natural fruit of ancient times is a type of the spiritual fruit. To the same result--that הארץ designates the definite land, that land which, in the preceding verses, in the description of the prevailing conniption, and of the divine judgments, was always spoken of,--to this result we are led by the fact also, that everywhere in the Old Testament where the contrariety of the divine and human origin of the Messiah is mentioned, the human origin is more distinctly qualified and limited. This is especially the case in those passages which, being dependent upon that before us, maybe considered as a commentary upon it; in Jer. xxiii. 5, xxxiii. 15, where the Lord raises a Sprout unto David, and Zech. vi. 12, where the man whose name is Zemach (Sprout) grows up out of its soil; comp. Heb. vii. 14, where, in allusion to the Old Testament passages of the Sprout--the verb ἀνατέλλειν is commonly used of the sprouting forth of the plants (see Bleek on this passage)--it is said: ἐξ Ἰούδα ἀνατέταλκεν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν, Bengel: ut germen justitiae; farther, Mic. v. 1 (2), where the eternal existence of the Messiah, and His birth in Bethlehem are contrasted with one another; Is. ix. 5, (6), where the words: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," are contrasted with the various designations of the Messiah, according to His divine majesty. This qualification and limitation which everywhere takes place, have their ground in the circumstance that the Messiah is constantly represented to the covenant-people as their property; and that He, indeed, was, inasmuch as salvation went out from Jews (John iv. 22), and was destined for the Jews, into whose communion the Gentiles were to be received; comp. my Commentary on Revel. vii. 4. "The Sprout of the Lord," "the fruit of the land," is accordingly He whom the Lord shall make to sprout forth from Israel. The Sprout of the Lord, the fruit of the land is to become to the escaped of Israel for beauty and glory, for exaltation and ornament. The passages to be compared are 2 Sam. i. 19, where Saul and Jonathan are called צבי ישראל; farther, Is. xxviii. 5: "In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of beauty, and for a diadem of ornament unto the residue of His people," where the words צבי and תפארת

are likewise used; finally, chap. xxiv. 16, where, in reference to the Messianic time, it is said: "From the uttermost part of the earth do we hear songs of praise: beauty (צבי) to the righteous." By the appearance of Christ, the covenant-people, hitherto despised, were placed in the centre of the world's history; by it the Lord took away the rebuke of His people from off all the earth, chap. xxv. 8. There is evidently in these words a reference to the preceding threatening of punishment, especially to chap. iii. 18: "In that day the Lord will take away the ornament," &c.: But Drechsler is wrong in fixing and expressing this reference thus: "Instead of farther running after strange things, Israel will find its glory and ornament in Him who is the long promised seed of Abrahamitic descent." For it is not the position which Israel takes that is spoken of, but that which is granted to them. The antithesis is between the false glory which God takes away, and the true glory which He gives. The Lord cannot, by any possibility, for any length of time, appear merely taking away; He takes those seeming blessings, only in order to be able to give the true ones. Every taking away is a prophecy of giving.--"To the escaped of Israel," who, according to the idea of a people of God, and according to the promise of the Law (comp. Deut. xxx. 1, ff.) can never be wanting, as little as it is possible that the salvation should be partaken of by the whole mass of the people; sifting judgments must necessarily go before and along with it. True prophetism everywhere knows of salvation for a remnant only. On פליטה, which does not mean "deliverance," so that the abstract would thus here stand for the concrete, but "that which has escaped," comp. remarks on Joel iii. 5, Vol. 1, p. 338.

All which now remains is to examine those explanations of this verse which differ from the Messianic interpretation. 1. Following the interpretation of Grotius and others, Gesenius, in his Commentary, understands by the Sprout of the Lord the new growth of the people after their various defeats. His explanation is: "Then the sprout of Jehovah will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land excellent and beautiful for the escaped of Israel." Fruit of the land he takes in its literal sense, and understands it to mean the product of the land. The same view is held by Knobel: "He becomes for beauty and glory,

i.e., the people, having reformed, prosper and form a splendid, glorious state." And Maurer in his Dictionary says: "The Sprout of Jehovah seems to be the morally improved remnant, the new, sanctified increase of the people." But in opposition to such a view there is, first, the circumstance, that according to it the ל before לצבי and לכבור must be understood differently from what it is in לגאון, and לתפארת which immediately follow and exactly correspond with them. There are, secondly, the parallel passages chap. xxviii. 5, xxiv. 16, according to which צבי "beauty" is conferred upon the escaped, but they themselves do not become beauty. Finally--It is always most natural to suppose that צמח יהוה and פרי הארץ correspond with one another, and denote the same subject which is here described after his various aspects only. For in the same manner as צמח and פרי go hand in hand, both being taken from the territory of botany, so יהוה and הארץ also stand in a contrast which is not to be mistaken. 2. Hitzig, Ewald, Meier, and others not only refer "the fruit of the land," but also the "Sprout of Jehovah" to that which Jehovah makes to sprout forth.^[2] It is true that, in the prophetic announcements, among the blessings of the future the rich produce of the land is also mentioned (comp. chap. xxx. 23-25), and the same is very expressly done in the Law also; but in not a single one of these passages does the strange expression occur, that this fruitfulness should serve to the escaped for beauty and glory, for exaltation and ornament, or any other that bears the slightest resemblance to it. Against this explanation there is, in addition, the circumstance that the barrenness of the country is not at all pointed out in the preceding context. Finally--When we understand this expression as referring to the Messiah,