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Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 4:2

"The branch of the LORD"

"In that day shall the branch (tsemach) of the LORD be beautiful and glorious." The Hebrew is about growth; the Targum reads "the messiah of the LORD"; the library's Greek has a completely different sentence ("God will shine in counsel with glory"); the Vulgate has germen Domini. The Great Isaiah Scroll adds "and Judah" at the end.

Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 4:2. Adds "and Judah" at the end: "for the survivors of Israel and Judah." Otherwise as the Masoretic Text.

  3. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    In die illa, erit germen Domini in magnificentia et gloria, et fructus terræ sublimis, et exsultatio his qui salvati fuerint de Israël.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 4:2. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  4. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֗וּא יִֽהְיֶה֙ צֶ֣מַח יְהוָ֔ה לִצְבִ֖י וּלְכָב֑וֹד וּפְרִ֤י הָאָ֙רֶץ֙ לְגָא֣וֹן וּלְתִפְאֶ֔רֶת לִפְלֵיטַ֖ת יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

    In that day the growth (branch) of the LORD will be beauty and glory, and the fruit of the land pride and splendor for the survivors of Israel

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 4:2.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

  6. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Et ce jour-là Dieu, en son conseil, brillera avec gloire sur la terre, pour relever et glorifier le reste d’Israël.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 4:2. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: the scroll's "and Judah" is a manuscript plus; the Greek is a translation that differs so much it may reflect a different reading or a free rendering; the Targum's "messiah" is interpretation.

Tsemach in Jeremiah 23:5; 33:15 and Zechariah 3:8; 6:12 is a royal-messianic title. In Isaiah 4:2 it parallels "the fruit of the land," so a vegetative sense is also natural.

Christian readers have read the verse of Christ; Jewish readers (Targum) of the messiah; many modern scholars of the land's renewal. The page shows the evidence for each.

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Great Isaiah Scroll adds "and Judah" in 4:2. In the transcription.
  • Independently documentedThe library's Greek has no "branch."
  • Strongly supportedThe Targum reads "messiah of the LORD." C check.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 4: The Branch of the LORD →After the war, seven women will take hold of one man, asking only for his name to remove their disgrace (4:1). "In that day shall the branch (tsemach) of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent" for the survivors (v. 2). Those left in Zion will be called holy, once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged Jerusalem's bloodshed "by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning" (vv. 3–4). God will create over Mount Zion a cloud by day and fire by night, a canopy and a shelter from heat and storm (vv. 5–6).
    • Investigation: The Royal Child and Jesse's Shoot →Isaiah announces a child with throne names, a shoot from Jesse's stump filled with the Spirit, and a king who reigns in righteousness. In their setting these are oracles about the Davidic king and Judah's future; later, Jews and Christians read them as promises of the messiah. This investigation keeps apart the ancient royal conventions, Isaiah's own hopes, Jewish messianic reception and Christian christology.
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.