Commentary on the Eleventh Chapter of Isaiah

Chapter 12 of *Some Answered Questions* is a commentary on the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. 'Abdu'l-Bahá begins by quoting verses 1 to 10: the rod out of the stem of Jesse, the Branch that grows out of his roots, and the vision of the peaceable kingdom:

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> The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie > down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling > together; and a little child shall lead them.

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The rod out of the stem of Jesse, He observes, might be applied to Christ, for Joseph was of the descendants of Jesse. But the events foretold for the days of that rod were, even when read symbolically, only partly fulfilled in Christ's day.

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The leopard and the lamb, the lion and the calf, the child and the asp are, He explains, "metaphors and symbols for various nations, peoples, antagonistic sects and hostile races." Through the spirit of Christ many such peoples found concord. Yet the promise that "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" was not realized then; hostile nations remained, and enmity persisted even among the Christian sects themselves.

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He then says, "But these verses apply word for word to Bahá'u'lláh." He describes the cycle they foretell: war entirely suppressed, disputes settled before a general tribunal of the nations, the human race become like one family, universal peace raising its tent in the center of the earth.

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As a sign already visible, He points to the progress of science and knowledge in the century of Bahá'u'lláh, and to Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Hindus and Persians who, having entered His Cause, associated with one another in the greatest friendship. "This is one of the meanings of the companionship of the wolf and the lamb."

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The chapter also interprets the hoisting of the standard of God among the nations: all peoples gathered under the shadow of a divine banner, "which is no other than the Lordly Branch itself," and becoming a single nation. It then speaks of the gathering of the scattered people of Israel in the Holy Land, which He saw as already beginning.

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*A retelling based on **Some Answered Questions**. For the fuller account, see the original.*

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