Or rather it is meant of the gospel church, that Mount Zion of which Christ has said, This is my rest, and in which he resides. This, though despised by the world, having upon it the beauty of holiness, is truly glorious, a glorious high throne, Jer 17:12.
4. Both Jews and Gentiles shall be gathered to him, Isa 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 (Psa 106:47; Jer 16:15, Jer 16:16), so he will a second time, in another way, by the powerful working of the Spirit of grace with the word. He shall set his hand to do it; he shall exert his power, the arm of the Lord shall be revealed to do it. (1.) There shall be a remnant of the Jews gathered in: The outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah (Isa 11:12), many of whom, at the time of the bringing of them in to Christ, were Jews of the dispersion, the twelve tribes that were scattered abroad (Jam 1:1; Pe1 1:1), shall flock to Christ; and probably more of those scattered Jews were brought into the church, in proportion, than of those which remained in their own land. (2.) Many of the nations, the Gentiles, shall be brought in by the lifting up of the ensign. Jacob foretold concerning Shiloh that to him should the gathering of the people be. Those that were strangers and foreigners shall be made nigh. The Jews were jealous of Christ's going to the dispersed among the Gentiles and of his teaching the Gentiles, Joh 7:35.
5. There shall be a happy accommodation between Judah and Ephraim, and both shall be safe from their adversaries and have dominion over them, Isa 11:13, Isa 11:14. The coalescence between Judah and Israel at that time was a type and figure of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles, who had been so long at variance in the gospel church. The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel (Jer 3:18) and become one nation (Eze 37:22); so the Jews and Gentiles are made of twain one new man (Eph 2:15), and, being at peace one with another, those that are adversaries to them both shall be cut off; for they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines, as an eagle strikes at her prey, shall spoil those on the west side of them, and then they shall extend their conquests eastward over the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. The gospel of Christ shall be successful in all parts, and some of all nations shall become obedient to the faith.
6. Every thing that might hinder the progress and success of the gospel shall be taken out of the way. As when God brought Israel out of Egypt he dried up the Red Sea and Jordan before them (Isa 63:11, Isa 63:12), and as afterwards when he brought up the Jews out of Babylon he prepared them their way (Isa 62:10), so when Jews and Gentiles are to be brought together into the gospel church all obstructions shall be removed (Isa 11:15, Isa 11:16), difficulties that seemed insuperable shall be strangely got over, the blind shall be led by a way that they knew not. See Isa 42:15, Isa 42:16; Isa 43:19, Isa 43:20. Converts shall be brought in chariots and in litters, Isa 66:20. 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 16:12), which seems to refer to this prophecy. Note, When God's time has come for the bringing of nations, or particular persons, home to himself, divine grace will be victorious over all opposition. At the presence of the Lord the sea shall flee and Jordan be driven back; and those who set their faces heavenward will find there are not such difficulties in the way as they thought there were, for there is a highway thither, Isa 35:8.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And in that day there shall be a root…
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse,.... The Messiah, so called, either with respect to his human nature, who was to spring from Jesse; so the Targum,
"and there shall be at that time a son of the sons of Jesse;''
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who, when incarnate, was like a root under ground, hidden to men, as to the glory of his person, and the fulness of his grace, and was mean, abject, and contemptible in their view; or rather with respect to his divine nature, just as he is called "the root and offspring of David", Rev 5:5 the former as God, the latter as man; and so the phrase may denote his eternity, being before Jesse, or any other man or creature whatever; and his being the Creator and preserver of all, of Jesse, and of all others; and, as Mediator, he is the root from whom Jesse, and all the elect of God, are; they have their being in him; they are rooted and grounded in him; and are bore by him as the branches by the root; and they have their life and nourishment, their fruitfulness, holiness, and perseverance therein from him. This is understood of the Messiah, by ancient and modern Jews (e):
which shall stand for an ensign of the people; in the ministration of the Gospel, for the gathering of the people of God to him, to enlist in his service, and fight under his banner, where they may be sure of victory; an ensign set up, a banner displayed, is for the gathering of soldiers together; it is a sign of preparation for war, and an encouragement to it; and is sometimes done when victory is obtained, see Isa 5:26 and is a direction where soldiers should stand, when they should march, and who they should follow, as well as it serves to distinguish one company from another; and of all this use is the preaching of Christ and his Gospel:
to it shall the Gentiles seek; that is, to Christ, signified by the root of Jesse, and set up for an ensign of the people; being sought out by him in redemption and calling, and being sensible of their need of him, and that there is something valuable in him, having had a manifestation of him to them; and therefore seek to him, not out of curiosity, nor with worldly views, nor in the last, but in the first place, and chiefly; not hypocritically, but sincerely, and with their whole hearts; not carelessly, but diligently and constantly; not partially, but for everything they want; principally for the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, for eternal glory and happiness, and for a justifying righteousness, as the title to it: or to him shall they "betake themselves" (f), see Deu 12:5 as to an ensign, standard bearer, captain-general, leader and commander of the people; or as to a stronghold, for protection from enemies; or as to a city of refuge, to secure from avenging justice and wrath to come; and, under a sense of danger and ruin, to one that is able to save; and for help to one that is mighty; or him "shall" they "consult" (g); or seek to him for advice and counsel, see Isa 8:19 who is a most proper person to be consulted on all occasions, he being the wonderful Counsellor, Isa 9:6. This is a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and which had its accomplishment, in part, in the first times of the Gospel, and will be completely fulfilled in the last days:
and his rest shall be glorious; either that which Christ gives to those that seek unto him, and which is both a spiritual rest here, from the burden and guilt of sin, and the tyrannical power of it; from the bondage, curse, and condemnation of the law; from a sense of divine wrath; and a rest in afflictions, though not from them; and an eternal rest hereafter, a "rest in glory" (h); as the words may be rendered here; it will be a glorious one, the bodies of the saints at death rest in the grave, and their souls in the arms of Jesus; and after the resurrection, body and soul will rest together from sin and Satan, from unbelief, doubts, and fears, and from all enemies; or else this rest is what Christ himself enjoys. Some understand it of his death, which, though ignominious in itself, yet glorious in its consequences; a glorious display of the condescension and love of Christ was made in it; and glorious things have been effected by it: others, of his grave, which was an honourable man's; his grave was made with the rich; though perhaps better of his rest in glory; when he had done his work, and sat down at the right hand of God, he was crowned with glory and honour; or rather it may design his church, which is his rest, Psa 132:13 which is glorious, with his righteousness, grace, and presence, and being put in order by him, as an army with banners; and especially it will be, when all the glorious things spoken of it shall be fulfilled.
(e) Zohar in Exod. fol. 71. 1. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 98. fol. 85. 3. Midrash in Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 97. 2. Baal Hatturim in Numb. 26. 10. (f) "non significat quaerre, sed tendere, aut se confere", Bootius, Animadv. l. 1. c. 5. sect. 6. (g) "Ad eum consulent", Junius. (h) So Ben Melech observes that is wanting, and the sense is "in", or, "with glory".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A root - A branch growing upon the root.…
A root - A branch growing upon the root. Ensign - Shall grow up into a great tree, shall become an eminent ensign. The people - Which not only the Jews, but all nations, may discern, and to which they shall resort. Rest - His resting-place, his temple or church, the place of his presence and abode. Glorious - Shall be filled with greater glory than the Jewish tabernacle and temple were; only this glory shall be spiritual, consisting in the plentiful effusions of the gifts, and graces, of the Holy Spirit.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. A root of Jesse, which shall stand…
Verse 10. A root of Jesse, which shall stand &c. - "The root of Jesse, which standeth," &c.] St. John hath taken this expression from Isaiah, Re 5:5, and Re 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's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 11:10. And in that day, &c. — We…
Isa 11:10. And in that day, &c. — We have here the latter part of this prophecy, which sets forth some more illustrious events of this kingdom, with their consequences. The events are set forth Isa 11:10-16, and are three. 1st, The remarkable conversion of the Gentiles, Isa 11:10. 2d, The calling of the dispersed Jews to the communion of the kingdom of Christ, Isa 11:11 to Isa 14:3 d, A diminution of the powers of the adverse empires, Egypt and Assyria, Isa 11:15-16. The consequence of these events is represented to be a remarkable thanksgiving of the Jewish people, converted to the Messiah for the redemption granted to them, Isa 12:1-6. There shall be a root of Jesse, &c. — This verse, is more literally rendered, And it shall be in that day, — Namely, in that glorious gospel day, that the Gentiles shall seek to the root of Jesse, which stands for an ensign of the people; and his rest shall be glorious. By the root of Jesse, we may either understand a branch growing from that root, and so may interpret it of Christ’s human nature, or, referring it to his divine nature, we may take it for a root properly so called, as the expression is to be understood Rev 22:16; where Christ is represented as being as well the root, as the offspring of David. Which shall stand, or which stands, for an ensign of the people — Which shall grow up into a great and high tree, shall become a visible and eminent ensign, which not only the Jews, but all nations may discern, and to which they may and shall resort; to it shall the Gentiles seek — As the gospel shall be preached to the Gentiles, so they shall receive it, and believe in the Messiah; and his rest — That is, either, 1st, His resting-place, his temple, or church, the place of his presence and abode; shall be glorious — Filled with greater glory than the Jewish tabernacle and temple were; only this glory shall be spiritual, consisting in the plentiful effusion of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. Or, 2d, The rest enjoyed by those who are true worshippers in this temple, or true members of this church: their rest of grace, of faith, hope, and love: the rest consequent on the justification of their persons, and the renovation of their nature; the rest which they enter into by believing, (Heb 4:3,) which they receive in consequence of coming to Christ, weary and heavy laden, and learning of him, Mat 11:28; their peace with God, peace of conscience, and tranquillity of mind, is glorious, for it passeth all understanding, Php 4:7. And it shall be much more glorious in a future world, when they enter the rest remaining for the people of God, Heb 4:9. Then their rest shall be not only glorious, but glory: and glory shall be their rest, as the words may be also rendered.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And in that day - That future time when…
And in that day - That future time when the reign of the Messiah shall be established; Note, Isa 3:2; Isa 4:1. The prophet, having described the birth, and the personal characteristics of the great personage to whom he referred, together with the peaceful effects of his reign, proceeds to state the result of that reign in some other respects. The first is Isa 11:10, that the “Gentiles” would be brought under his reign; the second Isa 11:14, that it would be attended with the restoration of the scattered people of Judea; and the third Isa 11:15-16, that it would be followed by the destruction of the enemies of the people of God.
