And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man - namely, shall arise. Pilate unconsciously spake God's will concerning Him, "Behold the man!" (John 19:5.) The sense here is, 'Behold in Joshua a remarkable shadowing forth of Messiah.' It is not for his own sake that the crown is placed on him, but as type of Messiah, about to be at once King and Priest. Joshua could not individually be crowned king, not being of the royal line of David, but only in his representative character.
Whose name is The BRANCH - (note, Zechariah 3:8; Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15).
And he shall grow up out of his place - retaining the image of a "branch." 'He shall sprout up from His place' -
i.e., the place special to Him: not merely from Bethlehem or Nazareth but by His own power, without man's aid, in His miraculous conception (Henderson), a sense brought out in the original [mitachtaayw] 'from under Himself' or 'from (of) Himself' (Calvin). Moore makes it refer to his growing lowly in his place of obscurity, "as a tender plant, and a root out of a dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2), for 30 years unknown except as the reputed son of a carpenter. Maurer translates, "Under Him there shall be growth (in the Church).' The English version accords better with the Hebrew (cf. Exodus 10:23). The idea in a Branch is that Christ's glory is growing, not yet fully manifested as a full-grown tree. Therefore men reject Him now.
And he shall build the temple of the Lord - the promise of the future true building of the Spiritual Temple by Messiah (Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 3:17; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:20-22; Hebrews 3:3) is an encouragement to assure the Jews that the material temple will be built by Joshua and Zerubbabel, in spite of all seeming obstacles. It also raises their thoughts beyond the material to the spiritual temple, and also to the future glorious temple to be reared in Israel under Messiah's superintendence, (Ezekiel 40:1-49; Ezekiel 41:1-26; Ezekiel 42:1-20; Ezekiel 43:1-27.) The repetition of the same clause. "Even he shall build the temple of the Lord" (Zechariah 6:13), gives emphasis to the statement as to Messiah's work.