carried on with surpassing beauty in the first part of this prophecy,
which contrasts the indestructible vitality of the Davidic monarchy with
the irremediable destruction fated for its formidable antagonist. The
one is a cedar, the stump of which rots slowly, but never recovers. The
other is an oak, which, every woodman knows, will put out new growth
from the 'stool.' But instead of a crowd of little suckers, the prophet
sees but one shoot, and that rising to more than the original height and
fruitfulness of the tree. The prophecy is distinctly that of One Person,
in whom the Davidic monarchy is concentrated, and all its decadence more
than recovered.

Isaiah does not bring the rise of the Messiah into chronological
connection with the fall of Assyria; for he contemplates a period of
decay for the Israelitish monarchy, and it was the very burden of his
message as to Assyria that it should pass away without harming that
monarchy. The contrast is not intended to suggest continuity in time.
The period of fulfilment is entirely undetermined.

The first point in the prophecy is the descent of the Messiah from the
royal stock. That is more than Isaiah's previous Messianic prophecies
had told. He is to come at a time when the fortunes of David's house
were at their worst. There is to be nothing left but the stump of the
tree, and out of it is to come a 'shoot,' slender and insignificant, and
in strange contrast with the girth of the truncated bole, stately even
in its mutilation. We do not talk of a growth from the stump as being a
'branch'; and 'sprout' would better convey Isaiah's meaning. From the
top of the stump, a shoot; from the roots half buried in the ground, an
outgrowth,--these two images mean but one person, a descendant of David,
coming at a time of humiliation and obscurity. But this lowly shoot will
'bear fruit,' which presupposes its growth.