There shall be a root of Jesse - There shall be a sprout, shoot, or scion of the ancient and decayed family of Jesse; see the note at Isa 5:1. Chaldee, ‘There shall be a son of the sons of Jesse.’ The word “root” here - שׁרשׁ shoresh - is evidently used in the sense of a root that, is alive when the tree is dead; a root that sends up a shoot or sprout; and is thus applied to him who should proceed from the ancient and decayed family of Jesse; see Isa 53:2. Thus in Rev 5:5, the Messiah is called ‘the” root” of David,’ and in Rev 22:16, ‘the root and the offspring of David.’
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Which shall stand - There is reference here, doubtless, to the fact that military ensigns were sometimes raised on mountains or towers which were permanent, and which, therefore, could be rallying points to an arm or a people. The idea is, that the root of Jesse, that is, the Messiah, should be conspicuous, and that the nations should flee to him, and rally around him as a people do around a military standard. Thus the Saviour says Joh 12:32 : ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.’
For an ensign - For a standard, or a sign round which they shall rally.
Of the people - That is, as the parallelism shows, of the Gentiles.
To it shall the Gentiles seek - The pagan world shall look to it for safety and deliverance. In the Scriptures, the world is spoken of as divided into Jews and Gentiles. All who are not Jews come under this appellation. This is a distinct prophecy, that other nations than the Jews should be benefited by the work of the Messiah, and constitute a part of his kingdom. This fact is often referred to by Isaiah, and constitutes a very material feature in his prophecies; Isa 42:1, Isa 42:6; Isa 49:22; Isa 54:3; Isa 60:3, Isa 60:5, Isa 60:11, Isa 60:16; Isa 61:6, Isa 61:9; Isa 62:2; Isa 66:12, Isa 66:19. The word “seek” here, is used in the sense of seeking as a Deliverer, or a Saviour: they shall apply to him for instruction, guidance, and salvation; or they shall apply to him as a nation looks to its deliverer to protect it; compare Isa 8:19; 2Ki 1:3; Isa 65:1.
And his rest - The rest, peace, and quietness, which he shall give. This evidently includes all the rest or peace which he shall impart to those who seek him. The word מנוחה menûchâh sometimes denotes “a resting place,” or a habitation Num 10:33; Mic 2:10; Psa 132:8; but it also denotes “a state of rest, quietness;” Rth 1:9; Jer 45:3; Psa 23:2; Psa 95:11; Deu 12:9; Isa 28:12; Isa 46:1. Here it evidently means the latter. It may refer,
(1) To the peace which he gives to the conscience of the awaened and troubled sinner Mat 11:28-30; or
(2) To the prosperity and peace which his reign shall produce.
Shall be glorious - Hebrew, ‘Shall be glory.’ That is, shall be full of glory and honor. It shall be such as shall confer signal honor on his reign. The Chaldee understands this of his place of residence, his palace, or court. ‘And the place of his abode shall be in glory.’ The Vulgate renders it, ‘and his sepulchre shall be glorious.’
‘By his rest, we are not to understand his grave - or his death - or his Sabbath - or the rest he gives his people - but his place of rest, his residence. There is no need of supplying a preposition before glory, which is an abstract used for a concrete - glory, for glorious. The church, Christ’s home, shall be glorious from his presence, and the accession of the Gentiles.’ - (Alexander.) This is a beautiful rendering; it is, moreover, consistent with the letter and spirit of the passage. Some include both ideas.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Ensign. the cross is the standard of Christians. ---…
Ensign. the cross is the standard of Christians. --- Sepulchre. Hebrew, Septuagint, &c., "rest." St. Jerome give the true sense. The holy places have been greatly reverenced, and Christian princes strove for a long time to recover them. (Calmet) --- They are respected even by the Turks. Christ’s death was ignominious, but his monument was full of glory. Thus the saints begin to shine, where the glory of the wicked ends. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 10 And in that day there shall be a…
2. THE RETURN OF ISRAEL TAKES PLACE ONLY WHEN THE MESSIAH HAS APPEARED AND THE HEATHEN HAVE GATHERED TO HIM
Isa_11:10-16
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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 12glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day,
That the Lord shall set his hand again the second time
To 13recover 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 14 15corners of the earth.
13 The envy also 16of 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 17of the Philistines toward the west;
They shall spoil 18them of the east together:
19They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab;
20And the children of Ammon 21shall obey them.
15 And the Lord 22shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea;
And 23with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river,
And shall smite it 24in the seven streams,
And make men go over 25dry-shod.
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.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
On Isa_11:10. דרשׁ אֵל comp. on Isa_8:19, but it has more emphasis than there.
On Isa_11:11. הוסיף יד is only found here. Many would connect יָדוֹ with what follows as accus. instr. But the position conflicts with that. Others supply לשְׁלֹחַ; but that is not something that may be left to be understood. It is better with Drechsler to take הוסיף יד as an expression equivalent to נָתַן יָד (Exo_7:4): manum addere corresponding to manum dare. If the latter means “to lay the hand on one,” then our expression means “repeatedly to lay hands on one.”
On Isa_11:12. נדחים and נפוצות, by this simple means the Prophet expresses the thought that the promised gathering shall extend to both sexes, men and women. ארבע כנפות is only found here in Isaiah. The words are taken from Deu_22:12, and are found beside Eze_7:2.
On Isa_11:14 כָּתֵף .ועפו בכתף וגו׳ is without doubt here used in a double sense. Every shoulder-shaped elevation is called כתף. Thus we find כתף יס־כנרף Num_34:11; כתף היבוסי Jos_15:8; Jos_18:16; כ׳ הר־יערים ibid. Jos_11:10. כ׳ יריחו Jos_18:12; כ׳ לוזה Jos_18:13. So, too, Jos_15:11 speaks of a כֶּתֶף עֶקְרוֹן. Therefore the shoulder-like watershed of the coast of Philistia toward the sea may be called כתף. But from the verb עפו it is seen that the Prophet has in mind at the same time the figure of a bird of prey that flies on a man’s shoulder in order to belabor his head. But is כָּתֵף st. const. or absolutus. Delitzsch is of the opinion that, on account of the following פ in פלשׁתים, the stat. absol. is used in the sense of stat. constructus. It were possible that the Masorets might have punctuated in this way for the reason assigned, yet this kind of punctuation ought to occur oftener. But Delitzsch can only appeal to the accent not being drawn backwards in חָצֵֽב בּוֹ Isa_5:2, and הצֵֽב בּו Isa_10:15, where no st. constructus exists. I agree, therefore, with Drechsler who takes פלשׁתים to be in apposition with כתף: “they fly on to the shoulder, the (so named) Philistine land;” יָמָּֽה, however, refers to the whole, and is contrasted, not with an eastern כתף (כ׳ ידיחו Jos_18:12), but with בני קדם.—יבזו comp. Isa_10:2.—מִשְׁלֹוחַ .משׂלוח יד. occurs again only Est_9:19; Est_9:22 in the sense of missio (donorum). On the other hand מִשְׁלַח יָד occurs five times in Deut. (Deu_12:7; Deu_15:10; Deu_23:21; Deu_28:8; Deu_28:20) in the sense of “something coming under the hand,” which is said of food, business, etc. Here it is what the master, the conqueror, the oppressor lays his hand on in order to hold it down; Psa_32:4; Psa_38:3; Psa_55:21; Psa_106:26; Psa_106:42; Psa_138:7, etc. In this the abstract stands for the concrete as in משׁמעת, which means audientia (audience) both in the sense of confidential hearing, as a title of honor (1Sa_22:14; 2Sa_23:23) and in the sense of obedientia (= obedientes, subditi).
On Isa_11:15. החרים וגו. There exists no necessity for reading החריב. For, as Delitzsch remarks, החרים is only a strengthened גָעַר “to reproach,” Psa_106:9; Nah_1:4.—הניף ידו comp. on Isa_10:32.—עֲיָם is ἅπ.λεγ. Expositors differ about it very much. To me it seems best with Delitzsch to derive the word from חָמַם ,חוּם = עוּם (from which חוּם niger, “the burned black,” Gen_30:32 sqq.).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Prophet now declares the relation of the last, glorious return of Israel to the appearance of the Messiah. In Isa_11:10, he puts in front the fact that the heathen will inquire after the root of Jesse, and that in this respect the place where the Messiah rests shall partake of great glory. By this he intimates plainly that the heathen shall turn to the Messiah before Israel, and that therefore the promised return of Israel shall only be afterwards. Then he speaks of this return very fully. As underlying thought, he represents that, as the Lord after the Egyptian bondage would reject His people by a more extended captivity, so He would cause a second return out of this captivity. With this thought begins, and closes the section Isa_11:11-16. The remnant of the nation shall be gathered out of all lands (Isa_11:11-12). The inward dissension between Ephraim, and Judah shall cease (Isa_11:13). They shall unitedly conquer, and subjugate their enemies of the past, both East and West (Isa_11:14). The Red sea shall be dried up, the Euphrates shall be divided into seven channels, so that both bodies of water that separated the holy land from the scenes of the first and second captivities may be easily crossed over, (Isa_11:15). Thus from the second captivity there shall be prepared as glorious a road for the remnant, as there was for the nation to return out of the first bondage. (16).
