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BRANCH.—1. The great variety of Heb. words rendered by our ‘branch’ may be gathered from the following list of passages, in each of which a different term is used: Gen_40:10, Exo_25:33, Num_13:23, Isa_16:8; Isa_27:10, Jer_11:16, Zec_4:12, Psa_104:12, Job_15:32; Job_18:16. In the following verses RV [Note: Revised Version.] or RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] adds or substitutes another word: Isa_18:5 (‘spreading branches’) Isa_25:6 (‘song’), Eze_17:3; Eze_17:22 (‘top,’ ‘lofty top’), Psa_80:15 (‘Heb. son’: RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] of Gen_49:22, in like manner has ‘Heb. daughters’), Pro_11:28 (‘leaf’) Job_8:16 (‘shoot’). In the NT four Greek words are translated ‘branch,’ but RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] points out that ‘layers of leaves’ are meant at Mar_11:8, and at Joh_12:13 palm-branches are in question. 2. ‘Branch’ is used figuratively for human offspring (Job_15:32), especially for the scion of a royal house (Dan_11:7); also for persons in lofty station (Isa_9:14). The Heb. netser, properly signifying ‘sprout’ or ‘shoot,’ but rendered ‘branch’ (Isa_11:1), is a designation of the Messianic king; not improbably this was in the Evangelist’s mind when he wrote Mat_2:23. We have the same English term at Jer_23:5; Jer_33:15, where another word, tsemach, is a title of the Messiah, intimating that this ‘shoot’ should arise out of ‘the low estate’ of the restored remnant. Zec_3:8; Zec_6:12, following Jeremiah, actually makes Tsemach a proper name. The Targ. on Jer. and Zech. unhesitatingly substitutes for it ‘the Messiah.’
J. Taylor.