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Bible Dictionaries
Branch
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or 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: Genesis 40:10 , Exodus 25:33 , Numbers 13:23 , Isaiah 16:8; Isaiah 27:10 , Jeremiah 11:16 , Zechariah 4:12 , Psalms 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: Isaiah 18:5 (‘spreading branches’) Isaiah 25:6 (‘song’), Ezekiel 17:3; Ezekiel 17:22 (‘top,’ ‘lofty top’), Psalms 80:15 (‘Heb. son ’: RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] of Genesis 49:22 , in like manner has ‘Heb. daughters ’), Proverbs 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 Mark 11:8 , and at John 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 ( Daniel 11:7 ); also for persons in lofty station ( Isaiah 9:14 ). The Heb. netser , properly signifying ‘sprout’ or ‘shoot,’ but rendered ‘branch’ ( Isaiah 11:1 ), is a designation of the Messianic king; not improbably this was in the Evangelist’s mind when he wrote Matthew 2:23 . We have the same English term at Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 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. Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12 , following Jeremiah, actually makes Tsemach a proper name. The Targ. on Jer. and Zech. unhesitatingly substitutes for it ‘the Messiah.’
J. Taylor.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Branch'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/b/branch.html. 1909.
