All which now remains is to examine those explanations of this verse which differ from the Messianic interpretation. 1. Following the interpretation of _Grotius_ and others, _Gesenius_, in his Commentary, understands by the Sprout of the Lord the new growth of the people after their various defeats. His explanation is: "Then the sprout of Jehovah will be splendid and glorious, and the fruit of the land excellent and beautiful for the escaped of Israel." _Fruit of the land_ he takes in its literal sense, and understands it to mean the product of the land. The same view is held by _Knobel_: "_He becomes for beauty and glory_,_i.e._, the people, having reformed, prosper and form a splendid, glorious state." And _Maurer_ in his Dictionary says: "The Sprout of Jehovah seems to be the morally improved remnant, the new, sanctified increase of the people." But in opposition to such a view there is, _first_, the circumstance, that according to it the ל before לצבי and לכבור must be understood differently from what it is in לגאון, and לתפארת which immediately follow and exactly correspond with them. There are, _secondly_, the parallel passages chap. xxviii. 5, xxiv. 16, according to which צבי "beauty" is conferred upon the escaped, but they themselves do not become beauty. _Finally_--It is always most natural to suppose that צמח יהוה and פרי הארץ correspond with one another, and denote the same subject which is here described after his various aspects only. For in the same manner as צמח and פרי go hand in hand, both being taken from the territory of botany, so יהוה and הארץ also stand in a contrast which is not to be mistaken. 2. _Hitzig_, _Ewald_, _Meier_, and others not only refer "the fruit of the land," but also the "Sprout of Jehovah" to that which Jehovah makes to sprout forth.[2] It is true that, in the prophetic [Pg 18] announcements, among the blessings of the future the rich produce of the land is also mentioned (comp. chap. xxx. 23-25), and the same is very expressly done in the Law also; but in not a single one of these passages does the strange expression occur, that this fruitfulness should serve to the escaped for beauty and glory, for exaltation and ornament, or any other that bears the slightest resemblance to it. Against this explanation there is, _in addition_, the circumstance that the barrenness of the country is not at all pointed out in the preceding context. _Finally_--When we understand this expression as referring to the Messiah, this verse, standing as it does at the head of the proclamation of salvation, contains the fundamental thought; and in what follows we obtain the expansion. In the verse before us we are told that in Christ the people attain to glory,--and, in those which follow, how this glory is manifested in them. But according to this view, every internal connexion of the verse before us with what follows is entirely destroyed. 3. According to _Hendewerk_, by the "Sprout of the Lord,"