Isaiah foresees the time when the Lord will return to judge the people and restore peace to the world. Transforming swords and spears into the instruments of life-sustaining production—plow-shares (i.e. the shearing blades of the plow) and pruning hooks—is a memorable symbol of the transition from war to peace-time enterprises (compare Joel 10:9; Micah 4:3). With the dawning of His millennial reign, the Lord brings effulgent light to a world previously dominated by darkness and evil. His sons and daughters savor the opportunity to walk in His light and abandon the patterns of their former wickedness.