ISAI (Heb. Jšaj; Vulg. Iesse). - Booz (v.) David (v.), of Bethlehem. He had eight sons and at least two daughters. It was to his house that, Saul (v.), Samuele (v.) was sent to seek another king: and the youngest, David (v.), was the chosen one (I Sam. 16). When David later began his wandering life in order to escape Saul’s wrath, I. was taken by his son to the king of Moab (I.’s grandmother had been a Moabite: Ruth). We know nothing of his death.
Although he was one of the “elders” of Bethlehem (I Sam. 16, 4-5) and of no obscure family—his grandfather Booz had been famous for martial virtues (Ruth. 2, 1)—I. was essentially “an ordinary man,” and Saul readily vented his contempt for David by calling him “the son of I.” (I Sam. 20, 27, 30 ff.; 22, 7 ff.; cf. 25, 10; II Sam. 20, 1; I Reg. 12, 16). Yet this designation, after Isaia had used it in a splendid messianic prophecy (“a shoot shall come forth from the stump of I., a branch shall blossom from his root”; Is. 11, 1, 10), became famous; it is consecrated in the Christmas liturgy (“O radix Iesse...” ).
