A Second Time to Recover His People
10 It 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. 11 It 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. 12 He 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. 13 The 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. 14 They 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. 15 Yahweh 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. 16 There 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.
A banner raised for the nations, a second exodus, and two old rivals who stop competing.
It 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.
The shoot of verse one is now the root, which reverses the botany — what grew out of the stock is described as the thing the stock grew from. Paul quotes this verse as the last of four proving that the nations were always intended Romans 15:12.
A banner is a standard raised on a hill so that scattered people can find the rallying point. It does not go looking for anyone; it stands still and is visible.
It 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.
The second time assumes a first, and the first was the exodus. Eight places are named, running from Mesopotamia to the upper Nile to the Mediterranean coasts, and the list is deliberately longer than the one country Israel came out of before.
He 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.
Two different words for the scattered — the outcasts of the north and the dispersed of the south — and both are collected by the same signal.
The 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.
The oldest quarrel in the nation, ended in one verse, and the two halves are given different faults. The north envies; the south persecutes. Neither is described as the innocent party, and the healing is not that one side wins.
Yahweh 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.
The crossing of the sea, done again and done more thoroughly — not one corridor but seven, and shallow enough to walk in shoes rather than on dry seabed between walls of water.
There 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.
The first appearance of the highway, an image this book returns to repeatedly — a made road through country that has none, running the direction the people need to go. And the comparison is stated outright: what happened once will happen again, out of a different empire.
settled What this mark means