a heifer · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
bear
וָדֹב֙va.Do
H1677
the bear (as slow) · conjunction + noun, common both genders singular absolute
feed
תִּרְעֶ֔ינָהtir.'Ei.nah
H7462
to tend a flock · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
ones
יַלְדֵיהֶ֑ןyal.dei.Hen
H3206
something born · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine plural
down
יִרְבְּצ֣וּyir.be.Tzu
H7257
to crouch (on all four legs folded · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
together
יַחְדָּ֖וyach.Dav
H3162
properly · adverb
lion
וְאַרְיֵ֖הve.'ar.Yeh
H738
a lion · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
eat
יֹֽאכַלyo.khal-
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
straw
תֶּֽבֶןTe.ven
H8401
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
ox
כַּבָּקָ֥רka.ba.Kar
H1241
beef cattle or an animal of the ox family of either gen… · preposition with the article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 11:1-9
The prophet had before, in this sermon, spoken of a child that should be born, a son that should be given, on whose shoulders the government should be, intending this for the comfort of the people of God in times of trouble, as dying Jacob, many ages before, had intended the prospect of Shiloh for the comfort of his seed in their affliction in Egypt. He had said (Isa 10:27) that the yoke should be destroyed because of the anointing; now here he tells us on whom that anointing should rest. He foretels,
I. That the Messiah should, in due time, arise out of the house of David, as that branch of the Lord which he had said (Isa 4:2) should be excellent and glorious; the word is Netzer, which some…
feed--namely, "together"; taken from the second clause.
straw--no longer flesh and blood.
John Gill on Isaiah 11:7
And the cow and the bear shall feed,.... That is, together, in one church state, at one table, or in one pasture, upon the wholesome food of the Gospel, the salutary doctrines of Christ; who though before of different dispositions, the one tame and gentle, useful and profitable, dispensing the milk of the divine word, and gracious experience; the other cruel and voracious, barbarous and inhuman, worrying the lambs and sheep of Christ; but now of the same nature, and having no ill will to one another, and being without fear of each other:
their young ones shall lie down together; those like the calf and the young bear, shall lie in the green pastures of Gospel ordinances, and do no injury, t…
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. He again returns to describe the character and habits of those who have submitted to Christ. As there is a mutual relation between the king and the people, he sometimes ascends from the body to the head, and sometimes descends from the head to the body; and we have already seen that Christ reigns, not for himself, but for those who believe in him. Hence it follows that he forms their minds by his heavenly Spirit. But the Prophet's discourse looks beyond this; for it amounts to a promise that there will be a blessed restoration of the world. He describes the order which was at the beginning, before man's apostasy produced the unhappy and melancholy change u…
The Church Fathers
Such is the grace of the waters, that their calves and lions flee from them, so that this prophetic saying about the sanctity of the Church rightly applies to them: Then wolves and lambs will graze together, and lions and oxen will eat straw together. No wonder, since even in the Church, water works in the same way, that the washed-away wickedness of the thieves is compared with the innocence.
Hence there too it is added: "And a little child shall lead them." Who is this little child except he of whom it is written: "A child is born to us, a son is given to us"? He leads those dwelling together, because lest our hearts cling to earthly things, he daily inflames them through inward desire. And this very leading of his is to kindle us unceasingly to love of him, lest when we love one another we remain in mind in this exile, lest the rest of this life so please us that it leads to forgetfulness of our homeland, lest the mind delighted by prosperity grow sluggish.
Where and when, therefore, will this blessing be accomplished except in the kingdom of God, where grain, wine and oil are in abundance? The earth will yield its fruit generously and every evil will be destroyed, as Isaiah said: "In those days, the lion will eat straw with the ox, the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and a small child will put his hand in the den of an asp without being harmed." In his kingdom, God will recreate the world as wonderfully as it was made at the beginning, before the first man sinned. For after he violated the word of God, all things were corrupted, profaned and cursed when God said, "Cursed is the ground because of your works." The passing form of this world, therefore, will become the kingdom of the saints and the liberation of creation.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Beast — This word is used of flocks or herds of grazing animals (Ex. 22:5; Num. 20:4, 8, 11; Ps. 78:48); of beasts of burden (Gen. 45:17); of eatable beasts (Prov. 9:2); and of swift beasts or dromedaries…
Nail — For fastening. (1.) Hebrew yathed, “piercing,” a peg or nail of any material (Ezek. 15:3), more especially a tent-peg (Ex. 27:19; 35:18; 38:20), with one of which Jael (q.v.) pierced the temples of…
Straw — Used in brick-making (Ex. 5:7-18). Used figuratively in Job 41:27; Isa. 11:7; 25:10; 65:25.
Allegory · dwelling together — dwelling together
Bear · Ferocity of — Ferocity of
Bear, The · Illustrative of: The natural man — Illustrative of: The natural man
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Lion, The · Illustrative: (Tamed,) of the natural man subdued by grace — Illustrative: (Tamed,) of the natural man subdued by grace
Ox, The · Was fed: With straw — Was fed: With straw
Peace · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The fruit of righteousness is peace, which now reigns in humanity under the rule of the Prince of Peace, and even in the animal world, with nothing whatever to disturb it. "And the wolf dwells with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the kid; and calf and lion and stalled ox together: a little boy drives them. And cow and bear go to the pasture; their young ones lie down together: and the lion eats shopped straw like the ox. And the suckling plays by the hole of the adder, and the weaned child stretches its hand to the pupil of the basilisk-viper. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the land is filled with knowledge of Jehovah, like the waters covering the sea."…
In that day means in the coming age of the Messiah. The prophecy that follows received partial fulfillment in Isaiah’s day or shortly thereafter. The final fulfillment is found in the coming of the Messiah to inaugurate and then fully establish the age to come.
