The Prince of Peace
1 From the stump of Jesse a shoot will come forth;
from his roots a branch will grow and bear fruit.
2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him –
a Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a Spirit of counsel and power,
a Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.
3 Not by appearances will he judge,
nor by what is said must he decide,
4 but with justice he will judge the poor
and with righteousness decide for the meek.
Like a rod, his word will strike the oppressor,
and the breath of his lips slay the wicked.
5 Justice will be the girdle of his waist,
truth the girdle of his loins.
6 The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
the leopard will rest beside the kid,
the calf and the lion cub will feed together
and a little child will lead them.
7 Befriending each other, the cow and the bear
will see their young ones lie down together.
Like cattle, the lion will eat hay.
8 By the cobra’s den the infant will play.
The child will put his hand into the viper’s lair.
9 No one will harm or destroy over my holy mountain,
for as water fills the sea
the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.
10 On that day the “Root of Jesse” will be raised as a signal for the nations. The people will come in search of him, thus making his dwelling place glorious.
11 On that day Yahweh will again raise his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people from Assyria; from Egypt, Pa thros and Ethiopia; from Elam, Shinar, Hamath and from the coast lands of the sea.
12 He will set up a signal that can be seen from all the countries and assemble the exiles of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from all the corners of the earth.
13 Then Ephraim will cast off its jealousy and Judah will be rid of its enemies. Ephraim will not envy Judah nor Judah be hostile to Ephraim.
14 But the two will sweep down together upon the shoulder of Philistia to the west and plunder the nations to the east. They will lay their hands upon Edom and Moab and make the Ammonites their subjects.
15 Yahweh will dry up the tongue of the Egyptian sea; he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates in scorching fury, and break it into seven streams that people can cross dry -shod.
16 Then there will be a highway for the remnant of his people coming back from Assy ria, as there was when Israel came out of Egypt.
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Comments Isaiah, Chapter 11
• 11.1 Those who have read the New Testament know that the Jews of Jesus’ time were expecting a Messiah. This, however, was not always the case. From Abraham to David, the Israelites were looking for the land promised by God and they con quered it. After David, they thought that a better king could not be found and, during the two and a half centuries that followed, they hoped only that their present and future kings would resemble David. The very promise that God made to David about his descendants (2 S 7:14) was not understood as the announcement of a future Messiah.
Isaiah is the first to announce the Messiah, namely, a king like David but better. Here he is presented as a shoot coming from the stump, once the tree has been felled. Thus, he suggests that the present kings, who are sinners and without much faith, will disappear. More than a descendant of David, Emmanuel will be a new David (he is called son of Jesse like David).
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him as it did on the prophets and more so. The prophets were inspired by a mysterious power called “Spirit of God,” but not at all times. In him, the Spirit would dwell always:
– a spirit of wisdom and intelligence, as Solomon had;
– a spirit of prudence and strength, like David’s;
– a spirit of knowledge and respect for the Lord, as Moses and the Patriarchs had.
To do justice for the meek was and continues to be the first function of sovereigns. The Messiah-King would be God’s deputy, attentive to the poor, and he must receive the Spirit, or Breath of God for this endeavor. We must not see material liberation as opposed to spiritual liberation as if believers were to let others build a more just world. God’s work that saves persons, can never be separated from educating people: it demands the repression of the oppressors and ruling in the fear of the Lord.
It would be wrong to think that, with Christ, this longing for justice was finished. The love and forgiveness that Jesus proclaims bring about the salvation of humankind through truth, justice and shared food. Should we forget these requirements, “spiritual” and naive love would be nothing but an illusion.
The renewal of God’s people will be manifested in nature: the lion will eat hay. To put this in modern terms: thanks to technology and a great er cooperation between people, nature’s hos tile forces will be placed at the service of humankind.
Beginning with Isaiah, the prophets will see the Messiah, or the future king anointed by God, as a man of the Spirit. See the second part of Isaiah 42:1 and the commentary of this text Jesus gave in Nazareth (Lk 4:18). When the Spirit of God is conferred on believers through the sacrament of confirmation, the church recalls the Spirit of wisdom, intelligence, strength, etc.
• 10. This poem in 11:10-16 was written at the time of the exile. It was placed here to develop the prophecy concerning the “stump of Jesse.”
In verses 10 and 12 note the theme of the “signal for the nations,” found also in Luke 2:32, though in a different form.
Then we have a song of thanksgiving. About the fountains of salvation, see Isaiah 55:1 and the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4:1.