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.