Isaiah 11

1 And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stem of Jesse, and a sprout shall spring out of his roots.

[Like] [MET] a [new] shoot [often] grows from the stump [of a tree], there will be a descendant of King David who will be a new king.

2 And there shall rest upon him the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;

The Spirit of Yahweh will always be with him. The Spirit will enable him to be wise and to understand [much about many things]. The Spirit will enable him to decide what is good to do, and will enable him to be very powerful. The Spirit will enable him to know Yahweh and to revere him.

3 And he shall be animated by the fear of the Lord; and not after the sight of his eyes shall he judge, and not after the hearing of his ears shall he decide;

He will be glad to obey Yahweh. He will not decide [whether someone is righteous or not only] by seeing what that person looks like, or by listening to [what others say about that person].

4 But he shall judge with righteousness the poor, and decide with equity for the suffering ones of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

He will judge [the cases of] needy people fairly; and he will act justly toward poor people. He will punish evil people as a result of what he decides [MTY]; he will get rid of wicked people because of [MTY] [their behavior].

5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his hips.

He will always act righteously; his doing that will [accompany him like] [MET] a belt [around his waist]. He will always speak what is true; his doing that will [accompany him like] [MET] a sash [around his waist].

6 And the wolf shall dwell with the sheep, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling [shall be] together, and a little boy shall lead them.

[When he becomes king], wolves and lambs will live together [peacefully]; leopards, [instead of killing] baby goats, will lie down with them. [Similarly], calves and lions will eat food together; and a young child will take care of them.

7 And the cow and the she-bear shall feed, together shall their young ones lie down: and the lion shall like the ox eat straw.

Cows and bears will eat [together]; bear cubs and calves will lie down together. Lions will [not eat other animals]; [instead], they will eat hay like cows do.

8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and on the basilisk's den shall the weaned child stretch out his hand.

Babies will play [safely] near the holes where cobra snakes [live]; small children will [even] put their hands into nests of poisonous snakes, [and the snakes will not harm them].

9 They shall not do hurt nor destroy on all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

No creatures will harm or kill other creatures on [Zion Hill], my holy hill; and the earth will [be filled with people who] know Yahweh like [SIM] the seas are full of water.

10 And it shall happen on that day, that [he of] the root of Jesse, who shall stand as an ensign of the people, to him shall nations [come to] inquire: and his resting-place shall be glorious.

At that time, a descendant of King David will [hold up] a flag to signal to the people of all people-groups [that they should gather around him]; they will come to him to get his advice, and the place where he lives will be glorious.

11 And it shall happen on that day, that the Lord will put forth his hand again the second time to acquire the remnant of his people, which shall remain, from Asshur and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from 'Elam, and from Shin'ar, and from Chamath, and from the islands of the sea.

At that time, Yahweh will (reach out his hand/use his power) as he did long ago; he will enable those who had been (exiled from/forced to leave) Israel to return home, from Assyria, from northern Egypt, from southern Egypt, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath, and from all the distant countries near the sea.

12 And he will lift up an ensign unto the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel; and the dispersed of Judah will he collect together from the four corners of the earth.

Yahweh will raise his flag among [all] the people-groups, and he will gather together the people of Israel who had been exiled [long ago]. He will gather from very distant places [IDM] on the earth the people of Judah who [(had been scattered to/are living in) those places].

13 And then shall depart the envy of Ephraim, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not assail Ephraim.

[Then], the people of Israel and the people of Judah will not be jealous of each other [any longer], and they will no [longer] be enemies of each other.

14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; together shall they spoil the children of the east: upon Edom and Moab shall they lay their hands; and the children of 'Ammon shall obey them.

Their [armies] will [join together to] attack the people of Philistia to the west. And together they will attack nations to the east; they will [defeat those nations and] take away all their valuable possessions. They will capture [the areas of] Edom and Moab, and the people of the Ammon people-group will be controlled/ruled by the people of Israel and Judah.

15 And the Lord will destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and swing his hand over the river with his mighty wind, and will smite it into seven streams, and render it passable with shoes.

Yahweh will make a dry road through the sea near Egypt. And [it will be as though] he will wave his hand over the [Euphrates] River and send a strong wind to cause it to divide into seven streams, with the result that people will be able to walk across [those streams].

16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall remain from Asshur, like as it was to Israel on the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt.

And because he will make a highway for his people who are living in Assyria, they will be able to return [to their own land], just like [long ago] he made a path for [the people of] Israel [so that they could go through the water] when they left Egypt.