2. And in that day—glorious.
Isa_11:10. We must conceive of the subject matter of this description and of Isa_11:11-16 as falling between the sections Isa_11:1-9. For doubtless the human world must be first penetrated by the peace of God. Only after that can peace extend to the inferior creatures (comp. Gen_1:26 sqq.). But the Prophet has here combined the beginning and the end, because he thought he could characterize the Messianic dominion most clearly, by its consequences. In a similar way Jeremiah (3 and 4), proceeds from the description of the (שׁוּכ) return in the past to the description of the return in the far future, in order finally to join on after that the summons to return in the present. The Prophet’s naming the Messiah Himself “root of Jesse” after calling him, Isa_11:1, “a shoot out of the root of Jesse,” has a double reason. The first seems to me to be the mere formal one, viz.: that for brevity’s sake the Prophet would avoid repeating נֵצֶר מִן “a shoot from.” But he could justly omit this because the Messiah formed the most prominent ingredient of the root of Jesse. He was in this root like He was in the loins of Abraham (Heb_7:10). But for Him, the root of Jesse had been a common root as any other. We have here therefore, not only a formal-rhetorical synecdoche, but also one justified in its substance. For the expression is in any case a synecdoche (comp. the so frequent synecdochical use of the word “seed”). As root he could not be a standard of the heathen. He could be so only as a trunk or stem that has grown out of the root. In this sense he is called “root of David,” Rev_5:5; but with omission of the synecdoche, he is called “root and offspring of David,” Rev_22:16. Paul cites our passage Rom_15:12 according to the LXX. The Messiah is a standard to the heathen so far as He will be an appearance that will be observable to all, and mightily draw the attention of all to Himself. On the subject matter comp. Isa_2:2; Isa_66:18 sqq.; Hag_2:7; Zech. 2:15. The standard “stands” (comp. Isa_3:13) for it is fastened to an upright pole (Num_21:8, where the pole itself is called נֵס. Comp. Isa_5:26). Bat it is not said who has planted the standard. It just stands there (comp. κεῖται, Luk_2:34). It sets itself by its own inward, divine power. שׁרשׁ “a root” stands first with emphasis. אליו “unto Him” resumes the subject. “Unto Him shall seek,” conveys the notion of longing desire. It is clear that by “nations” (גּוֹיִם) are meant the heathen. For though גּוֹי “nation,” in the singular, is used for Israel (comp. Isa_1:4), it is never so in the plural.
Israel did not receive the Lord when He came to His own (Joh_1:11). It is the same thought that Paul expresses Rom_10:20, in words taken from Isa_65:1-2 (according to LXX.). “I was found of them, that sought me not; I was manifest (נִדְרַשְׁתִּי) unto them that asked not after me.” Paul ascribes to partial blindness the exceeding remarkable fact, that after the appearance of the Messiah the heathen entered into the kingdom of God before Israel, (Rom_11:25)—מנוחה “a rest,” the place of rest where moving herds or caravans settle down, (Isa_28:12; Isa_32:18; Isa_66:1, and Num_10:33). The place where the Messiah sits down to rest is identical with the place where He reveals the fulness of His might and glory, it is His body, the church (Eph_1:23). Still at the present time the church is a gentile church, and yet it is a glory (כָּבוֹדabstr. pro concr.), i.e., a realization of the idea of glory, (comp. Psa_45:14) even though only a preliminary and relative glory.
3. And it shall come to pass——of the earth.
Isa_11:11-12. The Prophet now turns to Israel. Israel must first be broken up, and its separate parts be scattered into all lands, if it is to accept Him that is promised to Israel for salvation. Only out of a state of banishment and dispersion, and only after the heathen have previously joined themselves to Him, does Israel know and lay hold on its Redeemer. But when it shall have known Him, then will the dispersion cease, then shall Israel be gathered and be brought back into its land. The first exile was the Egyptian. Wonderfully was Israel redeemed out of it. A second exile is in prospect. The Prophet assumes it. He has already announced it Isa_6:11 sqq.; Isa_10:5 sqq. What had already occurred at that time under Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki_15:29) was as much only a faint beginning of the exile, as the return under Zerubbabel and Ezra, was only a faint beginning of the redemption. The Roman exile, which is but a part of the second exile, though the completion of it, must first have accomplished itself, before the second redemption can accomplish itself.
The Lord has acquired Israel (קְנוֹת), He let it cost Him something, He expended great care upon it, therefore the nation is His property (His סְגֻלָּה “peculiar treasure,” Exo_19:5, etc.). קָנָה “purchased,” is found in this sense even in Exo_15:16, the song of triumph of Moses, to which Isaiah seems here to allude.
The Prophet does not say בְּאשור, etc., “in Assyria,” but “from A,” etc., (vid.Exo_10:5), for he would not so much intimate the locality where the banished are found, as rather designate a remnant, not yet quite exterminated by the nation in the midst of which they are found. He then names eight nations, Assyria in advance, for that is the world power that he sees immediately before him, and that represents all following powers, i.e., the world-power in general. Next he names Egypt, for this is not only to be the actual scene of future exile, but is also a prototype of such exile. Then follow two names that belong to Egypt, then three that belong to Assyria, finally a name belonging to a region more distant still.
Pathros (Egyptian Patherres, i.e., the southern Pather in distinction from other places sacred to Hathor, of this name, vid.Eber’s,Egypt. und die Bücher Mose’s, I. p. 115 sqq. On its relation to מִצְרַיִם comp. the remarks at Isa_19:1), is Upper-Egypt (Jer_44:15); “Cush” (Ethiopia) is a name “that acquired an extension from the south of India to the interior of Africa” (Pressel). Elam (Elymais Isa_21:2; Isa_22:6) is southern Media; Shinar, southern Mesopotamia (Gen_10:10); on Hamath comp. on Isa_10:9; the islands of the sea are the western islands and coasts of the Mediterranean sea (Isa_24:15; Isa_40:15; Isa_41:1; Isa_41:5, etc.). When it is said that the Lord will raise a standard to the nations, it is not meant that this signal shall concern the heathen nations, for Isa_11:10 spoke of the calling of the Gentiles; but in the direction of these various abodes of the nations, the sign shall be given to the Israelites.
4. The envy also—land of Egypt.
Isa_11:13-16. It might be supposed that, having told of the gathering of the remnant, the Prophet would proceed at once to describe the return. But he does this only at Isa_11:15-16. First, the idea of gathering and re-union brings up that of inward unity. He announces that the old enmity between Judah and Ephraim will cease, and that henceforth, both, strong from unity, shall conquer their outward foes. Are “the enemies of Judah” the Ephraimites (the Prophet would say, did the oppressors of Judah appear even among Ephraim, they would be exterminated) then the “envy of Ephraim,” is not the jealousy that Ephraim has, but that of which it is the object. But as the Prophet ascribes to Judah oppression in the second half, after referring to him in the first half as the one oppressed, so in the second half he ascribes envy to Ephraim, after having in the first part described him as the object of envy. There is therefore, an artistic crossing of notions. Israel, harmonious at last, shall at once be superior in strength to all its neighbors. It is very evident here, how the Prophet paints the remotest future with the colors of the present. Still in the period of the reign of peace (comp. too, Isa_2:4) he makes Israel take vengeance on his enemies, and subdue them quite in the fashion that, in the Prophet’s time, would be the heart’s desire of a true Theocrat.
The “tongue of the Egyptian sea,” is the Arabian gulf or Reed-gulf, יַם־סוּף (Exo_10:19, etc.). “Tongue” לָשׁוֹן of an arm of the sea, like Jos_15:2; Jos_15:5; Jos_18:19. The Euphrates in the second return is to correspond to the Jordan which was so miraculously crossed in the journey out of Egypt (Josh.). The Lord shall wave His hand against it, as it were, adjuring it, and at the same time smite it with the breath of His mouth as with a glowing hot wind, that will dry it up, so that it will separate into seven shallow brooklets, which Israel may walk through in sandals. Thereby, a “fenced way,” (via munitaמְסִלָּה19:23; Isa_40:3; Isa_62:10, etc., comp. Isa_7:3) will be prepared for the remnant of Israel out of the Assyrian exile, that will be as glorious as the מסלה on which Israel returned out of Egypt. As for “the remnant,” it must be understood with the same restriction explained Isa_10:21 sqq.
[J. A. Alexander, on Isa_11:13. A consideration of the history of the enmity of Ephraim against Judah, of the nature of the schism they wrought and maintained in Israel, “explains why the Prophet lays so much more stress upon the envy of Ephraim than upon the enmity of Judah, viz.: because the latter was only the indulgence of an unhallowed feeling, to which, in the other case was superadded open rebellion and apostacy from God. Hence, the first three members of the verse before us speak of Ephraim’s enmity to Judah, and only the fourth of Judah’s enmity to Ephraim; as if it occurred to the Prophet that, although it was Ephraim whose disposition needed chiefly to be changed, yet Judah also had a change to undergo, which is therefore intimated in the last clause, as a kind of after-thought. The envy of Ephraim against Judah shall depart—the enemies of Judah (in the kingdom of the ten tribes) shall be cut off—Ephraim shall no more envy Judah—yes, and Judah in its turn shall cease to vex Ephraim.
Ibid. On Isa_11:16. מסלה is a highway as explained by Junius (agger) and Hend. (causey), an artificial road formed by casting up the earth, (from סָלַל to raise) and thus distinguished from a path worn by the feet (דֶּרֶךְ or נְתִיבָה)].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_7:1. “Hierosolyma oppugnatur, etc. Jerusalem is assaulted but not conquered. The church is pressed but not oppressed.”—Foerster.
2. On Isa_7:2. “Quando ecclesia, etc. When the Church is assaulted and Christ crucified over again in His elect, Rezin and Pekah, Herod and Pilate are wont to form alliance and enter into friendly relations. There are, so to speak, the foxes of Samson, joined indeed by the tails, but their heads are disconnected.”—Foerster.—“He that believes flees not (Isa_28:16). ‘The righteous is bold as a lion’ (Pro_28:1). Hypocrites and those that trust in works (work-saints) have neither reason nor faith. Therefore they cannot by any means quiet their heart. In prosperity they are, indeed, overweening, but in adversity they fall away (Jer_17:9).” Cramer.
3. On Isa_7:9. (“If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”) “Insignis sententia, etc. A striking sentiment that may be adapted generally to all temptation, because all earnest endeavor after anything, as you know, beguiles us in temptation. But only faith in the word of promise makes us abide and makes sure whatever we would execute. He warns Ahaz, therefore, as if he said: I now promise you by the word, it shall be that those two kings shall not hurt you. Believe this word! For if you do not, whatever you afterwards devise will deceive you: because all confidence is vain which is not supported by the word of God.”—Luther.
