In Hebrew, the word branch is netzer, and is actually only three consonantal letters: NZR.
Note that the town N a Z a R eth contains the same three primary letters plus an ending often attached to nouns. In the Aramaic form of Nazareth.
So the traditional view is that this word is derived from the Hebrew word for Nazareth -Nazara, that was used in ancient times. Nazareth, in turn, may be derived from either na·tsar, נָצַר, meaning to watch, or from ne·tser, נֵ֫צֶר, meaning branch.
Strong’s Hebrew: 5342. נֵ֫צֶר (netser) — a sprout, shoot
Branch: From natsar; in the sense of greenness as a striking color; a shoot; figuratively, a descendant, branch.
Righteous Branch is one of the names of Jesus/Yeshua. The Hebrew word: tsemakh (branch), and the expressions sprout and spring forth, were widely understood as Messianic terms.
A Branch, or the Branches of a tree, are the glory of that tree.
Messiah, the Son of man, being the real offspring and son of David according to the flesh, is the glory of all David’s line, and of the whole ekklesia. Matthew 22:45
The Hebrew equivalent of ekklesia is the word qahal (קהל). It is translated in most occurrences as an assembly. The first mention of qahal – ekklesia – ‘church’, is in Devariym, Deuteronomy.
This is where we get our word ecclesiastical in relation to what we term church.
It does not mean a building but a separated, called out, called apart, body of people.
The Hebrew word used in five references, semah/Tsemakh, simply means sprout, growth or branch. The remaining occurrence has the word hoter, meaning branch or twig.
Israel is also often referred to as a vine. The Lord brought Israel, the vine, out of Egypt and planted it in the promised land. As the Lord blessed the vine, it prospered and “sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River” ( Psalm 80:11 ). The fruit that the vine produced, however, was an embarrassment to the Lord and steps were taken against it (ref: Isa 5:1-7 ). More often, however, the prophets use the analogy of the vine and branches to describe Israel’s future restoration ( Isa 60:21 ; Hosea 14:6 ).
This too is clear in the New Testament referring to the Vine and Branches Meaning.
There is ALWAYS Necessary Pruning
and fruit only comes by
ABIDING IN the the Vine.
The 3rd and most important truth of Jesus/Yeshuas’ words is that “… every branch that brings forth fruit He cleanses/prunes, so that it will bear more fruit.” In other words, if you are in the right condition and bear fruit for the kingdom of God, then necessary pruning is waiting for you.
Jeremiah mentions the Branch so does Zechariah and the one we are probably more familiar with is from Isaiah 11:1. There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
Here Isaiah traces the human descent of the Son of David. The descendants of Adam are pictured as a Tree and from this Tree the Messiah is traced to a branch (Rod) from the Branch or (Stem) of Jesse, who is the father of David.
(It is still a term used to trace our own family heritage – Family Tree.)
In Isaiah 11:10, the Hebrew word used for root (sheresh); implies: a root that remains alive and sends up a shoot or branch; thus, the root of Jesse was a root from which more descendants could come.
In that day the branch of the LORD shall be for beauty and glory and the fruit of the earth for greatness and honor to those that are freed of Israel. In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and splendid for them that have escaped of Israel.
Jesus Himself said in John 15:5
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
And followed it by saying John 15:6
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
Romans 11:16,17-24.
From the menorah design in Ex 25:32, And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:
To Yeshua Himself
John 15:6
AND
Zekaryahuw (Zechariah) 6:12 And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaks YHWH of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of YHWH:
13 Even he shall build the temple of YHWH; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.
*Note: this is a prophetic picture of the Messiah (the Son) whose name is The Branch and He is receiving many crowns (Revelation 19:12), and He is also a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek which means King of Righteousness (Malki-Tzadiq).
So What About CHOTER?
We may better understand the deeper meaning if we first seek out the original root of the rod and branch in Isaiah 1:11, by looking at the meaning from the paleo Hebrew pictographs:
The scripture says the root was Jesse; (remember no letter J in Hebrew). Matthew records the geneology of Messiah and it’s often a part we skip over, however there are numerous treasures hidden within these lists, we just have to look a little deeper. Here it records that Jesse was a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he was in fact King Davids father.
