Isaiah Chapter 2: Swords Into Plowshares

In chapter 2, the focus of Isaiah’s vision abruptly shifts from that of God chastising the nation of Israel to prophecies about a future time when the nations of the world would pay homage to God in Jerusalem.

Isaiah begins chapter 2 with a prophecy of the last days, vv. 1-4:

“ ¹ This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:

² In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established

    as the highest of the mountains;

it will be exalted above the hills,

    and all nations will stream to it.

³ Many peoples will come and say,

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

    so that we may walk in his paths.’

The law will go out from Zion,

    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

⁴ He will judge between the nations

    and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

    and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

    nor will they train for war anymore.”

A portion of v. 4 is well known among Christians today and often held up as the standard for the behavior of God’s people and the hope for world peace:

“They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.” 

Two other Old Testament prophets recorded visions similar to Isaiah's vision of vv. 2-4,  with minor variations.

One of them is Micah, who wrote in Micah 4:1-3:

“¹ In the last days

the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established

    as the highest of the mountains;

it will be exalted above the hills,

    and peoples will stream to it.

² Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

    so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,

    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

³ He will judge between many peoples

    and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

    and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

    nor will they train for war anymore.”

The other is the prophet Joel, who wrote in Joel 3:10:

“Beat your plowshares into swords

    and your pruning hooks into spears.

Let the weakling say,

    ‘I am strong!’”

Whenever we read the phrase, “…in the last days…” (v. 2) in prophetic literature, remember that this always refers to the future time when God's final fulfillment of His plans and purposes will take place, as the time approaches for the second coming of the Messiah. Both “…in the last days…” and “…in that day…” are phrases that appear throughout the prophetic literature of the Old and New Testaments and refer to the last days.

In his visions, Isaiah looked beyond the chaotic times Israel and Judah were facing during his lifetime toward the future when the Messiah would reign. He saw a future in which Jerusalem would be established as the religious and political capital of the world, and the Gentile nations would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem for worship and for divine instruction.

V. 4 pictures a time when there will be universal peace, when: “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” There will be no need for weapons of war during the Messiah’s reign.

Isaiah has shown us in vv. 1-4 just a part of his vision of a distant future, when peace will reign on the earth. In vv. 5-11, he turns one more to the Israel and Judah of his day, a time when God’s people had turned away from Him:

“⁵ Come, descendants of Jacob,

    let us walk in the light of the Lord.

⁶ You, Lord, have abandoned your people,

    the descendants of Jacob.

They are full of superstitions from the East;

    they practice divination like the Philistines

    and embrace pagan customs.

⁷ Their land is full of silver and gold;

    there is no end to their treasures.

Their land is full of horses;

    there is no end to their chariots.

⁸ Their land is full of idols;

    they bow down to the work of their hands,

    to what their fingers have made.

⁹ So people will be brought low

    and everyone humbled—

    do not forgive them.

¹⁰ Go into the rocks, hide in the ground

    from the fearful presence of the Lord

    and the splendor of his majesty!

¹¹ The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled

    and human pride brought low;

the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

Isaiah exhorts the people of God to “…walk in the light of the Lord” (v. 5), instead of continuing to resist Him. He shows them in vv. 6-8 just how far they have withdrawn from God:

• They practiced divination and pagan customs (v. 6).
• They amassed financial treasures and horses and chariots and trusted in them for security (v. 7).
• They worshiped idols which they themselves had made (v. 8) instead of worshiping the Lord.

All this being the case, God must respond and correct His people:“…So people will be brought low and everyone humbled…” (v. 9) and “…The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day” (v. 11), and Isaiah turns to God’s response in vv. 12-18:

^“12 The Lord Almighty has a day in store

    for all the proud and lofty,

for all that is exalted

    (and they will be humbled),

¹³ for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty,

    and all the oaks of Bashan,

¹⁴ for all the towering mountains

    and all the high hills,

¹⁵ for every lofty tower

    and every fortified wall,

¹⁶ for every trading ship

    and every stately vessel.

¹⁷ The arrogance of man will be brought low

    and human pride humbled;

the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

¹⁸     and the idols will totally disappear.

Isaiah looked forward to a future day of judgment involving “…all the proud and lofty” (v. 12). The “…proud and lofty…” included not only nobility and civic officials, but also the wealthy, who were arrogant and haughty. Despite the people’s selfishness about the land, all their possessions, and their many deeds, Isaiah prophesied that “…The arrogance of man will be brought low and human pride humbled…” (v. 17) “…and the idols will totally disappear…” (v. 18).

Vv. 19-22 paint a picture of the people fleeing from God with their idols to hide in the many natural caves in the Judean countryside:

“¹⁹ People will flee to caves in the rocks

    and to holes in the ground

from the fearful presence of the Lord

    and the splendor of his majesty,

    when he rises to shake the earth.

²⁰ In that day people will throw away

    to the moles and bats

their idols of silver and idols of gold,

    which they made to worship.

²¹ They will flee to caverns in the rocks

    and to the overhanging crags

from the fearful presence of the Lord

    and the splendor of his majesty,

    when he rises to shake the earth.

²² Stop trusting in mere humans,

    who have but a breath in their nostrils.

    Why hold them in esteem?

It is impossible to hide from God, however, and the idols the people have made and worshiped cannot protect them when God send a mighty earthquake (v. 19). So they “…throw away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship…” (v. 20). In their panic, the people flee from the caves where they first found shelter and threw away their idols and climb to higher “…caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from the fearful presence of the Lord…” (v. 21).

There is skepticism among Bible scholars about v. 22, because it does not appear in some of the earliest manuscripts, it is not in harmony with the context of the surrounding text, and it is suspected by some scholars to have originated as a marginal note written by a copiest and later added to the text. However, we can relate the thought of v. 22 to Isaiah’s ideas in chapter 2 in that God wants His people to put their trust in Him only and to “…Stop trusting in mere humans…,” who are frail and fragile and “…have but a breath in their nostrils.”

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 146:3-5 had a message similar to that of Isaiah in this chapter:

“³ Do not put your trust in princes,

in human beings, who cannot save.

⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

on that very day their plans come to nothing.

⁵ Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord their God.”