The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play by the cobra's den, and the toddler will reach into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water.
So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.
Significance
Isaiah 11:6-9 paints the complete peaceable kingdom vision — wolf with lamb, leopard with goat, infant at the cobra's den — culminating in "they will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain." This entire passage reverses the consequences of the Genesis 3:14 curse, where the serpent was cursed (אָרוּר, arur) and enmity placed between serpent and humanity. The four-verse unit systematically undoes the predatory violence that entered creation through the fall: the child leading dangerous animals (11:6), the infant playing safely at the viper's nest (11:8), all culminating in universal peace because "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD" (11:9). The scope of restoration matches the scope of the original curse — cosmic in extent.
