Subject: tsemach as "the Branch", Zechariah 3:8, 6:12, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15
Date: Wed, 25 Dec 2002 16:31:49 -0500
Shalom b-Hebrew,
Wonder if any of our experts would like to comment on the translation of
tsemach as "branch" as compared to "spring, sprout, bud, grow". Shoot is
another word used that is sorta inbetween these various usages, acting as
one definition for sprout and also it is a definition for branch..
Tsemach 6779-Strongs is used 12 times and four times in the KJB it
is translated as "branch".
6780 is a closely related word as well.
Note the addition of the article "the" in some of these, where Branch is
considered a name.
These passages are generally accepted as Messianic by Christian and Jewish
scholars alike,
which effects in various ways the translation....
And there are various interesting interpretations put on the word, for example
a "shoot" or "sprout" is often hidden and revealed only as a small
beginning and quietly
and easy to miss..
(perhaps like a little baby born to a poor family in Bethlehem)
Generally the Jewish translations do not use "branch", with a couple of
exceptions,
such as the JPS-1985....
Another, Samson Levey in his Targum book simply translates tsemach in the
MT as branch.
(in the Targum "Messiah" (in Aramaic) is substituted/translated in some
passages for tsemach,
So there seems to be an interesting divergence of usage and translation,
and in a sense
"the branch" may be more of a contextual or doctrinal usage than literal..
On the other hand, a lot of times we superimpose our modern Hebrew
understanding
upon the Scripture text...