Hebrew word · H5342

נֵ֫צֶר

netzer

branch

A sprout, shoot or scion: fresh growth, often used of offspring. Elsewhere it appears at Isa 14:19 (the king of Babylon thrown out 'like a loathed shoot'), Isa 60:21 (restored Israel as 'the shoot of my planting') and Dan 11:7 ('a shoot from her roots' meaning a royal descendant).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

sprout, shoot, branch (always fig.)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 11:1

Range of meaning

A sprout, shoot or scion: fresh growth, often used of offspring. Elsewhere it appears at Isa 14:19 (the king of Babylon thrown out 'like a loathed shoot'), Isa 60:21 (restored Israel as 'the shoot of my planting') and Dan 11:7 ('a shoot from her roots' meaning a royal descendant).

Against the English

BSB and NIV capitalise it as 'Branch', which presents it as a messianic title. ESV and NASB keep 'branch' in lower case. Readers who know Jer 23:5, 33:15 and Zech 3:8, 6:12 will naturally take it as 'the Branch' of those passages, but those use a different Hebrew word, ṣemaḥ.

How it drifted

Christian reading of this verse as messianic, combined with the separate 'Branch' (ṣemaḥ) prophecies, led some translations to capitalise it. The idea behind it is real, since Isaiah does describe a royal descendant, but in Hebrew nēṣer here is a plain plant word in poetic parallel.

Used elsewhere in the period

Dan 11:7 uses 'a nēṣer from her roots' for a royal heir, so it was an established way to speak of dynastic offspring. The Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q161, 4Q285) read Isa 10:34–11:5 as being about the 'Branch (ṣemaḥ) of David' at the end of days, so the two images were being merged by the first century BC.

From the study of Isaiah 60:21

Range of meaning

A shoot, sprout, or new growth from a root. It occurs only four times: Isaiah 11:1; 14:19; 60:21; Daniel 11:7.

Against the English

'Branch' (KJV, BSB, ESV) suggests a limb of a grown tree. Nēṣer is a young shoot pushing up, often from a stump, which is a picture of new life after being cut down.

How it drifted

Because Isaiah 11:1 is read as messianic and Matthew 2:23 may be playing on nēṣer in 'Nazarene', English readers can hear 'the Branch' as a title for the Messiah. Here it describes the whole people.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 11:1: 'a shoot (ḥōṭer) from Jesse's stump, a nēṣer from his roots will bear fruit'. Isaiah 14:19: the king of Babylon cast out 'like a loathed nēṣer'. Daniel 11:7: 'a shoot from her roots'. The Dead Sea community described itself as an 'everlasting planting' and a 'shoot' (1QS 8:5; 11:8; CD 1:7; 1QH 14–16), drawing on this kind of imagery.

From the study of Isaiah 14:19

Range of meaning

Netser is a green shoot or sprout growing from roots or a stump (Isa 60:21, 'the shoot of my planting'). In royal contexts it means an heir or scion of a dynasty (Isa 11:1, 'a shoot from the stump of Jesse'; Dan 11:7, 'a shoot from her roots'). Nitʿav is a passive participle of taʿav, 'to loathe, abhor'. It belongs to the same family as toʿevah, 'abomination', a thing that provokes revulsion.

Against the English

KJV 'abominable branch' keeps the revulsion but 'branch' suggests a solid limb. BSB/NIV 'rejected branch' and ESV 'loathed branch' vary in strength. NRSV abandons 'branch' for 'loathsome carrion', following the Greek.

How it drifted

'Branch' suggests a tree limb, not the tender shoot a gardener prunes and throws away. 'Rejected' softens a word that means 'detested'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has nekros ebdelygmenos, 'an abhorred corpse', which may reflect a different Hebrew text or an interpretation. Some modern scholars emend to nefel, 'stillborn child' (cf. Job 3:16; Ps 58:8; Eccl 6:3). In Ecclesiastes 6:3 the stillborn is compared with a man who 'has no burial', the same theme as here.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 11:1 וְנֵ֖צֶר and a branch

    Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.

    Here: 'And a sprout.' This is the poetic partner of ḥōṭer and means another word for new green growth. It is an ordinary plant word, not a fixed title in itself.

  2. Isaiah 14:19 כְּנֵ֣צֶר like a branch

    But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.

    Here: 'Like a shoot'. This is a fresh green sprout, like a sucker cut off and thrown aside. In royal language the same word means a dynastic offspring (Isa 11:1; Dan 11:7), so the image may be a bitter one: the royal 'scion' is pruned and thrown away.

  3. Isaiah 60:21 נֵ֧צֶר [the] shoot of

    Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified.

    Here: A fresh green shoot coming up from a root or stump. It is the same rare word as Isaiah 11:1 ('a shoot from Jesse's roots'), but here it describes the whole people as new growth.

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 11:7 מִנֵּ֥צֶר one of [the] shoot[s] of

    But one from her family line will rise up in his place, come against the army of the king of the North, and enter his fortress, fighting and prevailing.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.