Matthew 2:23

Nazareth] or Nazara, was a town of lower Galilee, in the tribe of Zebulon. It lay in a lofty valley among the limestone hills to the N. of the plain of Esdraelon, or Megiddo. It was quite unimportant (John 1:46), and is not mentioned in OT. or Josephus.

A Nazarene] A thoroughly Jewish play upon words. In the OT. and in Jewish writings the Messiah is often called Tsemach (Jeremiah 23:5), or Netser (Isaiah 11:1), i.e. the Branch, so that 'Jesus the Nazarene' would sound very much like 'Jesus the Branch,' i.e. the Messiah. Edersheim says, 'We admit that this is a Jewish view, but then this Gospel is the Jewish view of the Jewish Messiah.'