A child will be born
1Only a few people are left
of the descendants of Jesse.
They are like a tree-trunk that has stayed in the ground
after someone has cut down the tree.
But from that tree, a new branch
will grow and it will have fruit.
A child will be born and
he will become king.
2The Spirit of the Lord will be with him.
That is why he will have wisdom and understanding,
he will know what to do
and he will be able to do it.
He will be near the Lord and he will serve Him.
3It will make him happy to serve the Lord.
He will be a good judge
who will judge not only
by what things seem to be
or by listening to people who gossip.
4When the poor people come to the judge
and ask him to help them,
this king will do it. He will help them.
He will do what is right
to people who are not important.
He will rule over everyone in the land,
and when people do wrong,
he will punish them and
the bad people will die.
5This king will rule fairly
and he will be honest.
6Wolves and lambs will live together,
and leopards will lie down with goats.
Lions and calves will be together,
and a little child will take care of them.
7Cows and bears will eat grass together,
their babies will lie down together,
and lions will eat grass like cows.
8Little children will play
near the nests of snakes
and they will put their hands
into the holes of the vipers.
9The Lord says: ‘On my holy_mountain
no one will do wrong,
and no one will destroy anything.’
The sea is full of water and the land
will also be full of people
who want to be near Me.
10On that day the king who is a descendant of Jesse will be a sign to the nations that they must come. They will ask the king what to do and his palace will be very beautiful.
There will be a road from Assyria
11On that day the Lord will again put out his hand to free his people who are still_alive. They will come from the lands of Assyria, Egypt, Cush, Elam Shinar, Hamath and the lands next to the sea. 12The Lord will hold up a flag among the nations and He will call the people from Israel and Judah to come together. The enemies took them away and they had to live all over the world. 13The people of Ephraim will not be angry anymore and the enemies of Judah will die. The people of Ephraim and the people of Judah will not be angry with each other anymore. 14Together they will go to war_against the Philistines in the west and they will take everything from the people in the east. They will defeat the Edomites and Moabites and they will rule over the Ammonites. 15Then the Lord will make a part of the sea near Egypt dry, and with his hand, He will call a storm wind from the Euphrates River and there will be only 7 small rivers left over. They will be so small that people will be able to walk through them. 16There will be a road from Assyria for the people of the Lord who are still_alive. It will be the same as when the Israelites went away from Egypt.
