What is the meaning of Isaiah 11:9?

They will neither harm nor destroy

• This promise looks forward to a time when violence, oppression, and even predatory instincts are removed (Isaiah 11:6-8).

• God pledges a complete end to all forms of danger—physical, emotional, social, or spiritual.

• Echoes of this peace appear in Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, where swords become plowshares and nations stop warring.

• Hosea 2:18 pictures a covenant where “the bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.”

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on all My holy mountain

• “My holy mountain” points to Zion, the place of God’s dwelling and reign (Psalm 2:6; Isaiah 56:7).

• The phrase widens to include the whole messianic kingdom, not merely a hill in Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:10).

• The perfection of peace originates where God’s presence is fullest; from there it radiates outward until no corner of His realm is left untouched.

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for the earth will be full

• The word “for” explains the cause of universal peace: something will fill the earth so completely that harm becomes impossible.

• God’s redemptive plan always aimed at global reach (Numbers 14:21; Psalm 72:19); here, that plan reaches its climax.

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of the knowledge of the LORD

• This “knowledge” is relational and experiential—knowing God personally, not merely knowing about Him (Jeremiah 31:34; John 17:3).

• When every heart bows to the true King, sin’s roots wither; hatred, violence, and loss simply have no soil in which to grow (Isaiah 33:6).

• The Spirit-empowered reign of the Messiah (Isaiah 11:2-5) guarantees that this knowledge is accurate, wholehearted, and universal.

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as the sea is full of water

• The sea is inseparable from water; remove water and the sea ceases to exist. In the same way, the future earth cannot be imagined apart from God’s revealed glory (Habakkuk 2:14).

• The picture is one of depth and abundance—no shallow pools, no empty places. Every sphere of life will be saturated with God’s truth, love, and righteousness.

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summary

Isaiah 11:9 paints the culmination of God’s redemptive story: a world in which His presence pervades every heart and corner, ending violence and fear altogether. Because the Messiah reigns from Zion, the whole earth overflows with an intimate, transforming knowledge of the Lord, as naturally and completely as the sea is filled with water.