The Book of Isaiah is an ancient book of Hebrew Bible (or *Tanakh*), as well as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It is attributed to the prophet Isaiah, who lived in the 8th Century BC. 

In the book, Isaiah writes about how Jerusalem will someday become a sort of center of the world, and how other nations will ask the city for instruction, but this can occur only after the evil over the city has been removed. Harsh foreign rule will be a part of this, but God is preparing a *messiah*, a new king, who will emerge to restore the city and its glory. During the time the book was composed, the Israelites were being harshly ruled by the Assyrians, and were not long afterwards exiled in part to Babylon. Isaiah attributes these calamities to the lack of piety in the people of that time, but says that someday things will improve with faith and resilience. The aforementioned era of guidance by Jerusalem is the context of the famous "swords to plowshares" quote:

> Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war. 
Isaiah 2:4

Turning weapons into harmless tools has been done both with ancient technology in this literal sense, as well as with modern innovations that originally had solely military applications, such as computers and nuclear technology. This archaic saying has been passed down over 2700 years, a timeless exhortation on the value of peace.
spam fails_task lang_mismatch pii not_appropriate hate_speech sexual_content quality toxicity humor helpfulness creativity violence