4. On Isa_7:10-12. “Wicked Ahaz pretends to great sanctity in abstaining from asking a sign through fear of God. Thus hypocrites are most conscientious where there is no need for it: on the other hand, when they ought to be humble, they are the most insolent. But where God commands to be bold, one must be bold. For to be obedient to the word is not tempting God. That is rather tempting God when one proposes something without having the word for it. It is, indeed, the greatest virtue to rest only in the word, and desire nothing more. But where God would add something more than the word, then it must not be thought a virtue to reject it as superfluous. We must therefore exercise such a faith in the word of God that we will not despise the helps that are given in addition to it as aids to faith. For example the Lord offers us in the gospel all that is necessary to salvation. Why then Baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Are they to be treated as superfluous? By no means. For if one believes the word he will at the same time exhibit an entire obedience toward God. We ought therefore to learn to join the sign with the word, for no man has the power to sever the two.
But do you ask: is it permitted to ask God for a sign? We have an example of this in Gideon. Answer: Although Gideon was not told of God to ask a sign, yet he did it by the impulse of the Holy Spirit, and not according to his own fancy. We must not therefore abuse his example, and must be content with the sign that is offered by the Lord. But there are extraordinary signs or miracles, like that of the text, and ordinary ones like Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yet both have the same object and use. For as Gideon was strengthened by that miraculous event, so, too, are we strengthened by Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, although no miracle appears before our eyes.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther. Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, also asked the Lord to show him the right wife for Isaac by means of a sign of His own choosing, (Gen_24:14).
It ought to be said that this asking a sign (opening the Bible at a venture, or any other book) does not suit Christian perfection (Heb_6:1). A Christian ought to be inwardly sensible of the divine will. He ought to content himself with the guarantees that God Himself offers. Only one must have open eyes and ears for them. This thing of demanding a sign, if it is not directly an effect of superstition (Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4; 1Co_1:22), is certainly childish, and, because it easily leads to superstitious abuses, it is dangerous.
5. On Isa_7:13. “Non caret, etc. That the Prophet calls God his God is not without a peculiar emphasis. In Zec_2:12 it is said, that whoever touches the servants of God touches the pupil of God’s eye. Whoever opposes teacher and preacher will have to deal with God in heaven or with the Lord who has put them into office.”—Foerster.
6. On Isa_7:14. “The name Immanuel is one of the most beautiful and richest in contents of all the Holy Scripture. ‘God with us’ comprises God’s entire plan of salvation with sinful humanity. In a narrower sense it means ‘God-man’ (Mat_1:23), and points to the personal union of divinity and humanity, in the double nature of the Son of God become man. Jesus Christ was a God-with-us, however, in this, that for about 33 years He dwelt among us sinners (Joh_1:11; Joh_1:14). In a deeper and wider sense still He was such by the Immanuel’s work of the atonement (2Co_5:19; 1Ti_2:3). He will also be such to every one that believes on Him by the work of regeneration and sanctification and the daily renewal of His holy and divine communion of the Spirit (Joh_17:23; Joh_17:26; Joh_14:19-21; Joh_14:23). He is such now by His high-priestly and royal administration and government for His whole Church (Mat_28:20; Heb_7:25). He will be snch in the present time of the Church in a still more glorious fashion (Joh_10:16). The entire and complete meaning of the name Immanuel, however, will only come to light in the new earth, and in the heavenly Jerusalem (Rev_21:3; Rev_21:23; Rev_22:5).”—Wilh. Fried. Roos.
Isa_8:7. On Isa_8:5 sqq. “Like boastful swimmers despise small and quiet waters, and on the other hand, for the better display of their skill, boast of the great sea and master it, but often are lost in it,—thus, too, did the hypocrites that despised the small kingdom of Judah, and bragged much and great things of the power and splendor of the kingdom of Israel and of the Syrians; such hypocrites are still to be found now-a-days—such that bear in their eye the admiranda Romae, the splendor, riches, power, ceremonies and pomp of the Romish church, and thereupon ‘set their bushel by the bigger-heap.’ It is but the devil’s temptation over again: ‘I will give all this to thee.’ ”—Cramer.—“Fons Siloa,” etc. “The fountain of Siloam, near the temple, daily reminded the Jews that Christ was coming.”—Calvin on Joh_9:7.
8. On Isa_8:10. “When the great Superlatives sit in their council chambers and have determined everything, how it ought to be, and especially how they will extinguish the gospel, then God sends the angel Gabriel to them, who must look through the window and say: nothing will come of it.”—Luther.—“Christ, who is our Immanuel, is with us by His becoming man, for us by His office of Mediator, in us by the work of His sanctification, by us by His personal, gracious presence.”—Cramer.
9. On Isa_8:14-15. Christ alone is set by God to be a stone by which we are raised up. That He is, however, an occasion of offence to many is because of their purpose, petulance and contempt (1Pe_2:8). Therefore we ought to fear lest we take offence at Him. For whoever falls on this stone will shatter to pieces (Mat_21:44).” Cramer.
10. On Isa_8:16 sqq. He warns His disciples against heathenish superstition, and exhorts them to show respect themselves always to law and testimony. “They must not think that God must answer them by visions and signs, therefore He refers them to the written word, that they may not become altogether too spiritual, like those now-a-days who cry: spirit! spirit! … Christ says, Luke 16 : They have Moses and the prophets, and again Joh_5:39 : Search the Scriptures. So Paul says, 2Ti_3:16 : The Scripture is profitable for doctrine. So says Peter, 2Pe_1:9 : We have a sure word of prophecy. It is the word that changes hearts and moves them. But revelations puff people up and make them insolent.” Heim and Hoffmann after Luther.
Chap. 9–11. On Isa_9:1 sqq. (2). “Postrema pars, etc. The latter part of chap. 8 was νομικὴ καὶ ἀπειλητική (legal and threatening) so, on the other hand, the first and best part of chap. 9 is εὐαγγελικὴ καὶ παραμυθητική, (evangelical and comforting). Thus must ever law and gospel, preaching wrath and grace, words of reproof and words of comfort, a voice of alarm and a voice of peace follow one another in the church.” Foerster.
12. On Isa_9:1 (2). Both in the Old Testament and New Testament Christ is often called light. Thus Isaiah calls Him “a light to the gentiles,” Isa_42:6; Isa_49:6. The same Prophet says: “Arise, shine (make thyself light), for thy light is come,” Isa_60:1. And again Isa_9:19 : “The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light.” In the New Testament it is principally John that makes use of this expression: “The life was the light of men,” Joh_1:4, “and the light shined in the darkness,” Joh_9:5. John was not that light, but bore testimony to the light, Joh_9:8. “That was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” Joh_9:9. And further: “And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,” Joh_3:19. “I am the light of the world,” (Joh_8:12; Joh_9:5; comp. Joh_12:35).
13. On Isa_9:1 (2). The people that sit in darkness may be understood to comprise three grades. First, the inhabitants of Zebulon and Naphtali are called so (Isaiah 8:23), for the Prophet’s gaze is fixed first on that region lying in the extreme end of Palestine, which was neighbor to the heathen and mixed with them, and on this account was held in low esteem by the dwellers in Judah. The night that spreads over Israel in general is darkest there. But all Israel partakes of this night, therefore all Israel, too, may be understood, as among the people sitting in darkness. Finally, no one can deny that this night extends over the borders of Israel to the whole human race. For far as men dwell extends the night which Christ, as light of the world, came to dispel, Luk_1:76 sqq.
14. On Isa_9:5 (6). Many lay stress on the notion “child,” inasmuch as they see in that the reason for the reign of peace spoken of afterwards. It is not said a man, a king, a giant is given to us. But this is erroneous. For the child does not remain a child. He becomes a man: and the six names that are ascribed to Him and also the things predicted of His kingdom apply to Him, not as a child, but as a man. That His birth as a child is made prominent, has its reason in this, that thereby His relation to human kind should be designated as an organic one. He does not enter into humanity as a man, i.e. as one whose origin was outside of it, but He was born from it, and especially from the race of David. He is Son of man and Son of David. He is a natural offshoot, but also the crowning bloom of both. Precisely because He was to be conceived, carried and born of a human mother, and indeed of a virgin, this prophecy belongs here as the completion and definition of the two prophetic pictures Isa_7:10 sqq.; Isa_8:1 sqq.—“He came down from heaven for the sake of us men, and for our bliss (1Ti_1:15; Luk_2:7). For our advantage: for He undertook not for the seed of angels, but for the seed of Abraham (Heb_2:16). Not sold to us by God out of great love, but given (Rom_5:15; Joh_3:16). Therefore every one ought to make an application of the word ‘to us’ to himself, and to learn to say: this child was given to me, conceived for me, born to me.”—Cramer.—“Cur oportuit, etc. Why did it become the Redeemer of human kind to be not merely man nor merely God, but God and man conjoined or θεάνθρωπον? Anselm replies briefly, indeed, but pithily: Deum qui posset, hominem, qui deberet.” Foerster.
15. On Isa_9:5 (6). “You must not suppose here that He is to be named and called according to His person, as one usually calls another by his name; but these are names that one must preach, praise and celebrate on account of His act, works and office.” Luther.
16. On Isa_9:6. “Verba pauca, etc. A few words, but to be esteemed great, not for their number but for their weight.” Augustine. “Admirabilis in, etc. Wonderful in birth, counsellor in what He preaches, God in working, strong in suffering, father of the world to come in resurrection, Prince of peace in bliss perpetual.” Bernard of Clairvaux. In reference to “a child is born,” and “a son is given,” Joh. Cocceius remarks in his Heb. Lex. s. v. יֶלֶד: “respectu, etc., in respect to His human nature He is said to be born, and in respect to His divine nature and eternal generation not indeed born, but given, as, Joh_3:16, it reads God gave His only begotten Son.”
“In the application of this language all depends on the words is born to us, is given to us.” The angels are, in this matter, far from being as blessed as we are. They do not say: To us a Saviour is born this day, but; to you. As long as we do not regard Christ as ours, so long we shall have little joy in Him. But when we know Him as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, as a gift that our heavenly Father designed for us, we will appropriate Him to ourselves in humble faith, and take possession of all His redeeming effects that He has acquired. For giving and taking go together. The Son is given to us; we must in faith receive Him.” J. J. Rambach, Betracht. über das Ev. Esaj., Halle, 1724.
