Isaiah 11:13,14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, &c. Ephraim here stands for the ten tribes and the prophet alludes to the great emulations and contentions which had subsisted between them and Judah: but his intention is to set forth the spiritual state of the Jews after their conversion to the faith of the gospel, which he predicts, 1st, “That all envy shall be extinguished among them, and a true brotherly love shall fill their souls; and, 2d, That, joined to the Gentiles, they shall strenuously defend the cause of Christ and his kingdom against the enemies and opposers of it.” Ephraim shall not envy Judah, &c. Not only all outward hostilities shall cease, but also their inward animosities. But they shall fly upon the shoulders, &c. This is a metaphor taken from birds and beasts of prey, which commonly fasten on the shoulders of cattle. They shall spoil them of the east together They shall subdue them; which is to be understood of the spiritual victory which the Messiah should obtain by his apostles, ministers, and people, over all nations, in bringing them to the obedience of his gospel. For it is the manner of the prophets to speak of the spiritual things of the gospel under such figurative representations. Indeed, as a late writer observes, this fourteenth verse can be understood in no other than a spiritual and mystical sense, to signify that those who are called by the gospel, and converted to Christ, shall be full of zeal for his glory, and shall labour with all their might to reduce to the obedience of Christ all individuals and nations around them.