Jeremiah 23:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Behold, the days come, &c.— After having foretold the return of the Jews from captivity, the prophet here delivers a lively prediction of the Messiah, of whom the Jews themselves interpret this passage. After the captivity, when the kingdom of David failed, Zechariah (Zechariah 3:8.) taught them to look for the appearance of God's servant, the Branch. In virtue of these promises, the people still expected the coming of the Messiah, till Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, and the prophet also, declared that they were completed in the conception of Jesus Christ, when, through the tender mercies of God, the Day-spring from on high visited them, Luke 1:68; Luke 1:78. The Hebrew word by which Christ is denoted under the image of a branch, עמח tzemach, is rendered by the Greek word ανατολη in the LXX.; and, ανατολη signifying both a branch and the day-spring, is the reason why Zechariah is introduced as varying the expression, though indeed it might have been rendered branch: the Greek word anatole was applied to the Messiah, by the Greek Jews, before our Saviour's time. From them the Latin Jews called him Ories, from whom the Gentiles at Rome learned the name, without knowing the reason of it. Though this term was originally applied to Solomon, it was not exhausted in him, nor indeed in any of his successors; for, as it was renewed by Jeremiah in this chapter, and by Zechariah in the place above quoted, so the completion was still looked for by the son of Sirach in the beginning of the Greek monarchy, and believed by the Jews, at the time when our blessed Saviour raised Lazarus from the dead. The character in the latter part of the verse, He shall execute judgment, &c. is also given by the Psalmist and the prophet Isaiah to the Messiah; because his laws are the most perfect rule of righteousness, and himself the most impartial rewarder of every man according to his works. See. ch. Jeremiah 33:15, &c. Bishop Chandler's Defence, and Houbigant's note on the place.