Zechariah 6:12

12. Behold, the man—namely, shall arise. Pilate unconsciously spake God's will concerning Him, "Behold the man" ( :-). The sense here is, "Behold in Joshua a remarkable shadowing forth of Messiah." It is not for his own sake that the crown is placed on him, but as type of Messiah about to be at once king and priest. Joshua could not individually be crowned king, not being of the royal line of David, but only in his representative character.

Branch—(See on :-; Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15).

he shall grow up out of his place—retaining the image of a "Branch"; "He shall sprout up from His place," that is, the place peculiar to Him: not merely from Beth-lehem or Nazareth, but by His own power, without man's aid, in His miraculous conception [HENDERSON]; a sense brought out in the original, "from under Himself," or "from (of) Himself" [CALVIN]. MOORE makes it refer to His growing lowly in His place of obscurity, "as a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground" (Jeremiah 33:15- :), for thirty years unknown except as the son of a carpenter. MAURER translates, "Under Him there shall be growth (in the Church)." English Version accords better with the Hebrew (compare Jeremiah 33:15- :). The idea in a Branch is that Christ's glory is growing, not yet fully manifested as a full-grown tree. Therefore men reject Him now.

build the temple—The promise of the future true building of the spiritual temple by Messiah (Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 3:17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:20-22; Hebrews 3:3) is an earnest to assure the Jews, that the material temple will be built by Joshua and Zerubbabel, in spite of all seeming obstacles. It also raises their thoughts beyond the material to the spiritual temple, and also to the future glorious temple, to be reared in Israel under Messiah's superintendence (Hebrews 3:3- :). The repetition of the same clause (Hebrews 3:3- :) gives emphasis to the statement as to Messiah's work.