Matthew Poole and continuators on Isaiah 53:2

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness : and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him .

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 groundlesly imagined, but he shall grow up (or spring up, Heb. ascend, to wit, out of the ground, as it follows, be brought forth, and brought up) before him (before the unbelieving Jews of whom he spake, v. 1. and that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses of his mean original; and therefore despised him, according to Christs observation, Iob. 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, Ezek. 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 Metonimically for the branch growing out of the root, as it is apparently used, where Christ is called the root of Iesse, and of David, Isa. 11. 10. Rev. 5. 5. and in other places, as 2 Chr. 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 a poor, and decayed, and contemptible Family, such as the Royal Family of David was at that time.

His bodily presence and condition in the World shall be mean and contemptible.

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.

Marginal references: Ch. 49. 7. & 52. 14. Mark 9. 12.