On Isa_9:6 (7). “The government is on His shoulders.” “It is further shown how Christ differs in this respect from worldly kings. They remove from themselves the burden of government and lay it on the shoulders of the privy counsellors. But He does not lay His dominion as a burden on any other; He needs no prime minister and vicegerent to help Him bear the burden of administration, but He bears all by the word of His power as He to whom all things are given of the Father. Therefore He says to the house of Jacob (Isa_46:3 sq.): Hearken unto me ye who were laid on my shoulders from your mothers’ womb. I will carry you to old age. I will do it, I will lift, and carry and deliver,—on the contrary the heathen must bear and lift up their idols, (Isa_46:1; Isa_46:7).”—Rambach. “In the first place we must keep in mind His first name: He is called Wonderful. This name affects all the following.” “All is wonderful that belongs to this king: wonderfully does He counsel and comfort; wonderfully He helps to acquire and conquer, and all this in suffering and want of strength. (Luther, Jen. germ. Tom. III. Fol. 184 b.). ” “He uses weakness as a means of subduing all things to Himself. A wretched reed, a crown of thorns and an infamous cross, are the weapons of this almighty God, by means of which He achieves such great things. In the second place, He was a hero and conqueror in that just by death, He robbed him of his might who had the power of death, i.e., the devil (Heb_2:14); in that He, like Samson, buried His enemies with Himself, yea, became poison to death itself, and a plague to hell (Hos_13:14) and more gloriously resumed His life so freely laid down, which none of the greatest heroes can emulate.”—Rambach.
17. On Isa_9:18 (19) sqq. True friendship can never exist among the wicked. For every one loves only himself. Therefore they are enemies one of another; and they are in any case friends to each other, only as long as it concerns making war on a third party.
Isaiah 10-18. On Isa_10:4. (Comp. the same expression in chap. 10). God’s quiver is well filled. If one arrow does not attain His object, He takes another, and so on, until the rights of God, and justice have conquered.
19. On Isa_10:5-7. “God works through men in a threefold way. First, we all live, move and have our being in Him, in that all activity is an outflow of His power. Then, He uses the services of the wicked so that they mutually destroy each other, or He chastises His people by their hand. Of this sort the Prophet speaks here. In the third place, by governing His people by the Spirit of sanctification: and this takes place only in the elect.”—Heim and Hoffmann.
20. On Isa_10:5 sqq. “Ad hunc, etc. Such places are to be turned to uses of comfort. Although the objects of temptation vary and enemies differ, yet the effects are the same, and the same spirit works in the pious. We are therefore to learn not to regard the power of the enemy nor our own weakness, but to look steadily and simply into the word, that will assuredly establish our minds that they despair not, but expect help of God. For God will not subdue our enemies, either spiritual or corporal, by might and power, but by weakness, as says the text: my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Co_12:9).—Luther.
21. On Isa_10:15. “Efficacia agendi penes Deum est, homines ministerium tantum praebent. Quare nunc sibilo suo se illos evocaturum minabatur (cap. Isa_5:26; Isa_7:18); nunc instar sagenae sibi fore ad irretiendos, nunc mallei instar ad feriendos Israelitas. Sed praecipue tum declaravit, quod non sit otiosus in illis, dum Sennacherib securim vocat, quae ad secandum manu sua et destinata fuit et impacta. Non male alicubi Augustinus ita definit, quod ipsi peccant, eorum esse; quod peccando hoc vel illud agant, ex virtute Dei esse, tenebras prout visum est dividentis (De praedest Sanctt.).”—Calvin Inst. II. 4, 4.
22. On Isa_10:20-27. “In time of need one ought to look back to the earlier great deliverances of the children of God, as to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, or later, from the hand of the Midianites. Israel shall again grow out of the yoke.”—Diedrich.
Isaiah 11-23. On Isa_11:4. “The staff of His mouth.” “Evidence that the kingdom of Christ will not be like an earthly kingdom, but consist in the power of the word and of the sacraments; not in leathern, golden or silver girdles, but in girdles of righteousness and faith.”—Cramer.
24. On Isa_11:10 sqq. If the Prophet honors the heathen in saying that they will come to Christ before Israel, he may be the more readily believed, when Isa_11:11 sqq., he gives the assurance that the return out of the first, the Egyptian exile, shall be succeeded by a return out of the second, the Assyrian exile, (taking this word in the wider sense of Isaiah). It is manifest that the return that took place under Zerubbabel and Ezra was only an imperfect beginning of that promised return. For according to our passage this second return can only take place after the Messiah has appeared. Farthermore, all Israelites that belong to “the remnant of Israel,” in whatever land they may dwell, shall take part in it. It will be, therefore, a universal, not a partial return. If now the Prophet paints this return too with the colors of the present (Isa_11:13 sqq.), still that is no reason for questioning the reality of the matter. Israel will certainly not disappear, but arise to view in the church of the new covenant. But if the nation is to be known among the nations as a whole, though no more as a hostile contrast, but in fraternal harmony, why then shall not the land, too, assume a like position among the lands? But the nation can neither assume its place among nations, nor the land its place among lands, if they are not both united: the people Israel in the land of their fathers.
25. On Isaiah 11 “We may here recall briefly the older, so-called spiritual interpretation. Isa_11:1-5 were understood of Christ’s prophetic office that He exercised in the days of His flesh, then of the overthrow of the Roman Empire and of Antichrist, who was taken to be the Pope. But the most thorough-going of those old expositors must acknowledge, at Isa_11:4, that the Antichrist is not yet enough overthrown, and must be yet more overthrown. If such is the state of the case, then this interpretation is certainly false, for Isa_11:4 describes not a gradual judgment, but one accomplished at once. There have been many Antichrists, and among the Popes too, but the genuine Antichrist described 2 Thessalonians 2, is yet to be expected, and also the fulfillment of Isa_11:4 of our chapter. Thereby is proved at the same time that the peaceful state of things in the brute world and the return of the Jews to their native land are still things of the future, for they must happen in that period when the Antichristian world, and its head shall be judged by Christ. But then, too, the dwelling together of tame and wild beasts is not the entrance of the heathen into the church, to which they were heretofore hostile, and the return of the Jews is not the conversion of a small part of Israel that took place at Pentecost and after. The miracles and signs too, contained in Isa_11:15-16 did not take place then. We see just here how one must do violence to the word if he will not take it as it stands. But if we take it as we have done, then the whole chapter belongs to the doctrine of hope (Hoffnungslehre) of the Scripture, and constitutes an important member of it. The Lord procures right and room for His church. He overthrows the world-kingdom, together with Antichrist. He makes of the remnant of Israel a congregation of believers filled with the Spirit, to whom He is near in an unusual way, and from it causes His knowledge to go out into all the world. He creates peace in the restless creatures, and shows us here in advance what more glorious things we may look for in the new earth. He presents to the world a church which, united in itself, unmolested by neighbors, stands under God’s mighty protection. All these facts are parts of a chain of hope that must be valuable and dear to our hearts. The light of this future illumines the obscurity of the present; the comfort of that day makes the heart fresh.” Weber, der Prophet Jesaja, 1875.
Chap. 12–26. On Isa_12:4 sq. “These will not be the works of the New Testament: sacrificing and slaying, and make pilgrimage to Jerusalem and to the Holy Sepulchre, but praising God and giving thanks, preaching and hearing, believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. For to praise our God is good; such praise is pleasant and lovely” (Psa_147:1). Cramer.
27. On Chap. 12 “With these words conclude the prophetic discourses on Immanuel. Through what obscurity of history have we not had to go, until we came to the bright light of the kingdom of Christ! How Israel and the nations had to pass through the fire of judgment before the sun arises in Israel and the entire gentile world is illumined! It is the, same way that every Christian has to travel. In and through the fire we become blessed. Much must be burnt up in us, before we press to the full knowledge of God and of His Son, before we become entirely one with Him, entirely glad and joyful in Him. Israel was brought up and is still brought up for glory, and we too. O that our end too were such a psalm of praise as this psalm!” Weber, Der Pr. Jes. 1875.
Footnotes:
[12]Heb. glory.
[13]acquire.
[14]Heb. wings.
[15]borders.
[16]against.
[17]viz., the Philistines, Seaward.
[18]Heb. the children of the east.
[19]Heb. Edom, and Moab shall be the laying on of their hand.
[20]Heb. The children of Ammon their obedience.
[21]their subjects.
[22]banish.
[23]with the glowing puff of his breath.
[24]into seven brooklets.
[25]Heb. in shoes.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain root--rather, "shoot from the root" (compare Note, see on…
root--rather, "shoot from the root" (compare Note, see on Isa 11:1; Isa 53:2; Rev 5:5; Rev 22:16).
stand--permanently and prominently, as a banner lifted up to be the rallying point of an army or people (Isa 5:26; Joh 12:32).
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the people--peoples, answering to "the Gentiles" in the parallel member.
to it . . . seek--diligently (Job 8:5). They shall give in their allegiance to the Divine King (Isa 2:2; Isa 60:5; Zac 2:11). HORSLEY translates, "Of Him shall the Gentiles inquire"; namely, in a religious sense, resort as to an oracle for consultation in difficulties" (Zac 14:16). Compare Rom 15:12, which quotes this passage, "In Him shall the Gentiles trust."
rest--resting-place (Isa 60:13; Psa 132:8, Psa 132:14; Eze 43:7). The sanctuary in the temple of Jerusalem was "the resting-place of the ark and of Jehovah." So the glorious Church which is to be is described under the image of an oracle to which all nations shall resort, and which shall be filled with the visible glory of God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 10. The reign of the Messiah (Isa_11:1-5) and its…
10. The reign of the Messiah (Isa_11:1-5) and its peaceful effects, (6-9,) are already described. Other points now arise. The first is, the extensiveness of his reign.
In that day — The future time of the establishment of his reign.
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A root of Jesse — Hebrew, the root-sprout of Jesse. A scion of that ancient and honourable family, still flourishing to amazing growth.
