Isaiah 11:14

A fourth question has reference to the relation between this Israel of the future and the surrounding nations, such as the warlike Philistines, the predatory nomad tribes of the East, the unbrotherly Edomites, the boasting Moabites, and the cruel Ammonites. Will they not disturb and weaken the new Israel, as they did the old? "And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines seawards; unitedly they plunder the sons of the East: they seize upon Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon are subject to them." Câthēph (shoulder) was the peculiar name of the coast-land of Philistia which sloped off towards the sea (Jos 15:11); but here it is used with an implied allusion to this, to signify the shoulder of the Philistian nation (becâthēph = becĕthĕph; for the cause see at Isa 5:2), upon which Israel plunges down like an eagle from the height of its mountain-land. The "object of the stretching out of their hand" is equivalent to the object of their grasp. And whenever any one of the surrounding nations mentioned should attack Israel, the whole people would make common cause, and act together. How does this warlike prospect square, however, with the previous promise of paradisaical peace, and the end of all warfare which this promise presupposes (cf., Isa 2:4)? This is a contradiction, the solution of which is to be found in the fact that we have only figures here, and figures drawn from the existing relations and warlike engagements of the nation, in which the prophet pictures that supremacy of the future united Israel over surrounding nations, which is to be maintained by spiritual weapons.

It is a very good transition in prophecy (whether it be so in rhetoric or no), and a very common one, to pass from the prediction of the temporal deliverances of the church to that of the great salvation, which in the fulness of time should be wrought out by Jesus Christ, of which the other were types and figures, to which all the prophets bore witness; and so the ancient Jews understood them. For what else was it that raised so great an expectation of the Messiah at the time he came. Upon occasion of the prophecy of the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib, here comes in a prophecy concerning Messiah the Prince. I. His rise out of the house of David (Isa 11:1). II. His qualifications for his great undertaking (Isa 11:2, Isa 11:3). III. The justice and equity of his government (Isa 11:3-5). IV. The peaceableness of his kingdom (Isa 11:6-9). V. The accession of the Gentiles to it (Isa 11:10), and with them the remnant of the Jews, that should be united with them in the Messiah's kingdom (Isa 11:11-16) and of all this God would now shortly give them a type, and some dark representation, in the excellent government of Hezekiah, the great peace which the nation should enjoy under him, after the ruin of Sennacherib's design, and the return of many of the ten tribes out of their dispersion to their brethren of the land of Judah, when they enjoyed that great tranquility.

11:14 Philistia to the west: The Philistines were Israel’s historic enemy. • The nations to the east included the Edomites, Moabites, and Ammonites. All foes would be vanquished.