World English Bible
- A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
- The LORD’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
- His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by the sight of his eyes, neither decide by the hearing of his ears;
- but he will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
- Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his waist.
- The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.
- The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.
- The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
- They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
- 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.
- It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
- He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
- The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim.
- They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them.
- The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
- There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 10 ended with a forest falling beneath God’s axe. Assyria appeared mighty—an empire of towering cedars—but God would bring it down. Then Isaiah turns our eyes toward another felled tree: David’s royal house. Yet from this stump, seemingly dead, a green shoot appears.
Significantly, Isaiah calls it “the stock of Jesse,” not David. He reaches behind Israel’s celebrated king to David’s obscure father, stripping the dynasty of its glory. God’s answer to imperial pride does not arrive as a taller cedar. He begins again in humility—in Bethlehem, in an overlooked family, with a child.
The Hebrew word translated “branch” is netser. Jerome and other Christian interpreters connected it with Matthew’s statement that Jesus would be called a Nazarene, though the linguistic connection remains debated. What is certain is the theology: God hides His greatest future inside what the world has dismissed as finished.
The Spirit resting upon this ruler recalls both David’s anointing and the Spirit descending upon Jesus. Isaiah 11:3 contains an unusual expression. Literally, the Hebrew may suggest, “His smelling shall be in the fear of the Lord,” rendered in the World English Bible as “His delight.”
This is discernment deeper than visible evidence or persuasive speech. Human courts can be manipulated by appearances, wealth, and rumor. The Messiah detects the moral atmosphere. He recognizes truth as instinctively as one recognizes a fragrance.
We often judge precisely as He does not: “by the sight” of our eyes and “the hearing” of our ears. We confuse confidence with character, success with blessing, and polished words with wisdom. Christ sees the poor whom society has rendered invisible and hears the humble whose voices have been buried.
The wolf is not merely chained; it lives with the lamb. The lion is not kept at a safe distance; its appetite is changed. Biblical peace is therefore not the successful management of hostility. It is the healing of desire.
Even the “little child” is not sentimental decoration. In the ancient world, a child embodied vulnerability. Yet here the vulnerable one leads, while the strong no longer devour. Irenaeus saw in this passage the renewal of creation itself, not merely a metaphor for private calm. Christ’s kingdom reaches into bodies, ecosystems, politics, and instincts.
The chapter still speaks through the hard political world of Isaiah—scattered peoples, hostile nations, and another exodus. Assyrian records and the reliefs from Lachish testify to the terror of conquest and forced displacement. Against that history, God promises a highway home. Yet the Messiah’s decisive weapon is “the rod of his mouth.” His victory advances through truthful judgment, and the nations once feared as enemies finally seek Him.
Before God heals geography, He heals the old envy between Ephraim and Judah. Perhaps our “highway home” also begins when rivalry dies among God’s own people.
Suggested hymn: “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”
Lord Jesus, Branch from the buried root, grow Your life in every place we have declared hopeless. Give us Your Spirit, correct our shallow judgments, heal our predatory desires, and make us people among whom the vulnerable are safe. Gather what sin has scattered, and lead us on Your highway of peace. Amen.