Jeremiah 23:5-6 comes after a condemnation of Judah's unfaithful shepherds and promises that God will raise up for David a righteous Branch who will reign as king with wisdom, justice, and righteousness. The Davidic identification is explicit in Jeremiah itself: this promised ruler arises from David's line and represents the faithful kingship that Judah's failed rulers had not provided. The passage is therefore one of Jeremiah's clearest contributions to the Old Testament expectation of an ideal Davidic king.

Luke 3:23-31 traces Jesus' human ancestry through David, placing Him within the royal family to which Jeremiah's promise belongs. Other New Testament passages make the Davidic claim even more explicit, including Luke 1:32-33 and Romans 1:3. Christians therefore understand Jesus as the promised Davidic ruler toward whom Jeremiah's righteous Branch points. The fulfillment is not based merely upon a similarity of character: descent from David is an essential feature of Jeremiah's prophecy and a feature the New Testament deliberately attributes to Jesus.