The Return of Israel and Judah from the Dispersion, and Victorious Alliance against their Ancient Foes. This is probably post-exilic. The ideas are characteristic of that period Israel's spiritual primacy, the latter-day glory of Jerusalem, the flocking of the heathen to it as disciples. Isaiah 11:11 f., Isaiah 11:15 f. are more natural in a later writer, for the Israelites would hardly be so widely dispersed in Isaiah's time. Isaiah 11:10 appears to be an editorial addition combining elements from Isaiah 2:2-4 and from Isaiah 4:2-6. The root seems to be a shoot springing from the root. The Messiah dwells in a splendid abode, and the nations resort to him as an organ of Divine revelation. The remnant will a second time be gathered from its wide dispersion. A signal is lifted up to the nations that they may bring the Israelites back; the old enmity of Ephraim and Judah will disappear, and together they will pounce on the shoulder-shaped land of the Philistines as an eagle on its prey. They will spoil the Arabs, smite Edom and Moab, and subdue the Ammonites. Yahweh will dry up (mg.) the tongue of the Red Sea (i.e. the Gulf of Suez), scorch the Euphrates and split it into seven streams, so that men pass over it dry-shod. Thus the remnant will return from Assyria, as Israel crossed the Red Sea at the Exodus.
Isaiah 11:11. the second time: a first return from exile had already taken place. This was, in fact, so incomplete that several post-exilic prophecies predict a full return from the Dispersion. The two great powers, Assyria and Egypt, are mentioned first, then their dependencies. By Assyria one of the empires which succeeded Assyria is meant, Persia or Syria. Pathros: Upper Egypt. Cush: Ethiopia. Elam: Jeremiah 49:34-39 *. Shinar: Babylonia. Hamath: Isaiah 10:9 *. islands of the sea: the coast lands of the Mediterranean.