Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 4:2

"In that day shall the branch of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel." — Isaiah 4:2 (ASV)

In that day ... —The dark picture of punishment is relieved by a vision of Messianic glory, like that of Isaiah 2:1-4. The “day” is, as in Isaiah 3:18, the time of Jehovah’s judgments.

The branch of the Lord ... —The thought of the “branch,” though not the Hebrew word, is the same as in Isaiah 11:1. The word itself is found in the Messianic prophecies of Jeremiah 23:5-6, Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3:8, and Zechariah 6:12. These last two probably inherited both the thought and the word from this passage. Here, then, if we interpret the words this way, we have the first distinct prophecy in Isaiah of a personal Messiah. He is the “Branch of Jehovah,” raised up by Him, accepted by Him. And the appearance of that Branch has as its accompaniment (the poetic parallelism here being that of both resemblance and contrast) the restoration of outward fertility.

That thought Isaiah had inherited from Psalms 72:16, Hosea 2:21–22, Joel 3:18, and Amos 9:13. He transmitted it to Ezekiel 34:27 and Zechariah 9:16-17. The interpretation which takes “the branch [or growth] of the Lord” in its lower sense, as used collectively for “vegetation,” and, therefore, parallel and almost synonymous with the “fruits of the earth,” seems to miss the true meaning. Rabbinic exegesis may be of little weight, but the acceptance of the term as Messianic by Jeremiah and Zechariah is surely conclusive. It will be noted that the prophecy of the Branch (tsemach) here comes after a picture of desolation, just as that of the Branch (netzer) does in Isaiah 11:1. The thought seems applied by our Lord to Himself in John 12:24.

For them that are escaped of Israel. —These are, of course, identical with the “remnant” of Isaiah 1:9 and Isaiah 6:13, to whom the prophet had been taught to look as the trusted custodians of the nation’s future.