11:1 A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s 1 root stock,
a bud will sprout 2 from his roots.
60:21 All of your people will be godly; 3
they will possess the land permanently.
I will plant them like a shoot;
they will be the product of my labor,
through whom I reveal my splendor. 4
23:5 “I, the Lord, promise 5 that a new time will certainly come 6
when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, 7 a descendant of David.
He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding 8
and will do what is just and right in the land. 9
“‘He will do what is just and right in the land.
17:22 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘I will take a sprig 11 from the lofty top of the cedar and plant it. 12
I will pluck from the top one of its tender twigs;
I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
17:23 I will plant it on a high mountain of Israel,
and it will raise branches and produce fruit and become a beautiful cedar.
Every bird will live under it;
Every winged creature will live in the shade of its branches.
1 sn The text mentions David’s father Jesse, instead of the great king himself. Perhaps this is done for rhetorical reasons to suggest that a new David, not just another disappointing Davidic descendant, will arise. Other prophets call the coming ideal Davidic king “David” or picture him as the second coming of David, as it were. See Jer 30:9; Ezek 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Hos 3:5; and Mic 5:2 (as well as the note there).
2 tc The Hebrew text has יִפְרֶה (yifreh, “will bear fruit,” from פָּרָה, parah), but the ancient versions, as well as the parallelism suggest that יִפְרַח (yifrakh, “will sprout”, from פָּרַח, parakh) is the better reading here. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:276, n. 2.
3 tn Or “righteous” (NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “just.”
4 tn Heb “a shoot of his planting, the work of my hands, to reveal splendor.”
5 tn Heb “Oracle of the
6 tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”
7 tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).
8 tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).
9 sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).
10 tn Heb “sprig” or “shoot.”
11 sn The language is analogous to messianic imagery in Isa 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:4 although the technical terminology is not the same.
12 tc The LXX lacks “and plant it.”
13 tn Heb “these men.” The cleansing of Joshua and his elevation to enhanced leadership as a priest signify the coming of the messianic age.
14 sn The collocation of servant and branch gives double significance to the messianic meaning of the passage (cf. Isa 41:8, 9; 42:1, 19; 43:10; 44:1, 2, 21; Ps 132:17; Jer 23:5; 33:15).
15 tn The epithet “Branch” (צֶמַח, tsemakh) derives from the verb used here (יִצְמָח, yitsmakh, “will sprout up”) to describe the rise of the Messiah, already referred to in this manner in Zech 3:8 (cf. Isa 11:1; 53:2; Jer 33:15). In the immediate context this refers to Zerubbabel, but the ultimate referent is Jesus (cf. John 19:5).