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Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 11

1 A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s root stock, a bud will sprout from his roots.⁠ 2 The Lord’s Spirit will rest on him—a⁠ Spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, a Spirit that provides the ability to execute plans,⁠ a Spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord.⁠ 3 His smelling is in the fear of the Lord7.⁠ He will not judge by mere appearances or make decisions on the basis of hearsay. 4 He will treat the poor fairly and make right decisions for the downtrodden of the earth.⁠ He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and order the wicked to be executed.⁠ 5 Justice will be like a belt around his waist, integrity will be like a belt around his hips. 6 A wolf will reside with a lamb, and a leopard will lie down with a young goat; an ox and a young lion will graze together, as a small child leads them along.⁠ 7 A cow and a bear will graze together, their young will lie down together. A lion, like an ox, will eat straw. 8 A baby will play over the hole of a snake; over the nest of a serpent an infant will put his hand.⁠ 9 They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain. For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty, just as the waters completely cover the sea.⁠ 10 At that time a root from Jesse will stand like a signal flag for the nations.⁠ Nations will look to him for guidance, and his residence will be majestic. 11 At that time the Lord will again lift his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the seacoasts.⁠ 12 He will lift a signal flag for the nations; he will gather Israel’s dispersed people and assemble Judah’s scattered people from the four corners of the earth. 13 Ephraim’s jealousy will end, and Judah’s hostility will be eliminated. Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah, and Judah will no longer be hostile toward Ephraim. 14 They will swoop down on the Philistine hills to the west; together they will loot the people of the east. They will take over Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be their subjects. 15 The Lord will divide the gulf of the Egyptian Sea; he will wave his hand over the Euphrates River and send a strong wind; he will turn it into seven dried-up streams and enable them to walk across in their sandals.⁠ 16 There will be a highway leading out of Assyria for the remnant of his people,⁠ just as there was for Israel, when they went up from the land of Egypt.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 11:3 and LXX Isaiah 11:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Isaiah 11 uses language similar to Genesis 8 that describes God smelling, which some interpreters understood literally. The Greek Septuagint translation avoids this and translates it as being filled with the spirit of fear toward God.

Passages

Isaiah 11:3

Hebrew Bible
1 A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s root stock, a bud will sprout from his roots. 2 The Lord’s Spirit will rest on him—a Spirit that gives extraordinary wisdom, a Spirit that provides the ability to execute plans, a Spirit that produces absolute loyalty to the Lord. 3 His smelling is in the fear of the Lord7. He will not judge by mere appearances or make decisions on the basis of hearsay.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

LXX Isaiah 11:3

Septuagint
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall come up from his root: 2 and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness; 3 the spirit of the fear of God shall fill him. He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to report:
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Isaiah

References

"... Isaiah 11:3 has been interpreted in different ways, reflecting the ambiguity of the word ַוהֲִריחוֹ (smell, spirit). Scholarly treatments have especially dealt with the lexical ambiguity, particularly with regard to whether ַוהֲִריחוֹ should be understood in relation to the meaning of ‘spirit’ or ‘scent.’ This paper follows Ian D. Ritchie in suggesting that the translation choice reflects cultural attitudes towards the sense of smell. In his paper, “The Nose Knows: Bodily Knowing in Isaiah 11:3,” Ritchie contrasts the interpretation of the Septuagint with that of the Babylonian Talmud. In the Septuagint the phrase, ַוהֲִריחוֹבְִּיְראַתְיהָוה is translated as “The spirit of the fear of God will fill him,” while in the Babylonian Talmud (henceforth: Bavli), Rava suggests that the verse means that the messiah will judge by smelling (b. Sanhedrin 93b). Ritchie contends that these divergent interpretations reflect different cultural contexts. The Bavli came together in the third through sixth centuries ce, in Sasanian Babylonia, while the Septuagint originated in the third through second centuries bce in Ptolemaic Egypt. The Bavli’s interpretation should be understood within a context where the sense of smell was treated as reliable, whereas the Septuagint reflects one where it was often considered suspect ..."
Meira Wolkenfeld, "Cultural Attitudes towards Scent in the Interpretation of Isaiah 11:3" in Strauch Schick, Shana, and Yaakov Elman (eds.) Land and Spirituality in Rabbinic Literature: A Memorial Volume for Yaakov Elman (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 239–259.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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