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For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; and the reason or occasion why the Jews will so generally reject their Messiah, is because he shall not come into the world with secular pomp and power, like an earthly monarch, as they carnally and groundlessly imagined; but
he shall grow up (or, spring up, Heb. ascend, to wit, out of the ground, as it follows, brought forth, and brought up)
before him (before the unbelieving Jews, of whom he spake Isa_53:1, and that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses of his mean original; and therefore despised him, according to Christ’s observation, Joh_4:44; or, as others, according to his face, or outward appearance, as he was man; whereby he sufficiently implies that he had another, a far higher, and a Divine nature in him)
as a tender plant, ( or, as this very word is translated, Eze_17:4, a young twig, which is a small and inconsiderable thing,)
and as a root (as Christ is called, Rom_15:12, and elsewhere; or, as a branch; the root being put metonymically for the branch growing out of the root, as it is apparently used, where Christ is called the root of Jesse, and of David, Isa_11:10 Rev_5:5, and in other places, as 2Ch_22:10)
out of a dry ground; out of a mean and barren soil, whose productions are generally poor and contemptible: either,
1. Out of the womb of a virgin; but that was no ground of contempt; or,
2. Of the Jewish nation, which was then poor, and despised, and enslaved; or,
3. Out of the poor, and decayed, and contemptible family, such as the royal family of David was at that time.
He hath no form nor comeliness; his bodily presence and condition in the world shall be mean and contemptible.
When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him; when we shall look upon him, expecting to find incomparable beauty and majesty in his countenance, and carriage, and condition, we shall be altogether disappointed, and shall meet with nothing amiable or desirable in him. This the prophet speaketh in the person of the carnal and unbelieving Jews, we, i.e. our people, the Jewish nation.