Thy plants [are] an orchard of pomegranates
These plants are the members of the church, true converts, believers in Christ; pleasant plants, plants of renown, planted in the church by Christ's heavenly Father, and shall never be plucked up; or, thy gardens, as it may be rendered F14; particular churches, well taken care of and watered; these make an orchard, or are like one, even a paradise, as the word F15 signifies: it is generally thought to be a Persic word; see ( Nehemiah 2:8 ) ; but Hillerus F16 derives it from (rrp) , to "separate", it being a garden, separated and enclosed as before; one like Eden's garden, exceeding pleasant and delightful: and not like an orchard of any sort of trees, but of "pomegranates", of which there were plenty in Canaan, hence called a "land of pomegranates", ( Deuteronomy 8:8 ) ; many places in it had their names from thence, ( Joshua 15:32 ) ( 19:13 ) ( 21:24 ) . To which believers in Christ may be compared, for the various sorts of them F17, for their largeness, fruitfulness, and uprightness; saints have gifts and grace, differing from one another as to size, but all pomegranates, trees of righteousness; some are larger, and excel others, are full of all the fruits of righteousness; but all are, more or less, fruitful and upright in heart: and so the saints of the higher class may be here designed, as those of a lower are by other trees and spices after mentioned; with pleasant fruits;
that are valuable, precious, and desirable, of which an enumeration follows: camphire, with spikenard;
or "cypresses", or "cyprusses with nards" {r}; both in the plural number: the former may intend cypress trees, so called on account of their berries and fruits growing in clusters; see ( Song of Solomon 1:14 ) ; and the latter, because there are different sorts of them, as "nardus Italica", "Indica", and "Celtica": to these saints may be compared, because pleasant and delightful, of a sweet smell, and rare and excellent.