Isaiah 11

1 But there shall come forth a shoot from the stock of Jesse, —And, a sprout from his roots, shall bear fruit;

[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 the spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him, —The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and reverence of Yahweh;

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 So will he find fragrance, in the reverence of Yahweh, And not, by the sight of his eyes, will he judge, Nor by the hearing of his ears, will 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 will judge with righteousness! them who are poor, And decide with equity! for the oppressed of the land, —And he will smite the land With the sceptre of his mouth, And with the breath of his lips, will he slay the lawless one;

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 reins;

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 lamb, And, the leopard, with the kid, shall lie down, —And the calf and the young lion and the fatling—together, With, a little child, leading 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, with the bear shall find pasture, Together, shall their young ones, lie down, —And, the lion, like the ox, shall 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 caress over the hole of the asp, Yea over the viper’s den, hath the weaned child stretched 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 hurt—nor destroy, in all my holy mountain, —For filled is the land with the knowledge of Yahweh, As the waters, to the sea, form a covering.

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 there shall come to be, in that day, A root of Jesse, which shall be standing as an ensign of peoples, Unto him, shall nations seek, —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 come to pass in that day, That My Lord will again a second time set his hand, to possess himself of the remnant of his people, —who shall be left—from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Ethiopia and from Elam and from Shinar and from Hamath and from the Coastlands 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 a standard to the nations, And will gather the outcasts of Israel, —And the dispersed of Judah, will he collect, 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 the envy of Ephraim shall be removed, And the vexatious doings of Judah, shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah, shall not vex 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 on the wing of the Philistines in the west, Together, shall they make prey of the sons of the east, —On Edom and Moab, putting forth their hand, With the sons of Ammon hearkening unto 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 Yahweh, will devote to destruction, the gulf of the Egyptian sea, And will brandish his hand against the River ["Euphrates"], in the full force of his spirit, —And will smite it in the seven streams And cause a marching through in sandals,

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 So shall there be a highway for the remnant of his people who shall be left out of Assyria, —Like as it was to Israel, in the day that he 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.