Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 9:14

"Therefore Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm-branch and rush, in one day." — Isaiah 9:14 (ASV)

Head and tail, branch and rush ... —The “branch” is strictly that of the palm-tree, which in its stately height corresponded to the nobles of the land, while the “rush,” the emblem of a real or affected lowliness (Isaiah 58:5), represented the “mean man” of Isaiah 2:9. We find the same proverbial formula in Isaiah 19:15.