Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 11:1

AND there shall come forth a rod out of the stemm of Jesse , and a branch shall grow out of his roots .

The Prophet having dispatched the Assyrian, and comforted God's People with the Promise of their Deliverance from that formidable Enemy, now he proceeds further, and declares, That God will do greater things than that for them, that he will give them their long-expected and muchdesired Messiah, and by him will work Wonders of Mercy for them. For this is the manner of the Prophets, to take the occasion of particular Deliverances, to fix the Peoples Minds upon their great and everlasting Deliverance from all their enemies by the Messiah. And having said that the Assyrian yoke should be destroyed because of the anointing, ch. 10. 27. he now more particularly explains who that anointed Person was.

Or, twig, called a branch in the next Clause▪ Parents are oft compared to Roots or Trees, and their Children to Branches. He speaks of the most eminent Branch, of that famous Son of a Virgin, Isa. 7. 14. of that Wonderful Child, Isa. 9. 6. not of Hezekiah, as some of the Iews and Judaizing Christians conceit; but of the Messiah, as will evidently appear from the following Description.

Or, trunk; or rather, stump: for the Word properly signifies a Trunk cut off from the Root: Or, re[illegible: 1+ letters]t, as the LXX here render the Word, and as it is explained in the next Clause. By which he clearly implies, That the Messiah should be born of the Royal House of David, at that time when it was in a most forlorn and contemptible condition, like a Tree cut down, and whereof nothing is left but a Stump or Root under Ground. Which really was the State of David's Family when Christ was born, as is notoriously known; but was in a far better condition when Hezekiah was born.

He doth not say of David, but of Iesse, who was a private and mean Person, 1 Sam. 18. 18, 23. & 20. 30. to intimate, That at the time of Christ's Birth the Royal Family should be reduced to its primitive Obscurity.

He speaks of one not yet born, and therefore not of Hezekiah, who was born divers years before his Father Ahaz (in whose time this Prophecy was delivered) was King, by comparing 2 Kings 16. 2. & 18. 2. but of the Messiah.

Out of one of his Roots, i. e. Branches, as this Word root is sometimes used, by a very usual Figure called a Metonymy, as it is here below, v. 10. Isa. 53. 2. Hos. 14. 5.

Marginal references: Zech. 6. 12. Revel. 5. 5.; Act. 13. 23.; Chap. 4. 2. Jer. 23. 5.