God’s judgment was declared on a prideful people who had forgotten Him that will level them to nothing more than stumps:
See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.Is. 10 33 34
Just when the enemy is about to capture Jerusalem, God intervenes and destroys the hostile army.
Remember there were no chapter and verse divisions in the original scrolls. So it continues without a break, in the very next verse says
But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse,
and from his roots a bud shall blossom.
2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him:
a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
A spirit of counsel and of strength,
a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord,
3 and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.
Jesse was part of the faithful remnant. The next verses speak of the shoot that will come from this stump.
Who is the rod/choter and branch/natser?
Verse 4 says of the coming Messiah:
Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide,
4 But he shall judge the poor with justice,
and decide fairly for the land’s afflicted.
He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
In the word CHOTER, the pictograph characters reveal more showing us the following:
חֹטֵר
Phonetic Spelling: (kho’-ter)
Branch, rod, twig –
choter: chet – tet – reysh,
Chet: Picture of the fence and means private to separate an inner sanctuary or room
Tet: Picture of a snake coiled up meaning to surround ensnare or encircle
Reysh: Picture of a head and means a person, highest or the prince.
So it could read as: a picture of a prince that is coming who will surround or encircle someone with a fence or hedge of protection.
Because it it written within this context in the Scroll of Isaiah, it is somewhat safe to say that it is indicative of the coming Messiah.
The number value of the letters also give an insight into who it is that will be protected.
Chet = 8 and signifies a new beginning
Tet = 9 means an evaluation of humanity ending in judgment and the conclusion or end of a matter.
Reysh= 200 this number shows the insufficiency of man compared to the all sufficiency of God.
By putting this information together, it could be interpreted as:
the Messiah or coming highest/prince is going to surround and protect insufficient fallen humanity who will be given a new beginning/ fresh start.
This means that anyone who chooses Messiah will be both surrounded and protected from judgment!
Is there any difference between Messiah as in this ROD/CHOTER
and the
NATSER or SPROUT
נֵצֶר
Natser: #5342 a sprout a shoot.
Phonetic Spelling: nay’-tser
Shoot – Natser has the letters;
Nun/Noon – Zsadi – Reysh
Nun/Noon – picture of the fish and means life activity seed
Zsadi – picture of the fishhook and means to catch and a strong desire or need and can also mean just or righteous.
Reysh – picture of the head and means a person, highest or the prince.
So this could be said to mean that in the Natser: there is a future prince that has a strong desire to catch someone and give them life.
So if we believe Messiah is Yeshua/Jesus, then we must consider who it is He desiring to catch and how will He catch them? If we look at the numerical values of the letters in the alef bet, it may show us an answer and give further understanding.
Nun/Noon = a numerical value of 50. This signifies Ruach HaKodesh, Holy Spirit, (Pentecost/Shavuot, 59 days after Spring Appointed Times,) and also meaning deliverance, followed by rest.
Zsadi = a numerical value of 90 which has a combined meaning of the judgment of humanity and of God’s perfection.
Reysh = a numerical value of 200. This number shows the insufficiency of man in comparison to the all sufficiency of God.
So from this we could understand that: it has been ordained in heaven that the power of Gods’ Holy Spirit/Ruach HaKodesh, and the prince that will come, is enough to both catch and save humanity from judgment.
This concept is echoed by Paul in Gal. 4:3-5.
The pictographs also reveal that when Messiah comes the 1st time He will be separated, surrounded and cut off, to fulfill and complete judgment (on sin); just as Isaiah’s forest stumps were cut off.
There is also Good News in the word Natser because, in a final picture from the word sprout, (which comes from a root that means literally: greenness as a prominent color,)
The picture of noon/nun = new life, from the old stump. Just as in the resurrection of the future Messiah.
The one who was the sprout will grow to become the root and gives us the confirmation that this root is Yeshua/Jesus, The Messiah.
How?
It’s because Isaiah could have used a more common word for natser in this scripture, but he didn’t and by doing so we look at the following, because its pointing us to something else as confirmation.
When the letter Tav, which is a pictograph of the crossed sticks, is added to the word natser it makes the word NatsareT which is known to us today as Nazareth. So the TAV the cross, 2 sticks, is the connection linking Messiah to come with Jesus/Yeshua the Nazarene; meaning coming from Nazareth. Matt 2:23. Npy only is it a picture of a cross it is also the final/last letter of the alef bet bringing it to a close, as in the first and the last – the alef tav.
