Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Esaias saith - Isaiah 11:1, Isaiah 11:10.
There shall be a root - A descendant, or one that should proceed from him when he was dead. When a tree dies, and falls, there may remain a "root" which shall retain life, and which shall send up a sprout of a similar kind. So Job says Job 14:7, "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease." So in relation to Jesse. Though he should fall, like an aged tree, yet his name and family should not be extinct. There should be a descendant who should rise, and reign over the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus is thus called also the "root and the offspring of David;" Revelation 22:16; Revelation 5:5.
Of Jesse - The father of David; I Samuel 17:58. The Messiah was thus descended from Jesse.
He that shall rise - That is, as a sprout springs up from a decayed or fallen tree. Jesus thus "rose" from the family of David, that had fallen into poverty and humble life in the time of Mary.
To reign over the Gentiles - This is quoted from the Septuagint of Isaiah 11:10. The Hebrew is, "Which shall stand up for an ensign of the people;" that is, a standard to which they shall flock. Either the Septuagint or the Hebrew would express the idea of the apostle. The "substantial" sense is retained, though it is not literally quoted. The idea of his "reigning" over the Gentiles is one that is fully expressed in the second psalm.
In him ... - Hebrew, "To it shall the Gentiles seek." The sense, however, is the same. The design of this quotation is the same as the preceding, to show that it was predicted in the Old Testament that the Gentiles should be made partakers of the privileges of the gospel. The argument of the apostle is, that if this was designed, then converts to Christianity from among the "Jews" should lay aside their prejudices, and "receive" them as their brethren, entitled to the same privileges of the gospel as themselves. The "fact" that the Gentiles would be admitted to these privileges, the apostle had more fully discussed in Rom. 10-11.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Romans 15:12:
Isaiah 11:1
Acts 13:47
Romans 15:7
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