{"id":79918,"date":"2020-09-13T16:47:30","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T13:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79918"},"modified":"2020-09-13T17:58:19","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T14:58:19","slug":"the-people-as-trees-metaphor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-people-as-trees-metaphor\/","title":{"rendered":"The People as Trees Metaphor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"79918","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"568","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"An enduring trope, with different messages\r\n\r\n","content":"

This opening psalm sets a tone for the book by praising the righteous and condemning the wicked. It also sets a precedent for its use of lyrical and figurative prose and poetry, particularly in its comparison of the Torah-true person to \u201ca tree planted beside streams of water\u201d (3) and the wicked to \u201cchaff that the wind blows away\u201d (4).<\/span><\/p>\n

Both these comparisons have biblical parallels. In the following passage, Jeremiah compared the wicked to \u201ca brush in the scorched desert\u201d and the righteous to \u201ca tree planted by waters\u201d\u2014just as in our psalm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus said the LORD: Cursed is he who trusts in man, who makes mere flesh his strength, and turns his thoughts from the LORD. He shall be like a bush in the desert, which does not sense the coming of good: it is set in the scorched places of the wilderness, In a barren land without inhabitants. Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD alone. He shall be like a tree planted by waters, sending forth its roots by a stream: it does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh; it has no care in a year of drought, it does not cease to yield fruit. (Jeremiah 17:5-8)<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the striking similarities between them, their contrasting descriptions of the fruit-bearing trees make different points. When the psalmist compared the righteous man to \u201ca tree which yields it fruit in season\u201d (3), his intent was not the fate of the tree\u2014i.e., the reward of the righteous\u2014but the fulfillment of his role, namely, yielding fruit in season. Jeremiah was speaking of the reward of the one \u201cwho trusts in the Lord,\u201d who is described as \u201cdoes not cease to yield fruit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The comparison between people and trees recalls the verse: \u201cFor man is a tree of the field\u201d (Deut. 20:19). However, it seems likely that that verse was meant as a rhetorical question (\u201cis a man\u2026?\u201d) rather than as a statement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

image: “For A Person is a Tree of the Field,” carved tree near Ein Kerem, Jerusalem. 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