---
title: "Isaiah 11 - Study King James Bible with barnes notes on the whole bible"
description: "Read Isaiah 11 with barnes notes on the whole bible commentary. 1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, t"
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url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/barnes-notes-on-the-whole-bible/isaiah/11"
---

[ Read](/kjv/isaiah/11)[ Commentary](/study/isaiah/11)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/isaiah/11) Audio

 1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

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

 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:*

 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek 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.*

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

 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

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

 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.*

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

 10 ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.*

 11 And it shall come to pass in that day, *that* the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.*

 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

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

 15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make *men* go over dryshod.*

 16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
 
[Isaiah 10](/study/isaiah/10) [Isaiah 12](/study/isaiah/12)

## Commentary

 To verse 1
 
**And there shall come forth a rod -**In the previous chapter, the prophet had represented the Assyrian monarch and his army under the image of a dense and flourishing forest, with all its glory and grandeur. In opposition to this, he describes the illustrious personage who is the subject of this chapter, under the image of a slender twig or shoot, sprouting up from the root of a decayed and fallen tree. Between the Assyrian, therefore, and the person who is the subject of this chapter, there is a most striking and beautiful contrast. The one was at first magnificent - like a vast spreading forest - yet should soon fall and decay; the other was the little sprout of a decayed tree, which should yet rise, expand and flourish. 

**A rod -**(חטר *choṭı̂r*). This word occurs in but one other place; [Proverbs 14:3](/kjv/proverbs/14/3) : ‘In the mouth of the foolish is a “rod” of pride.’ Here it means, evidently, a branch, a twig, a shoot, such as starts up from the roots of a decayed tree, and is synonymous with the word rendered “branch” (צמח *tsemach*) in [Isaiah 4:2](/kjv/isaiah/4/2); see the Note on that place. 

**Out of the stem -**(מגזע *mı̂geza‛*). This word occurs but three times in the Old Testament; see [Job 14:8](/kjv/job/14/8); where it is rendered “stock:” 

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, 

And the stock thereof die in the ground; 

And in [Isaiah 40:24](/kjv/isaiah/40/24) : ‘Yea, their “stock” shall not take root in the earth.’ It means, therefore, the stock or stump of a tree that has been cut down - a stock, however, which may not be quite dead, but where it may send up a branch or shoot from its roots. It is beautifully applied to an ancient family that is fallen into decay, yet where there may be a descendant that shall rise and flourish; as a tree may fall and decay, but still there may be vitality in the root, and it shall send up a tender germ or sprout. 

**Of Jesse -**The father of David. It means, that he who is here spoken of should be of the family of Jesse, or David. Though Jesse had died, and though the ancient family of David would fall into decay, yet there would arise from that family an illustrious descendant. The beauty of this description is apparent, if we bear in recollection that, when the Messiah was born, the ancient and much honored family of David had fallen into decay; that the mother of Jesus, though pertaining to that family, was poor, obscure, and unknown; and that, to all appearance, the glory of the family had departed. Yet from that, as from a long-decayed root in the ground, he should spring who would restore the family to more than its ancient glory, and shed additional luster on the honored name of Jesse. 

**And a branch -**(נצר *nêtser*). A twig, branch, or shoot; a slip, scion, or young sucker of a tree, that is selected for transplanting, and that requires to be watched with special care. The word occurs but four times; [Isaiah 60:21](/kjv/isaiah/60/21) : ‘They shall inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting;’ [Isaiah 14:19](/kjv/isaiah/14/19) : ‘But thou art cast out of thy grave as an abominable branch;’ [Daniel 11:7](/kjv/daniel/11/7). The word rendered branch in [Jeremiah 23:5](/kjv/jeremiah/23/5); [Jeremiah 33:15](/kjv/jeremiah/33/15), is a different word in the original (צמח *tsemach*), though meaning substantially the same thing. The word “branch” is also used by our translators, in rendering several other Hebrew words; “see” Taylor’s “Concordance.” Here the word is synonymous with that which is rendered “rod” in the previous part of the verse - a shoot, or twig, from the root of a decayed tree. 

**Out of his roots -**As a shoot starts up from the roots of a decayed tree. The Septuagint renders this, ‘And a flower (ἄνθος *anthos*) shall arise from the root.’ The Chaldee, ‘And a king shall proceed from the sons of Jesse, and the Messiah from his sons’ sons shall arise;’ showing conclusively that the ancient Jews referred this to the Messiah. 

That this verse, and the subsequent parts of the chapter, refer to the Messiah, may be argued from the following considerations: 

(1) The fact that it is expressly applied to him in the New Testament. Thus Paul, in [Romans 15:12](/kjv/romans/15/12), quotes the tenth verse of this chapter as expressly applicable to the times of the Messiah. 

(2) The Chaldee Paraphrase shows, that this was the sense which the ancient Jews put upon the passage. That paraphrase is of authority, only to show that this was the sense which appeared to be the true one by the ancient interpreters. 

(3) The description in the chapter is not applicable to any other personage than the Messiah. Grotius supposes that the passage refers to Hezekiah; though, ‘in a more sublime sense,’ to the Messiah. Others have referred it to Zerubbabel. But none of the things here related apply to either, except the fact that they had a descent from the family of Jesse; for neither of those families had fallen into the decay which the prophet here describes. 

(4) The peace, prosperity, harmony and order, referred to in the subsequent portions of the chapter, are not descriptive of any portion of the reign of Hezekiah. 

(5) The terms and dcscriptions here accord with other portions of the Scriptures, as applicable to the Messiah. Thus Jeremiah [Jeremiah 23:5](/kjv/jeremiah/23/5); [Jeremiah 33:15](/kjv/jeremiah/33/15) describes the Messiah under the similitude of a “branch, a germ or shoot - using, indeed, a different Hebrew word, but retaining the same idea and image; compare [Zechariah 3:8](/kjv/zechariah/3/8). It accords also with the description by Isaiah of the same personage in [Isaiah 4:2](/kjv/isaiah/4/2); see the note on the place. 

(6) I may add, that nearly all commentators have referred this to the Messiah; and, perhaps, it would not be possible to find greater unanimity in regard to the interpretation of any passage of Scripture than on this.

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