An ensign — He shall serve for a standard.
Of the people — That is, Gentile peoples, as the definition in the other parallel member shows. He will, in his own person and doctrine, be as it were the stationary banner on Mount Zion, waving to all nations to rally under his sway. Restrictions are removed. The proud old tree of earthly Davidic sovereignty is hewn down, and only the living root has survived, but this will increase in strength to a tree overspreading all peoples. It will be sought unto.
And his rest shall be glorious — Literally, his resting place shall be glory. Like Jehovah’s “rest” in the temple, with shechinah hovering with celestial glory over the ark of the covenant. Num_10:33. The point settled here is the universality of the spread of the Gospel. The original restriction was but to be the means for the unlimited extension of Messiah’s blessed fulness.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. This verse occupies a position somewhat detached from…
10. This verse occupies a position somewhat detached from those that follow, as is shewn by the repetition of the introductory formula in Isa_11:11. The thought also is distinct and complete. It is a prophecy of the attractive influence of the true religion over the nations of the world; and resembles ch. Isa_2:2-4, although here the personal Messiah is the central figure. Comp. Joh_12:32.
The construction of the sentence involves a casus pendens (Driver, Tenses, pp. 264 ff.). Render thus: and it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse who shall stand as a signal to the peoples—to him shall, &c.
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a root of Jesse] i.e. the “branch from the roots,” of Isa_11:1. The expression seems to have become a technical title of the Messiah (cf. ch. Isa_53:2; Sir_47:22; Rev_5:5; Rev_22:16). The variation of the figure from Isa_11:1 rather tells against the Isaianic authorship of this passage.
an ensign] as rallying-point, see on ch. Isa_5:26.
to it shall the Gentiles seek] Rather, of him shall nations enquire—a phrase used of the consulting of an oracle (ch. Isa_8:19, Isa_19:3). The Messiah is to be the great religious Teacher and Authority of the world.
his rest shall be glorious] his resting-place (Gen_49:15,—here alone used of a royal residence) shall be glory, cf. ch. Isa_4:5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) In that day there shall be a root…
(10) In that day there shall be a root of Jesse . . .—The “root,” as in Isa_53:2; Deu_29:18, is the same as the “rod” and “branch” growing from the root in Isa_11:1. The new shoot of the fallen tree of Jesse is to grow up like a stately palm, seen afar off upon the heights of the “holy mountain,” a signal round which the distant nations might rally as their centre. So the name of “the root of David” is applied to the glorified Christ in Rev_5:5; Rev_22:16. The word for “seek” implies, as in Isa_8:19; Isa_19:3; Isa_55:6, the special seeking for wisdom and illumination.
His rest shall be glorious.—Better, his resting-place shall be glory; i.e., he shall abide evermore in the eternal glory which is the dwelling-place of Jehovah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 10-13. THE JEWS AND GENTILES SHALL BE GATHERED…
Vers. 10-13. THE JEWS AND GENTILES SHALL BE GATHERED TOGETHER INTO MESSIAH"S KINGDOM. It is characteristic of "the evangelical prophet" that he dwells earnestly and frequently on the calling of the Gentiles. (see Isa_2:2 Isa_19:22-25 Isa_25:6 Isa_27:13, etc.) The prophecies to Abraham had repeatedly declared that "in him," or "in his seed," "all the families of the earth should be blessed"; (Gen_12:3 Gen_18:18 Gen_22:18 Gen_26:4) and some of the psalmists had echoed the glad sound and spoken of God as worshipped generally by "the nations". (Psa_117:1 Psa_148:11) But the idea had taken little hold upon the chosen people generally; and was practically new to them when Isaiah was inspired to preach it afresh. To render it the more palatable, he unites with it the promise of a great gathering of the dispersed Israelites from all quarters to the banner of Messiah, when it is set up.
There shall he a root of Jesse. The "root" of this place is the same as the "rod" and "branch" of ver. 1. The "rod" springs up out of a "root," and is inseparably connected with it. Which shall stand for an ensign of the people; rather, of the peoples. The "rod" shall lift itself up, and become an ensign, seen from afar, and attracting to itself the attention of "the peoples" or "nations" generally. The Acts and Epistles show how speedily this prophecy was fulfilled. Greeks, Romans, Galatians, Cappadoeians, Babylonians, (1Pe_5:13) saw the ensign, and sought to it. His rest shall be glorious; rather, his resting-place; i.e. his Church, with which he abides forever. (Mat_28:20) The Shechinah of his presence makes the Church "glorious" (literally, "a glory") throughout all ages; but the glory will not fully appear till the time of the "new heavens and new earth", (Isa_65:17; Roy. 21., 22.) when he will dwell visibly with it.
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Vers. 10, 12. God"s mercy in bringing the Gentiles into his kingdom.
In the old world, when "all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth," God sent forth a fierce destruction, and swept away the entire human race, excepting eight persons. After the Flood he promised, of his own free grace, that he would never so destroy mankind again. (Gen_9:11-15) But it was open to him to have sent upon the world some other equally severe visitation, and to have once more rid the earth of "a seed of evildoers." The general corruption of the Gentile world, when Christ came, was excessive. It is scarcely possible that the corruption of the antediluvians can have been greater. As a modern historian sums up his account of heathendom at the coming of Christ, "Corruption had attained its full tide at the commencement of the second century. Vices gnawed at the marrow of nations, and, above all, of the Romans: their national existence was more than menaced; the moral sickness had become a physical one in its effects a subtle poison penetrating into the vitals of the state; and, as before in the sanguinary civil wars, so now the lords of the world seemed minded to destroy themselves by their vices. Men were denuded of all that was really good, and, surrounded on all sides by the thick clouds of a blinded conscience, they caught with wild eagerness at the grossest sensual enjoyments, in the wild tumult of which they plunged to intoxication" (Dollinger, "Jew and Gentile," vol. 2. pp. 284, 285, Eng. Trans.). Or take St. Paul"s account of the condition of the heathen when he began his preaching: "As men did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, deceit, debate, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them". (Rom_1:28-32) Yet, instead of destroying this polluted race, God had compassion on them, and went out of his way to seek them.
I HE LIFTED UP CHRIST TO THEM AS AN ENSIGN FROM AFAR. By the manifestation of Christ"s character in the Gospels, he set them up a Pattern which they could not but admire, which drew them irresistibly by its purity and loveliness, made them hate themselves, and brought them low on their knees before his footstool.
II HE OFFERED HIS GOSPEL FREELY TO THEM FROM THE FIRST. "Go, disciple ye all nations, baptizing them;" "Preach the gospel to every creature;" "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." There was no limit, no favoritism; no offer of salvation only to those who had acted up to their previous light.
III HE RAISED UP A SPECIAL TEACHER, SPECIALLY QUALIFIED, TO BE "THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES." What impression Christianity would have made on the Gentile world without St. Paul, or some one similarly qualified, it is difficult to say. Conceivably, it might have taken merely the dimensions of a Jewish sect, which believed that the Messiah had come. St. Paul, raised up for the purpose, lifted it above the sphere of Jewish controversy into world-wide consideration. Teaching personally at Antioch, at Ephesus, at Athens, at Corinth, at Rome, disputing with philosophers, converting members of Caesar"s household, he gave it a position among the religions of the world which could not be ignored by later educated inquirers. The apostle of the Gentiles spread Christianity from Syria to Rome, perhaps to Spain, and gave it that hold upon the attention of the educated classes which secured, under God"s blessing, its ultimate triumph.
Vers. 10-16. Judah and the nations.
I HONOR TO THE ROOT OF JUDAH. The scion from the ancient trunk will be honored far and wide among the heathen, because of those virtues already described in the preceding section. It will be a banner to which they will flock, a center of light and living oracles.
II REDEMPTION OF THE REMNANT. The mighty hand of Jehovah will be stretched forth to gather the scattered ones from all the four quarters of their dispersion. When the banner is raised, the heathen will own its power and the captives will be released.
III INTERNAL UNITY. The two great tribes will remain side by side, but then enmity will cease. The recent destruction of Samaria had been caused by that enmity; which ceasing, it will be found that union is strength, and the nations will submit on the West and East. And those great threatening neighbors, Egypt and Assyria, will feel the weight of Jehovah"s hand and the punishment which the word of his mouth inflicts. And as the great river is smitten into seven fordable streams, the company of pilgrims will flow back, a way made for them by the hand of their God, as in the days of their forefathers, and the exodus from Egypt. The scion from the old stump may be taken as a figure of the revival of true religion in times of decay. And such revival means the union of long-sundered hearts, the recognition of an internal unity among all the faithful, the restoration of influence, and the dismay of the ungodly world. J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM Ver. 10. The rest of Christ.
"And his rest shall be glorious." This chapter commences with the full Messianic strain. "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse;" and the music swells, in the Hebrew rhythm of thought, into a sublime prophecy of the reign of Christ. This "root of Jesse" is to be "an ensign of the people," and "to it shall the Gentiles seek." We are thus led to understand the words, "his rest," as applying to the triumph of the Savior.
I MANY IDEAS OR FORMS OF REST ARE INGLORIOUS. They are connected with mere military conquest. There is the peace of subjection, or there is the peace of compromise, or there is the peace which belongs to the desert and the wilderness, when they are simply let alone. But Christ"s peace is his own beautiful peace of nature. "My peace I give unto you." His rest is not artificial. It is the rest of holy expectation. He sees of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied.
II THIS GLORY IS PROSPECTIVE AS WELL AS PRESENT. It "shall be glorious." The golden age of the gospel is in the future. "From henceforth expecting;" "He must reign." It will be a glorious rest. For truth will conquer error. Right will conquer might. Love will have victory over all forms of division and hate. It shall be; for Christ hath spoken it. It shall be; for he has all power in heaven and earth. It shall be on spiritual grounds; for the mightiest moral force ever and always triumphs in the end.
III THIS REST OF CHRIST IS OUR REST TOO. We have not only received forgiveness through the cross, but newness of life as well. We have rest now, not in its fullness, but in its ideal; for we have the mind of Christ. We have within us the kingdom and patience of Christ; we are one with the Father through Christ. "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. W.M.S.
The center of attraction for the whole world.
