1A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse,
and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
2Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him:
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
3His delight will be in the fear of Yahweh.
He will not judge by the sight of his eyes,
neither decide by the hearing of his ears;
4but he will judge the poor with righteousness,
and decide with equity for the humble of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
5Righteousness will be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his waist.
6The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together;
and a little child will lead them.
7The cow and the bear will graze.
Their young ones will lie down together.
The lion will eat straw like the ox.
8The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole,
and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
9They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh,
as the waters cover the sea.
10It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.
11It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13The envy also of Ephraim will depart, and those who persecute Judah will be cut off. Ephraim won’t envy Judah, and Judah won’t persecute Ephraim. 14They will fly down on the shoulders of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the children of the east. They will extend their power over Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them. 15Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. 16There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
1:4 John addressed Revelation to seven churches in the province of Asia, which today is southwestern Turkey. The churches' names are given in order, going clockwise from the southwest. Him who is and who was and who is to come describes Christ, who exists now, always has and always will exist (see Heb.13:8). The seven Spirits may refer to the angels of the seven churches (chs.2; 3), or to the Holy Spirit (see Isa 11:2).
1:5 Jesus Christ...the firstborn from the dead guarantees the Christian's Resurrection through His Resurrection (ICor. 15:20,23). Christ will not exert authority (see Matt 28:18) over the kings of the earth until His second coming (19:17-21).
John now communicates God’s greetings to the seven churches, which were the original recipients of this Revelation. Their location is identified as “Asia,” the designation given to the region by the Romans. Today, it is often referred to as Asia Minor in light of our knowledge of the existence of East Asia. We are also introduced to the first trinitarian formula in Revelation. The order of the members of the Godhead differs from other parts of the New Testament, identifying God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and then the Son. However, it reminds us that the members of the Godhead are coequal.
God the Father is identified as the eternal One, “who is and who was and who is to come.” The grammatical construction of this title emphasizes the eternality of God, present, past, and future. It involves a solecism, which means that it uses Hebrew grammar with Greek words. Here, the title is in the nominative case, which is normally used for the subject of a sentence. However, it is the place of a direct object and so “should,” in normal Greek grammar, be in the accusative case. In Hebrew, God’s names and titles are always in the nominative case, even when not the subject of the sentence. This is a sign of respect for God and recognizes that He is the subject of the universe.
The Holy Spirit is referred to as “the seven Spirits” before God’s throne. Later, in chapter 4, the Holy Spirit will be symbolized by a menorah with seven lamps.