Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 1:26

"Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth," — Luke 1:26 (ASV)

And in the sixth month.—The time is obviously reckoned from the beginning of the period specified in Luke 1:24.

A city of Galilee, named Nazareth.—The town so named (now en-Nazirah) was situated in a valley among the hills that rise to a height of about 500 feet on the north of the Plain of Esdraelon. The valley itself is richly cultivated. The grassy slopes of the hills are clothed in springtime with flowers.

On one side there is a steep ridge that forms something like a precipice (Luke 4:29). In the rainy season, the streams flow down the slopes of the hills and rush in torrents through the valleys.

From a hill just behind the town, the modern Neby Ismail, there is one of the finest views in Palestine, including Lebanon and Hermon to the north, Carmel to the west, with glimpses of the Mediterranean, and to the south the Plain of Esdraelon and the mountains of Samaria, and to the east and southeast Gilead, Tabor, and Gilboa.

It is a three days’ journey from Jerusalem, about twenty miles from Ptolemais, eighteen from the Sea of Galilee, six from Mount Tabor, about six from Cana, and nine from Nain.

The name, as stated in the Note on Matthew 2:23, was probably derived from the Hebrew Netzer (meaning "a branch"), and conveyed a meaning similar to our -hurst, or -holm, in English topography.