Isaiah 11:1

1. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse The “rod” is a branch, a shoot, a sucker. The “stem” is a stump, or a nucleus of rootlets, either below or above ground.

A branch shall grow out of his roots Netzer, “a branch,” is a verdant and vigorous shoot. The chosen remnant of the royal house of David, which has sunk down to the insignificance from which it sprang, is the twig, shoot, branch, or whichever of the terms here supplied be taken, and is to build up by the new growth another trunk and crown. Delitzsch and Kay think they see in the insignificant Netzer the figure for the despised Nazarene; despised now, but in the sense of the applied figure bright, verdant, growing, he is to be hereafter the universally acknowledged King of glory. Also, in the verb phara, to grow, to be fruitful, reference is supposed to be made to Ephratah, or Bethlehem, so that in this verse allusion is thought to be made by divine intent both to Nazareth, where Christ’s birth was announced, and to Bethlehem, where it occurred. Both places are humble, and, to worldly Jews, of little account. Such etymologies are of use chiefly in homiletic exegesis. There is coincidence of sound and sense in the words referred to; but beyond this there is vague uncertainty.