Messianic title, which in the Book of Zechariah is used as a proper name of the promised Deliverer.
" Behold the man Tsemach The Branch is His Name"
We have fully entered into this point in the exposition of the 8th verse of chap, iii., and have there shown also how, under this title, the Messiah is brought before us in the Old Testament prophecy in the four different aspects of His character to which reference has already been made above namely, as the King (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6), the Servant (Zech. iii. 8), the Man (Zech. vi. 1 2), and as " the Branch of Jehovah " (Isa. iv. 2): which answer so beautifully to the fourfold portraiture of the Christ of history which the Spirit of God has, through the Evangelists, given us in the four different Gospels. We therefore pass on to the next clause.
" And He shall grow up out of His place " umitachtav itsmach[1] literally, " He shall branch up from under Him " from His own root or stock.
First, as to the race or nation, He shall be of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and of the family of David; and, secondly, as to the soil or country, it shall be " Immanuel's Land," and out of Bethlehem Ephratha, that this glorious Branch shall spring up, as foretold by the former prophets.
At the same time it is true, as Hengstenberg observes, that the expression presupposes the lowliness from which He will first rise by degrees to glory. " Thus," to quote another writer, " in this one significant sentence the lowly origin of the Messiah on the one hand, and His royal dignity on the other, are both not obscurely referred to."[2]
From His glorious Person and family, or place of His origin, as " the Man," or " Son of David," our thoughts are next directed to the great work He is to accomplish:
" And He shall build the Temple of Jehovah; even He (or, literally, He Himself) shall build the Temple of Jehovah"
