ROOT (שֹׁ֫רֶשׁ, H9247; ῥίζα, G4844). That part of the plant which penetrates the soil and draws up sap and nourishment for the plant.

The numerous references to “root” in the Bible are mostly fig., drawn from the important relation which the root bears to the plant. Roots near water symbolize prosperity (Job 29:19; Ezek 31:7); the opposite is a “root...dried up” (Hos 9:16). A “root [waxed] old in the earth” (Job 14:8) signifies loss of vitality, while to “take root” or “be rooted” denotes becoming or being firmly established (2 Kings 19:30; Eph 3:17). Judgment upon sinners is pictured as rottenness of root (Isa 5:24), roots drying up (Job 18:16; Isa 14:30), or being uprooted in destruction (Ezek 17:9; Luke 17:6; Jude 12). The axe lying at the root of the tree indicates impending judgment (Matt 3:10).

The root is the source of a moral or spiritual condition. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6:10 ASV), and a “root of bitterness” causes the defilement of apostasy (Deut 29:18; Heb 12:15).

The root of a family or nation is its progenitor (Rom 11:16). Messiah as the “root of Jesse” (Isa 11:10) is not a sucker from the root but Himself the origin and strength of the Messianic line; “the root and the offspring of David” (Rev 5:5; 22:16) denotes Christ’s divine-human nature as the source and descendant of David. The Messianic Servant’s appearance as a “root out of dry ground” (Isa 53:2) depicts His lowly surroundings in contrast to His inner vigor.