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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Matthew 2:23 - 2:23
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The prophets
Note the plural, as indicating not any one prediction in particular, but a summary of the import of several prophetic statements, such as Psa 22:6, Psa 22:8; Psa 69:11, Psa 69:19; Isa 53:2, Isa 53:3, Isa 53:4.
A Nazarene
A term of contempt (compare Joh 1:46, and Joh 7:52). The very name of Nazareth suggested insignificance. In Hebrew it meant sprout or shoot. The name is prophetically given to the Messiah (Isa 11:1). In Isa 10:33, Isa 10:34, the fate of Assyria is described under the figure of the felling of a cedar forest. The figure of the tree is continued at the opening of ch. 11 concerning the Jewish state. The cedar throws out no fresh suckers, but the oak is a tree “in which, after the felling, a stock remaineth” (Isa 6:13; compare Job 14:9). There is a future then for Israel, represented by the oak. “There shall come forth a shoot from the stock of Jesse, and a twig from his roots shall bear fruit.” As David sprang from the humble family of Jesse, so the Messiah, the second David, shall arise out of great humiliation. The fact that Jesus grew up at Nazareth was sufficient reason for his being despised. He was not a lofty branch on the summit of a stately tree; not a recognized and honored son of the royal house of David, now fallen, but an insignificant sprout from the roots of Jesse; a Nazarene, of an upstart sprout-town.