In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth [shall be] excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
Ver. 2. In that day the branch of the Lord.] Here the prophet draweth to a close of this excellent sermon, and he concludeth it as he began, with a gracious promise of the coming and kingdom of Christ, and of the felicity of his subjects, which consisteth, first, In their sanctity; Isa 4:3-4 secondly, In their security. Isa 4:5-6 This is more amply set forth in Isaiah 11:1,16
The branch of the Lord.] The Lord Christ, the consolation and expectation of Israel, called elsewhere the bud or "branch." Isa 11:1 Zechariah 3:8 ; Zec 6:12 See Trapp on " Isa 11:1 " See Trapp on " Zec 3:8 " See Trapp on " Zec 6:12 " "The dayspring from on high," Luk 1:78 is by Beza rendered the branch from on high, and the branch of righteousness. Jeremiah 23:5 ; Jer 33:15 The Jewish doctors also understand it of the Messiah; Istud germen quod de virga Iesse virore virgineo pullulavit, saith Bernard. The branch of the Lord he is called, saith Oecolampadius, because, being true God, he hath God to his Father in heaven; and the "fruit of the earth," because, being also true man, he had the Virgin to his mother on earth. Ecce habet incarnationis mysterium. Lo, here we have, saith he, the great mystery of "God manifested in the flesh." Others by the "fruit of the earth" here do understand the body of the Church, which is as the plant that groweth out of that branch.
Shall be beautiful and glorious, excellent and comely.] Heb., "Beauty and glory," "excellence and comeliness," or gayness and goodliness, all in the abstract, and yet all too little. All this Christ is and more to his elect, who are here set forth by many titles, as "the escaped of Israel," a the "residue in Zion," the "remnant in Jerusalem," the "written among the living there," &c. Saepe autem ad paupertatem aut paucitatem redigitur ecclesia. Howbeit known to the Lord are all his, as well as if he had their names set down in a book.
a Evasores Israelis.