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1 And there shall come forth a out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and , 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 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 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 .
5 And shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the , and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young and the fatling together; and a little shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the , and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy : for the earth shall be full of the 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 .
First of all, let it be clear that this text is found in the Old Testament (and thus was written in a Judaic point of view) but is commonly interpreted by Christians as an announcement of Jesus Christ. Isaiah would probably have said his prophecy was about the Judaic Messiah, which Christians interpret as Jesus Christ.
As the Islamic exegesis (not the Quran) also recognizes Isaiah as a prophet, the Muslims will probably be familiar with this prophecy too, but interpret it as announcement of the coming of Muhammad (Praise Be Upon Him).
But even for people from quite different religions, such as Hindu or Buddhists, the message of hope is important.
The following textual notes are the Christian view, but as said before, other interpretations are possible and even recommendable.
Verse 1 is seen as a prophecy about the Messiah: He will be a descendant of Jesse (a shepherd and the father of King David). The Hebrew word for "Branch" is "Netser", a reference to Nazareth. Indeed: Jesus Christ grew up in Nazareth and was nicknamed the Nazarene.
In verse 3-4 Isaiah tells us this Christ will not judge upon first impressions, but He will reward the meek and punish the wicked. Isaiah would probably say the wicked are those who don't respect the Mosaic laws (the Ten Commandments, as "Thou shalt not kill").
Verse 6 to 9 promise a peaceful future: no more killing, not even for eating. This is also something that can be found in some other world religions, like Jainism.
Verse 10 is usually not included in this excerpt. It is the hinge between the prophecy of the peaceful world to come, and the rather militaristic rest of the chapter, hinting at subjugation of all other nations outside of Israel. But I've chosen to include this verse in this quiz, as it may also point at the message found in the Gospels: the word of the Lord is not only for the Jewish people, but also for all Gentiles.
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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