"An ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek." In prophetic form we have here expressed the truth which Messiah himself expressed when he said, "And if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." All humanity is figured as turning to look on the crucified One, and responding to an irresistible attraction which makes all gather round him, as armies gather about an ensign or standard, and as clans gather to the appointed meeting-place. Our Lord spoke, on three separate occasions, of the attractive power that would come from his "uplifting.
Joh_3:14. Here the idea is a general one. Lifted up in the sense of being set in sight of men, as the brazen serpent was when set up on the pole in the middle of the comp.
Joh_8:28. Here the idea is that his Messiah-ship would be evidentwhen his life was complete, and that would not be until he was lifted up in death.
Joh_12:32. Here we find Greek proselytes anxious to see Jesus.Such pressing into the kingdom was premature. The "corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die." Greeks and Gentiles must wait just a little while longer. The ensign would soon be lifted up; then to it they may seek. It is interesting to notice that the Syriac word for "crucify" means "to raise," "to lift up," as men set up a standard. Christ"s power from his cross Christ"s attraction as an Ensign is our subject, and we note
I CHRIST, ON HIS CROSS, ATTRACTIVELY REVEALS HIMSELF TO THE MINDS OF MEN. We can only get imperfect and unsatisfactory views by limiting our attention to Christ"s work. In that way we can only hope to formulate cold and lifeless doctrines. But our views are equally imperfect if we limit our attention to Christ"s person. Then we can do no more than nourish sentiment, or set before ourselves an example for imitation. We must combine both, and let each illuminate the other. Illustrate the splendor of the combined oxy-hydrogen light. How much Christ made of himself! In a man it would be painful egotism; why is it not in him? Because it was his mission to manifest God to men; so he must point to himself. All his life, speech, doing, suffering, was a gradual disclosing of himself, of the deep mystery of his origin, his claim, of God in him. But what we need to see more fully than we do is that, apart from his death, as he died, his life could not have efficiently revealed him. Death only completes the test. If he bad failed in that supreme hour, an imperfect sonship could never have shown to us the perfect Father-God. We can see that only the story of his life could not have sufficed, for:
1. His enemies misrepresented that life, and said, "He hath a devil.
2. Disciples misunderstood it, and only saw its meaning after his death.
Critics now can explain the life, but are hopelessly puzzled by the mystery of his death. Lifted up, Christ is set before us
1. as the model Man;
2. as not a mere man;
3. as the Son of God with power.
And if religion demands personal love to and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we must know him, we must know him fully; and we can only thus know him as he is lifted up.
II CHRIST, ON HIS CROSS, ATTRACTIVELY SHOWS HIMSELF TO THE HEARTS OF MEN. Men may be driven or drawn to goodness. The gospel has its majesty of driving, its "whip of small cords." "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." But its great power is its drawing power; its moral influence; its constraint of the affections, and of the will. A voice from the Ensign," from Jesus lifted up, is ever calling to us and saying, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see." Suffering has a strange power on human hearts. Self-sacrificing suffering moves us strangely. Crucifixion was curse and shame, but it set Christ in the world"s eye. No kind of death could so lift him up and compel the dying world to look. And Christ crucified is still the supreme persuasion, the irresistible attraction, to men. Jesus lifted up, an Ensign for the gathering of the people, may be an old and worn story, and it may have lost something of its drawing power for you. Ah! that can only be because men, and men"s words, have stood in front of him, and taken your eyes off him. See him only. Look to the Ensign, and then you will find your soul asking itself whom, for whom, my soul, Were all these sorrows borne?" and you too will feel "the strong attractive power. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall…
Isa_11:10
There shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people
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Messiah, the root of Jesse
If, through the infallible guidance of the Divinely inspired apostles and evangelists, we can find the Messiah spoken of in many passages of the Old Testament, in which we should not otherwise have found Him; in many others He is so evidently intended and set forth, that, even without that guidance, no intelligent person, possessed of any degree of spiritual discernment, can fail of discovering Him Psa_2:7-8; Isa_9:6; Isa_42:1; Isa_61:1; Isa_35:4-6; Isa_50:6; Psa_22:16-18; Psa_69:21; Isa_52:13; Isa_53:2; Isa_35:3; Dan_9:26; Zec_6:12-13).
This paragraph is so manifestly meant of Christ, and of His kingdom, that it is perfectly incapable of any other application.
I. THE PERSON AND ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL OFFICES OF THE MESSIAH,--A ROOT OF JESSE; AN ENSIGN OF THE PEOPLE.
1. In the preceding verses, He is set forth in His human nature, as the Rod which should come forth out of the stem of Jesse, the Branch which should grow out of his roots (Jer_23:5; Zec_3:8); but here, in His Divine nature, in which alone He could be the root of Jesse; the creating word (Col_1:16). The word here rendered root, is properly so translated, and never means branch, or rod. This is the case likewise in Rev_5:5. In Rev_22:16, we find both natures mentioned and distinguished; and also in Rom_1:3,
4:2. His office. He shall stand for an ensign of the people. Where theymay take oath and swear allegiance to the great King and bind themselves by covenant to be His loyal subjects. Where they may enlist, and engage to be His faithful soldiers to their lifes end. But how is He an ensign, a banner, or standard, visibly displayed? By manifestation of His real character, and showing Himself to be the very Messiah that should come. By unfurling and unfolding the truth in His doctrine. By exerting and displaying His power in miracles. By manifesting His love in all His actions and sufferings. As lifted up upon the Cross (Joh_12:32). As exalted to the Fathers right hand (Act_2:33). As preached and declared to every creature, to every nation under heaven, for the obedience of faith. As coming in the clouds of heaven, gathering His elect, gathering all nations and tongues, to see His glory.
II. THE APPLICATION THAT IS TO BE MADE TO HIM BY THE GENTILES. To Him shall the Gentiles (Hebrews, the nations) seek. He Himself came to seek and save the lost, and He is often found of those that before sought Him not. Those, however, that are first found of Him do themselves also seek Him.
1. But for what purposes? As an infallible Teacher, for truth and grace. As a Mediator, for pardon, etc. As an all-sufficient Saviour, expecting deliverance from the power and pollution of sin, from the flesh, the world, and the devil. As their rightful Sovereign, to give law to them, to rule, protect, and exalt them. As the Captain of their salvation, to go before them and conquer for them, to enable them to conquer, and to crown them as victorious.
2. But how do they seek Him? By desire, earnest, constant, increasing, restless (Isa_55:1; Joh_7:37; Rev_22:17). By prayer Joe_2:32; Act_2:21; Rom_10:13; 1Co_1:2). By faith and trust (Isa_28:16; Rom_10:11; Rom_15:12).
III. THE EFFECTS THAT SHALL FOLLOW. His rest shall be glorious. As a Teacher, the light of the world, and as made of God to His people wisdom, He gives rest to the understanding from the uncertainties of error, by the clear and satisfactory knowledge of the truth, and faith therein, or the full assurance of understanding. As a Priest, and as made of God to us righteousness, He gives rest to the conscience. As a Saviour from sin, and as made of God unto us sanctification, He gives rest to the will, affections, and passions, humbling our pride, subduing our rebellious dispositions (Mat_11:29). As a King, by delivering, defending, governing, ordering, disposing, and making all things work for good, and setting up His kingdom in our hearts, He gives us rest from cares, fears, and anxieties. As the Captain of our salvation, He gives the rest consequent on victory over our enemies, in deliverance from all tormenting fear of them, even the fear of death, and enabling us, while on earth, to live in peace, love, and harmony, with one another. He gives rest to the earth during the millennium (Isa_11:6-9; Isa_9:7; Isa_32:15-19; Mic_4:1-4; Zec_14:6-9). (J. Benson, D. D.)
The root of Jesse
I. THE SURROUNDINGS WITH WHICH THE REDEEMER WOULD BE CONNECTED. He was to be a root of Jesse. Elsewhere in his prophecy Isaiah speaks of Him as a root out of a dry ground. The dry ground in which this root yielded the Plant of renown was the barren soil of a corrupt age, a worn out civilisation, a depraved humanity. His descent from Jesse associated Him vitally with a notable family of the Jews. But centuries had passed since the descendants of Jesse had made themselves conspicuous. The energy of that vigorous family had expended itself in the luxury and the frivolity of many kings. Joseph of Nazareth, the village carpenter, and Mary his espoused wife, were the living representatives of an illustrious ancestry; and they were so poor and so humble that Bethlehem, their native city, had no welcome for them when they went thither to be enrolled. The Child Jesus shared their lot. He could not have frequented the schools, for His townsmen were astonished at His wisdom when He began to teach. He evidently had the Old Testament Scriptures in His hands, and He had the swat influence of His mother, and the wise counsels of Joseph, and He had the synagogue. That was His environment--so far as His environment was helpful. He could draw no inspiration from the ordinary Jewish life of Nazareth, and still less from the Greek or Roman life of Galilee. His Jewish lineage is unquestioned, and yet there is nothing Jewish about Him. He is larger than the nation, larger even than the race. None of the important laws of heredity can explain Him.
II. THE ATTITUDE WHICH THE REDEEMER WOULD ASSUME. He was to stand for an ensign of the people. Ideas are symbolised by standards. A national flag represents a national idea. Isaiah declared that Jesus would stand for an ensign of the people--not of the Jews merely, but of the Gentiles also; and Jesus made a similar declaration concerning Himself. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, etc. He anticipated universal supremacy. This is surely a very remarkable expectation to be cherished intelligently by an ordinary Jew of that period of history. Racial lines were then sharply drawn. Yet Jesus--a Jew, and a Jew in a small provincial town, rose to an appreciation of the essential oneness of humanity, and presented Himself, with His idea, as the ensign of the people, so that Paul, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, was able to write to the Gentiles of Ephesus: Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. This expectation was not cherished by one who was marching at the head of an invincible army, but by a very humble young man in the quiet village of Nazareth. He had never been abroad. He had enjoyed but little contact with the world. Yet He made this claim of universal authority. The sobriety of His claim will appear, and the wisdom of His purpose will be evident, if attention is directed to the characteristics of His idea, and if the trend of human progress is regarded. The idea of Jesus, the idea illustrated by His character and life, the idea around which Christendom is crystallising, is clearly expressed in the words, not to be ministered unto, but to minister. This idea, the service of self-sacrifice, is one which is capable of transforming life. Now that idea is beginning to assert its power.
