Palm Tree

The palm-tree marks places, judgments, sanctuaries, festivals, and figures of speech across the UPDV. It stands at the springs of Elim and at the gate of Jericho; it bends over Deborah's seat of judgment; it is carved into the walls and doors of Solomon's temple and into the visionary temple seen by Ezekiel; its branches are taken up at tabernacles, at the cleansing of the Akra, and at the entry into Jerusalem; it serves as the figure of righteous flourishing and, in Revelation, of the multitude's victory before the throne.

A Tree of Place

The palm-tree fixes geography. Beyond the South and the Plain of the valley, the wilderness gives onto "the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm-trees, to Zoar" (De 34:3). Israel finds the same tree at its first oasis after the Red Sea: "And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees: and they encamped there by the waters" (Ex 15:27).

Deborah's Palm

Between Ramah and Beth-el, in the hill-country of Ephraim, one named palm-tree shelters Israel's judgment seat: "And she dwelt under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim: and the sons of Israel came up to her for judgment" (Jud 4:5).

Carved into the Sanctuary

When Solomon builds the house, the palm-tree appears in the carved figures that cover its surfaces. On the walls "round about" — both inside and outside — "he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, inside and outside" (1Ki 6:29). On the doors of olive-wood, the same figures, gold-overlaid: "So [he made] two doors of olive-wood; and he carved on them carvings of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold; and he spread the gold on the cherubim, and on the palm-trees" (1Ki 6:32). On the outer doors as well: "And he carved [on it] cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers; and he overlaid them with gold fitted on the graven work" (1Ki 6:35). The Chronicler records the same ornament wrought into the gold-overlaid ceiling of the greater house: "And the greater house he ceiled with fir-wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and wrought on it palm-trees and chains" (2Ch 3:5).

The palm-tree carries forward into Ezekiel's visionary temple. The gate-posts bear them: "and on [each] post were palm-trees" (Eze 40:16). The wall-panels alternate them with cherubim: "And it was made with cherubim and palm-trees; and a palm-tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces" (Eze 41:18).

Branches for the Festival

At the feast of tabernacles, palm branches are one of four ritual greenery-items the assembly takes up: "And you⁺ will take to yourselves on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you⁺ will rejoice before Yahweh your⁺ God seven days" (Le 23:40). When the returnees keep the same feast, the proclamation goes out for branch-gathering on the hills around the city: "Go forth to the mount, and fetch olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written" (Ne 8:15).

The same festal greenery appears in a victory-procession when Simon's forces enter the Akra: "And they entered into it on the twenty-third day of the second month, in the year one hundred and seventy-one, with thanksgiving, and branches of palm trees, and harps, and cymbals, and stringed instruments, and hymns, and songs, because the great enemy was destroyed out of Israel" (1Ma 13:51).

The crowd at Jesus' entry into Jerusalem reaches for the same branches: "took the branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried out, Hosanna: Blessed [is] he who comes, the King of Israel, in the name of Yahweh" (Jn 12:13).

A Figure of Flourishing

The palm-tree is the standing figure of the righteous one's growth: "The righteous will flourish like the palm-tree: He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon" (Ps 92:12). Wisdom takes the same shape in the first person: "I was exalted like a palm tree on the seashore, And as rose plants in Jericho; And as a fair olive tree in the plain; Yes, I was exalted as a sycamore tree by the waters" (Sir 24:14). The Song of Songs lends the figure to the beloved: "Your stature is like a palm-tree, And your breasts to its clusters" (Ss 7:7).

The reverse figure marks failure. When joy withers from the sons of man, "the vine is withered, and the fig tree languishes; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered: for joy has withered away from the sons of man" (Joe 1:12). And Jeremiah uses the palm-tree as the very type of a lifeless idol: "They are like a palm-tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must surely be borne, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good" (Je 10:5) — turned wood, immobile, mute.

Palms Before the Throne

The figure that began at Elim and the carved walls of Solomon's house ends in Revelation's vision of the great multitude. After the sealing of the tribes, "I looked, and saw a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of [all] tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands" (Re 7:9). The same greenery taken up at tabernacles, carried into Jerusalem at the triumphal entry, and borne into the cleansed Akra is in the hands of the multitude before the Lamb.