UST ISA Chapter 11

◄ ISA 11 ► ║ ═ ©

11 The dynasty of David son of Jesse

now seems like the stump of a tree that someone has cut down.

But one of his descendants will become king again.

It will be as if a branch had grown from the roots of that tree and produced fruit.

2 The Spirit of Yahweh will always remain with that king.

The Spirit will make him wise and understanding.

The Spirit will enable him to plan well and act powerfully.

The Spirit will enable him to know Yahweh and to revere him greatly.

3 He will be very happy to obey Yahweh.

He will not make decisions based on how people appear

or on what people tell him.

4 Instead, he will judge the cases of poor people fairly.

Yes, he will make good decisions on behalf of needy people throughout his land.

But as for wicked people, he will give powerful commands to punish them.

He will even execute them for the harm they have done to other people.

5 His desire to do what is just and honest

will equip him to rule well.

6 When he becomes king, conditions will be so peaceful that even

wolves will live peacefully with lambs.

Leopards will lie down with young goats.

Calves and young lions and fat calves will stay together,

and a small child will lead them.

7 Cows and bears will eat together;

their young will lie down beside each other.

Lions will eat straw the way cattle do.

8 Babies will play safely near the holes where serpents live.

Small children will put their hands into the nests of poisonous snakes without getting hurt.

9 People will no longer do harmful or destructive things

anywhere on the mountain that Yahweh chose as the place where people would worship him.

That is because people throughout the earth will know Yahweh,

just as water completely fills the sea.

10 At that future time, the place where this descendant of Jesse lives will be famous. People of other nations will recognize that they can come to him to get good advice about what to do. They will come to him the way soldiers gather around a signal flag.

11 At that time, the Lord will use his power to bring the survivors of his people back to their land, just as he brought them there before from Egypt. He will bring them back from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from lands along the coast of the sea.

12 He will signal to the nations that he is restoring his people.

He will gather together the Israelites whom enemies carried away into exile.

He will bring back the people of Judah whom enemies scattered

to different places throughout the earth.

13 People in Israel will stop envying the people of Judah,

and people in Judah will stop being hostile to the people of Israel.

14 Together, their armies will sweep down the hills to the west and conquer the Philistines.

They will also defeat the people who live to the east and take their valuable possessions.

They will conquer Edom and Moab,

and the Ammonites will obey them.

15 Yahweh will turn the gulf of the Sea of Egypt into dry land,

and he will use his power to change the Euphrates River.

He will make a strong, hot wind blow over it

so that it splits it into seven shallow streams

that people can walk across wearing sandals.

16 Those of his people who still remain in Assyria

will have an easy road on which to return home.

It will be like when Yahweh made a path through the Sea of Reeds for the Israelites

when they left the land of Egypt long before.