hap. liii. 2, where the Messiah
is represented [Pg 103] as a shoot from the root out of a dry
ground.--(4.) It is only when [Hebrew: gze] has the meaning, "stump,"
that it can be accounted for why the [Hebrew: gze] of Jesse, and not of
David, is spoken of--(5.) The supposition that the Messiah shall be
born at the time of the deepest humiliation of the Davidic family,
after the entire loss of the royal dignity, pervades all the other
prophetical writings. That Micah views the Davidic family as entirely
sunk at the time of Christ's appearance, we showed in vol. I. p. 508-9.
Compare farther the remarks on Amos ix. 11, and those on Matth. ii. 23
immediately following.--_Hitzig_ is obliged to confess that [Hebrew:
gze] can designate the cut-off stem only; but maintains that Jesse, as
an individual long ago dead, is designated as a cut-off tree. But
against this opinion is the relation which, as we proved, exists
between this verse and the last verses of the preceding chapter; the
undeniable correspondence of [Hebrew: gze] with [Hebrew: gdeiM] in
chap. x. 33. In that case the antithesis also, so evidently intended by
the Prophet, would be altogether lost. It is not by any means a thing
so uncommon, that a man who is already dead should have a glorious
descendant. To this it may further be added that, according to this
supposition, the circumstance is not all accounted for, that Jesse is
mentioned, and not David, the royal ancestor, as is done everywhere
else. _Finally_--In this very forced explanation, the parallel passages
are altogether left out of view, in which likewise the doctrine is
contained that, at the time of Christ's appearance, the Davidic family
should have altogether sunk. The reason of all these futile attempts at
explaining away the sense so evident and obvious, is none other than
the fear of acknowledging in the prophecy an element which goes beyond
the territory of patriotic fancy and human knowledge. But this dark
fear should here so much the more be set aside, that, according to
other passages also, the Prophet undeniably had the knowledge and
conviction that Israel's course would be more and more downward before
it attained, in Christ, to the full height of its destiny. We need
remind only of the prophecies in chap. v. and vi.; and it is so much
the more natural here to compare the latter of them, that, in it, in
ver. 13, Israel, at the time of the appearing of the Messianic Kingdom,
is represented as a