Matthew Henry's Complete Bible Commentary

Isaiah 11

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, Isaiah 11:1. II. His qualifications for his great undertaking, Isaiah 11:2, 11:3. III. The justice and equity of his government, Isaiah 11:3-11:5. IV. The peaceableness of his kingdom, Isaiah 11:6-11:9. V. The accession of the Gentiles to it (Isaiah 11:10), and with them the remnant of the Jews, that should be united with them in the Messiah’s kingdom (Isaiah 11:11-11:16) 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. MHBCC 691.1