Pomegranate

The pomegranate appears across the UPDV as a fruit of the cultivated land, a tree-shaded landmark, an embroidered figure on the high priest's robe, a cast-bronze ornament on the temple pillars, and an image in love-song and prophecy. The fruit is named alongside the vine, the fig, the olive, and the palm in the standard catalogue of Canaanite produce, and its rounded form is carried off the orchard branch and into priestly cloth and temple bronze as a deliberate motif.

Fruit of the Land

The pomegranate is named in the inventory of the land Yahweh promises Israel: "a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey" (De 8:8). The spies sent into Canaan return carrying the produce that bears out the promise: "they came to the valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bore it on a staff between two; [they brought] also of the pomegranates, and of the figs" (Nu 13:23). The headline grape-cluster is paired with pomegranates and figs as the sample-proof of the land's fruit.

The wilderness lacks all of this. At Kadesh the people arraign Moses and Aaron with the absent-produce list: "It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink" (Nu 20:5). The pomegranate stands in the four-item catalogue of what the wilderness will not yield.

The pomegranate-tree itself can serve as a landmark. Saul's Gibeah-edge encampment on the eve of Jonathan's pass-crossing is fixed under a named tree: "Saul remained in the uttermost part of Gibeah under the pomegranate-tree which is in Migron: and the people who were with him were about six hundred men" (1Sa 14:2). The single fruit-tree at Migron furnishes the king's field-camp site.

Orchard, Love, and Wine

In the love-song the orchard of pomegranates is the figure for the bride's body: "Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits; Henna with spikenard plants" (Ss 4:13). The pomegranate-grove is the dominant fruit-tree species of the orchard, set alongside henna and spikenard as a fragrant-plant collection.

The fruit yields a drink: "I would lead you, [and] bring you into my mother's house, Who would instruct me; I would cause you to drink of spiced wine, Of the juice of my pomegranate" (So 8:2). The juice-of-my-pomegranate clause sets pomegranate alongside spiced wine as the lover's offered drink.

Embroidered on the High Priest's Robe

In the tabernacle instructions and execution, the pomegranate is figured on the skirts of the high-priestly robe in dyed yarn, alternating with golden bells. The instruction reads: "And on the skirts of it you will make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about its skirts; and bells of gold between them round about" (Ex 28:33). The next verse fixes the alternation: "a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, on the skirts of the robe round about" (Ex 28:34). The execution-record matches the instruction: "they made on the skirts of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and of scarlet" (Ex 39:24), and "they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates on the skirts of the robe round about, between the pomegranates" (Ex 39:25).

The pomegranate-and-bell array on Aaron's robe is recalled in Sirach's praise of the priestly fathers: "And encompassed him with pomegranates, and with resounding bells round about, To make music with his steps, So as to cause the sound of him to be heard in the inmost shrine, For a memorial for the children of his people" (Sir 45:9). The pomegranates encompass the high priest while the bells make audible his motion in the inmost shrine.

Cast in Bronze on the Temple Pillars

The pomegranate-motif is carried off the cloth and onto the Solomonic temple-pillars. The fabrication record states: "So he made the pillars; and there were two rows round about on the one network, to cover the capitals that were on the top of the pomegranates: and so he did for the other capital" (1Ki 7:18). The per-capital count: "there were capitals above also on the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network: and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about on the other capital" (1Ki 7:20). The summary count for the whole bronze-work: "the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals that were on the pillars" (1Ki 7:42).

The Chronicler gives a further per-pillar number: "he made chains in the oracle, and put [them] on the tops of the pillars; and he made a hundred pomegranates, and put them on the chains" (2Ch 3:16). Jeremiah, recording the bronze-work as the Babylonians strip the temple, repeats and refines the description: "a capital of bronze was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital round about, all of bronze: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates" (Jer 52:22), and "there were ninety and six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were a hundred on the network round about" (Jer 52:23). The pomegranate-fruit is exhibited as the carried-over orchard form, cast in bronze and arrayed in fixed counts on the pillar-heads.

Withered and Restored

The prophetic register sets the pomegranate among the failing orchard-trees as the sign of judgement. Joel names it in the five-clause withering verdict: "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). The named cultivated fruit-tree array — vine, fig, pomegranate, palm, apple — withers as a totalising failure across the orchard-class, and human joy withers with it.

The reversal comes through Haggai at the foundation-day pivot. The prophet asks: "Is the seed yet in the barn? And even the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not brought forth; from this day I will bless [you⁺]" (Hag 2:19). The post-exile barren state of the four-tree orchard — vine, fig, pomegranate, olive — is set directly against the from-this-day blessing-pivot.