III. THE INFLUENCE WHICH THE REDEEMER WOULD EXERT. His rest shall be glorious. This is the promise of peace which Jesus Himself repeated. Very simple are the terms, and yet men draw back from their simplicity. They want the rest, but they do not want to kneel at the feet of Christ. This work--so glorious--is not an experiment. It has approved itself. In Christ, all men may find rest. (H. M. Booth, D. D.)
I. MUSTERS HIS FORCES FOR THE BATTLE. Under the Old Testament dispensation, Jehovah revealed Himself as the Lord of hosts--as a man of war; and God manifest in the flesh was the Captain of salvation, and set up His standard for men to rally around, that they might overcome sin without and sin within. As soldiers of the Cross, we are to muster around our great Ensign, for discipline, drill, and for battle. The royal proclamation has gone forth; war has been declared against the powers of darkness; the trumpet of the Gospel has sounded, calling upon all the world and every creature; to it the Gentiles have come, and the Church militant is going forth in this holy war.
The holy war
Our Lord as an Ensign--
II. MARCHES WITH HIS FORCES TO THE BATTLE. He goes in front as Leader and Commander, to guide, stimulate, and cheer. The strength of His arm and the light of His eye are to act as inspiration to His troops.
1. He goes before in His example. He fought with Satan, and He overcame the world. He conquered its frowns and smiles, and always went His way. He was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
2. He goes before us in precept. He has given us commandments how we shall march and how we shall fight; and He is ever present to give power to His Word by the illumination and demonstration of His Holy Spirit. The early Christians were heroic and successful in battle, for they realised the presence of the great Ensign with them.
III. MINGLES WITH HIS FORCES IN THE BATTLE. His rest shall be glorious. It shall not be a doubtful or drawn battle; it shall end in complete victory. The Saviour, when He finished the great atonement, ascended up on high, and sat down in peace and power,--He entered into glorious rest. (F. W. Brown.)
Jesus the Ensign
I. THE WORK OF CHRIST.
1. Jesus may be called an ensign because He is a gathering or rallying point for men. There always have been persons who have stood forth prominently from their fellows, in travel, in science, in ethics, in art, in song. These have founded particular schools of thought or philosophy, and men have claimed them as leaders, ranged themselves round their standards, and been proud to be called by their names. Such individuals have been ensigns of the people, gathering or rallying points for their own followers. Just so is Jesus preeminently an ensign for the people.
2. An ensign, is a banner to fight under. The watchword of the true believer in Jesus is, Jehovah nissi! There are different regiments enrolled in the Lords sacramental host, and therefore are they spoken of as an army with banners; but every sectional flag droops and dips in the dust as it is borne before the Captain of our salvation.
3. An ensign is a guide to travellers. And such is Christ to the travellers from earth to heaven.
II. THE REST OF CHRIST. His rest shall be glorious.
1. Because it will be the rest which follows victory.
2. The rest of abiding peace. In 1815, when the British Parliament were voting honours and emoluments to Wellington, and considering the measures necessary towards forming a peace establishment, suddenly all their plans were interrupted and their peace projects dissipated by the intelligence that Napoleon had escaped from Elba. Nothing like this will occur during the rest of Christ; His enemies once subdued will be subdued forever.
3. Because it will be the rest which follows successful attempts at salvation. Like the rest of the life boat crew, when the mariners have been all brought from the tempest tossed and torn and tottering wreck; like the rest of the firemen when they have rescued the last inmate who was ready to perish from the burning building. His rest shall be glorious, for He shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied.
4. Because it shall be the rest of social enjoyment, unmarred by pain or sickness, by separation or death.
5. The rest of joyous activity.
6. A rest of unending duration. (J. W. Cole.)
Christ the Ensign for His people
I. THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
II. THE EMBLEM BY WHICH HE IS REPRESENTED.
III. PRACTICAL APPLICATION.
1. The need we have of the Holy Spirits work. Christ may be faithfully and constantly preached, but it is by the Holy Spirit convincing us of our need, and giving us a living faith, that we range ourselves under His banner.
2. We must expect a conflict.
3. Christ will come to take His saints to Himself, to claim that glory which He has purchased by having died for them. (E. Auriol, M. A.)
His rest shall be glorious
The Christians glorious rest
I. CONSIDER WHEREIN THIS REST CONSISTS.
1. In that great obedience which Christ has rendered unto God, in the human nature, for man. There is a rest of conscience to those who are in Christ.
2. Another ground of this rest of the spirit is in the victory that Christ has obtained over all His enemies. Death, sin, Satan, the world. The enemies of the believer are vanquished through Christ Jesus.
II. IN WHAT SENSE IT MAY BE CALLED GLORIOUS.
1. It is glorious to God the Father; whose wisdom and love it manifests. It is glorious to God the Son; who obtained it for His whole spiritual Church by His incarnation and toil and agony. It is glorious to God the Spirit; who foretold it, who described it, who reveals it, and seals them for it. It is glorious, because all Gods attributes are honoured in it. His justice is satisfied: His mercy also is infinitely displayed.
2. The rest is glorious and honourable to all those who are brought into it. For they are washed from their sins wholly, through the blood of the Lamb, and stand as candidates for heaven in those blessed garments, which grace has purchased for them and called them to wear. They cease from the impious intention of asking heaven for their own obedience, from a deep and heart-felt conviction of Gods infinite holiness and their own unworthiness. They place the crown of honour on the head, where God would have it placed--even on that head that wore the crown of thorns.
3. There remains a more glorious rest hereafter. (T. Snow, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain an ensign
an ensign
(Day of Jehovah) vs.
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(Isa 2:10-22); (Isa 4:1-6); (Isa 11:10-13); (Isa 13:9-16); (Isa 24:21-23); (Isa 26:20); (Isa 26:21); (Isa 63:1-6); (Isa 66:15-24); (Rev 19:11-21).
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Spread of the Messiah’s Kingdom
The Spread of the Messiah’s Kingdom
v. 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, that same wonderful Scion, the Son of David spoken of in
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v. 1. which shall stand for an ensign of the people, a standard raised up to attract the attention of the nations everywhere, directing them to the redemption obtained by the Messiah; to it shall the Gentiles seek, believers from all nations being gathered about Him; and His rest shall be glorious, that is, after the battle and turmoil of this present world the Church Militant will be changed into the Church Triumphant, and the rest of eternity will be the glory of the Savior, His people both giving Him eternal glory and partaking of His glory.
v. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, in the Messianic period of the New Testament, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time, stretching it out as once before when He led His chosen people out of Egypt, to recover the remnant of His people which shall be left, not, only the believers of Israel and Judah, but those from all the nations of the world, from Assyria, the mighty nation in the, valley of the Euphrates, and from Egypt, the empire toward the southwest, and from Pathros, Upper Egypt, and from Cush, or Ethiopia, and from Elam, Southern Media, and from Shinar, Southern Mesopotamia, and from Hamath, the country or province on the Orontes, north of Palestine, and from the islands of the sea, an expression which refers to the entire coast of the Mediterranean and the adjacent countries.
v. 12. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, around which all the believers might rally, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, those of His spiritual people, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners, wings or edges, of the earth, so that they will march under His banner, united in spirit, though outwardly separated by race and language and customs.
v. 13. The envy also of Epraim shall depart, this hostility having been the chief factor in keeping up the division of the nation during the time of the kings in the Old Testament, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Epraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim, that is, the Israel of the New Testament, the spiritual Israel, the Church of Christ, is a perfect and harmonious union, its various parts living together in perfect love.
v. 14. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Phillstines toward the west, this nation being the embodiment of the fiercest hostility in the early history of Israel; they shall spoil them of the east together, the Bedouin hordes of Arabia; they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, conquering the country of these ancient enemies; and the children of Ammon shall obey them, literally, "their obedience. " These pictures, taken from the wars of Israel, show the manner in which the Lord, through His Church, will judge and destroy His enemies. The Last Day especially will spell their doom, and the believers, the soldiers of the Lord, will be present to celebrate the victory.
v. 15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, the fork of the Arabian Gulf known as the Red Sea, as at the time when the children of Israel left the house of their bondage; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, over the Euphrates, and shall smite it in the seven streams, separating it into seven shallow brooks, and make men go over dry-shod, walking through its bed on sandals. In Old Testament references and figures the Lord here promises to the spiritual people of God a wonderful salvation, like that out of Egypt or out of the captivity of Assyria.
v. 16. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, cast up or purposely built for the believers in the Lord’s Church, which shall be left, from Assyria, permitting the captives to return to their inheritance; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. This redemption of His people out of the hand of all enemies and oppressors is the last great deed of the exalted Messiah, and its completion will usher in the peace and glory of eternity. In this way the despised Branch out of the house of David established His kingdom, which, although jeered at on all sides, will still conquer in the end.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 the root of Jesse
the root of Jesse
This refers to Jesse's and King David's descendant who would become the king that was told about in Isaiah 1:1. AT: "Jesse's descendant king" or "the king descended from Jesse" (See: Metonymy)
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will stand as a banner for the peoples
A banner is a flag that a king would raise as a sign for people to see it and come to him. AT: "will be like a sign for the peoples" or "will attract the peoples to come to him" (See: Simile)
The nations
"The people of the nations"
the Lord will again extend his hand to recover the remnant of his people
The hand is a reference to God's power. AT: "the Lord will again use his power to bring back the remnant of his people" (See: Metonymy)
Pathros ... Elam ... Hamath
These are names of places. (See: How to Translate Names)
translationWords
day of the Lord
Jesse
people group
nation
glory
lord
hand
remnant
people of God
Assyria
Egypt
Cush
Shinar
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:10 the heir to David’s throne: Literally the root…
11:10 the heir to David’s throne: Literally the root of Jesse (11:1; Rev 5:5; 22:16). • The Messiah will bring salvation to all the world (Isa 2:1-5). Members of other nations will even serve as priests and Levites (66:20-21), but only if they repent and believe in the true God.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.