To Beat Swords into Plowshares

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

-- Isaiah 2: 2-4 (KJV)

If you've always wondered what a "plowshare" is and how you could beat a sword into one, I can save you a trip to the dictionary. A plowshare, also known as a "share," is simply the sharp blade of a plow, which you might indeed fashion by beating an old straight sword into a new curved shape. Good, sharp metal was hard to come by in the Judea of Isaiah's time, still an essentially agrarian society living at subsistence levels. Nothing could be wasted, and every hand not raised in defense of the land would be required to cultivate it. Think of beating swords into plowshares as converting defense industries to domestic production.

If you find that prospect a bit utopian, so is Isaiah's vision, which looks ahead to the "last days," meaning here the distant future. Isaiah foresees a time when Jerusalem's sacred Mount Zion will become a mecca for all nations. The whole world will finally bow to the God of Jacob and flock to Zion for instruction and worship; at one in faith, nations will submit to the Lord's arbitration and cease to war among themselves. In this era of universal peace, men shall "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks" (also sharp, curved tools, signifying horticulture as the plowshares signify agriculture).

Obviously, we have yet to see these "last days," though that hasn't stopped politicians from citing Isaiah's words in their periodic pleas for peace. (They completely ignore Joel's warmongering inversion, "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears" -- Joel 3: 10.) We can probably count on being asked to beat swords into plowshares a whole lot more before anybody actually does it. So don't hold your breath for the "peace dividend."

 
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Michael Macrone is Associate Site Producer of GraceCom and the author of nine books on language, literature, and ideas, including the best-selling Brush Up Your Shakespeare!