The name of this tiny village of Nazareth tells us something about the people living there and offers a clue to the identity of the child Mary would bear. As we have noted, Nazareth may come from the Hebrew netzer, which means branch or shoot. Sometimes when a tree is chopped down, a shoot will grow from the stump, allowing a new tree to spring up where the old one has died. That shoot is called, in Hebrew, a netzer.
Why would the people who founded this village have called it the branch?
Much of the Old Testament was written predicting, or in response to, the destruction of Israel. The northern half of the country was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire in 722 B.C. The southern half of the country, known as Judah, was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire in 587 or 586 B.C.
The prophets, in speaking about the destruction and re-emergence of Israel, used the metaphor of Israel being like a tree that had been cut down, but which would sprout up once again. Israel would be led by a messianic figure called the branch, so again, Isaiah 11:1-4, 6 says:
A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
a branch will sprout from his roots.
The LORD ’s spirit will rest upon him,
a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of planning and strength,
a spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.
He will delight in fearing the LORD.
He won’t judge by appearances,
nor decide by hearsay.
He will judge the needy with righteousness,
and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land. …
[And in those days] the wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
the calf and the young lion will feed together,
and a little child will lead them.
The netzer was a promise of Hope – Tikvah
The word as used in Isaiah 11 pointed to the promise that, though Israel had been cut down like a felled tree, she would rise up once again.
Fifty years after the destruction of Judah by the Babylonians, the Jewish people would return to the city of Jerusalem. Judah would rise up like a shoot. And the people hoped for the coming of the branch that the prophets foretold would lead the people—a Messiah.
Jeremiah and Zechariah also use this same imagery, though they use a different word for branch than netzer.
When the village founders named their village Nazareth they may have chosen this name as a way of expressing hope that God would once again restore Israel—that though Israel had been cut down by the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, and then the Romans, a branch would come up from the stump.
They may have chosen this name because, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, it was a sign that there are no hopeless causes with God. They may have chosen this name as a way of articulating their hope that one day the Messiah would come to Israel. It was as if they were saying:
We believe there is always hope.
We believe God will deliver us.
We believe the day will come when God will send a new king who will deliver us.
Little did they know that the branch
foretold in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah would be a
child who would grow up in their own village!
Hebrew – Naẕerat
Yeshua` of Natsaret
Hebrew Netzer.
Reminder:
One view holds that Nazareth is derived from one of the Hebrew words for branch, namely ne·ṣer, נֵ֫צֶר, and alludes to the prophetic, messianic words in
Isaiah 11:1, ‘from (Jesse’s) roots a Branch (netzer) will bear fruit’.
Nazareth may come from the Hebrew netzer, which means branch or shoot.
Sometimes when a tree is chopped down, a shoot will grow from the stump, allowing a new tree to spring up where the old one has died. That shoot is called, in Hebrew, a netzer .
Nazareth ( the guarded one )
Olive trees in Nazareth, Israel.
Strong’s #3478:
Nazareth (pronounced nad-zar-eth’) or Nazaret nad-zar-et’;
The Aramaic word for Nazarite is spelled Nun, Tsade, and Resh, where the Hebrew word for Nazarite is spelled Nun, Zayin, and Resh.
There appears to be a Semitic play on words here as the Tsade and the Zayin both make a z sound.
We can distinguish between the two by showing the Tsade as a ts and the Zayin as a z.
So the Mystery of the Choter
is
IN the BRANCH,
it’s IN JESUS/YESHUA
It is BOTH a Who and a What!
Who is Messiah Himself; the shoot from the stump of Jesse from whose roots a Branch will bear fruit.
We are a part of that fruit and grafted in to the Nazarene from Nazareth our Natser Branch and the Righteous Branch of the Lord, prophesied by the prophets and also our soon returning Prince of Peace/Sar Shalom.
The very Branches of the Menorah and the Rod of Aaron were also indicators of Our Redeemer.
Please don’t leave this page until you are certain you are a netser of the choter,
a grafted in
Nazarene or Notsriym,
of THE Nazarene/Notsri;
נוצרי
the ONE who is THE true BRANCH – THE real CHOTER!
