Literature: This passage consists of statements describing uncharacteristic behavior of animals, each concluding with a child’s unusual behavior. It communicates the remarkable peace of the future kingdom in which predator and prey can dwell side by side in peace and safety. It reverses the order of nature that has prevailed in bloodshed and death since the fall in Eden. The sense of peace is strengthened by the fact that each predator is mature while the prey is young, hence, all the more defenseless. Furthermore, these fearsome predators will be so docile that a child will lead them or play with a venomous serpent. The image of the lion eating straw is more a statement of the power of the eschatological peace than a physical alteration of diet.
Vocabulary: The KJV uses the word “cockatrice.” This was a fabled serpent whose breath and look could be fatal. Blenkinsopp preserves the parallelism in his translation: “the infant will play at the cobra’s hole, the child barely weaned will put his hand over the viper’s lair.”