Reference: Palmtree
Fausets
tamar. The Phoenix dactylifera, the date palm; for which Palestine was famous, as appears from the many names derived from it. Grows best at "fountains" (Ex 15:27; Nu 33:9 (See ELIM.), De 2:8 (See ELATH.) Jericho was "the city of palmtrees" (De 34:3; Jg 1:16; 3:13; 2Ch 28:15). (See JERICHO; HAZEZON TAMAR; ENGEDI; BAAL TAMAR.) (Jg 20:33). TAMAR the last town of Judaea, by the Dead Sea (Eze 47:19); Robinson makes its site El-Milh between Hebron and wady Muse. For TADMOR (2Ch 8:4) in 1Ki 9:18 the best reading is Tamar, "the palm city," Roman "Palmyra," on an oasis of the Syrian desert, in the caravan route between Damascus and the Euphrates. BETHANY means "house of dates"; thence the multitude took the palm branches to honor Christ (Joh 12:13), and from Olivet the people under Nehemiah (Ne 8:15) took palms, the tree named in instituting the feast of tabernacles (Le 23:40).
Phoenicia (Ac 11:19) takes its name from the palm; compare Phenice in Crete, Ac 27:12. From the uprightness and beauty of the palm the name Tamar was applied to women (Song 7:7; Ge 38:6; 2Sa 13:1; 14:27). The walls, doors, bases and posts of the temples of Solomon and Ezekiel (Eze 40:16,22,26,31,34,37; 41:18-20,25-26; 1Ki 6:29,32-35; 7:36) were decorated with palmtrees in relief. Rigid motionless uprightness is the point of comparison to the pagan idols in Jer 10:4-5. "The righteous shall flourish like the palmtree" (Ps 92:12); full of the "oil" of grace ever "fresh" (Ps 92:10), looking calmly down on the world below and bearing its precious fruit for generations. The psalm refers to the church in holy convocation on the Sabbath (title). The tabernacle is alluded to, the meeting place between God and His people; the oil-fed candlestick had the form of a tree with flowers and fruits.
The palm denotes the saint's spiritual beauty, ever fresh joy, and fruitfulness; his orderly upright aspect, perpetual verdure, rising from earth toward heaven. Also the elastic fibber sending it upward, however loaded with weights and agitated by winds, symbolizes the believer sitting already in heavenly places, in spite of earthly burdens (Col 3:1-2; Eph 2:6; Php 3:20; 4:6; Ac 20:23-24). Rough to the touch, encased below in dry bark, but fruitful and green above; so the saint despised below, beautiful above, straitened with many trials here, but there bearing fruit before God unto everlasting life (2Co 4:8-18). The "great multitude of all nations before the Lamb with palms in their hands" are antitypical to that which escorted Christ at His triumphal entry (Re 7:9, etc.). The palm symbolizes their joyful triumph after having come out of "the great tribulation."
The palm was carried with willows and thick trees (rabbinically called lulab) in the hand at the feast of tabernacles, the thanksgiving for the ingathered fruits, and the commemoration of Israel's 40 years' sojourn in tabernacles in the wilderness. The earthly feast shall be renewed in commemoration of Israel's wilderness-like dispersion and sojourn among the nations (Zec 14:16). The final and heavenly antitype is Re 7:9, etc. The palm is dioecious, i.e. the male stamens and female pistils are on different trees. Fertilization, or impregnating the female plant with the pollen of the male, is effected by insects or artificially. In Song 7:8 the "daughters of Jerusalem," no longer content with admiring, resolve, in spite of the height of the fruit at the utmost top of the palm, and the difficulty of climbing the stem, bore for a great height, to "take hold of the boughs" with their crown of fruit (Ps 34:8).
The palm grows from 30 to 80 feet, does not bear fruit for the first six or seven years, but will bear for a hundred (Ps 92:14). Slowly, but steadily and enduringly, the average crop is 100 pounds a year. The Arabs are said to have 360 designations for the palm and to enumerate 360 uses of it. The abortive fruit and date stones ground the camels eat. Of the leaves they make couches, baskets, bags, mats, brushes, fly flaps; from the trunk cages and fences; from the fibber of the leaves, thread for cordage; from the sap collected by cutting the head off, and scooping a hollow in the stem, a spirituous liquor. The pilgrims to Palestine used to bring home palms, from whence they were called "palmers." Vespasian's coin bore the palm and Zion as a woman sitting sadly beneath, and the legend "Judaea captive" (see p. 405). Once the prevalent fruit tree, it now is nowhere in Palestine except in the Philistine plain.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And Judah taketh a wife for Er, his first-born, and her name is Tamar;
And they come to Elim, and there are twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees; and they encamp there by the waters.
and ye have taken to yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of a brook, and have rejoiced before Jehovah your God seven days.
And they journey from Marah, and come in to Elim, and in Elim are twelve fountains of waters, and seventy palm trees, and they encamp there;
'And we pass by from our brethren, sons of Esau, who are dwelling in Seir, by the way of the plain, by Elath, and by Ezion-Gaber; and we turn, and pass over the way of the wilderness of Moab;
and the south, and the circuit of the valley of Jericho, the city of palms, unto Zoar.
And the sons of the Kenite, father-in-law of Moses, have gone up out of the city of palms with the sons of Judah to the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad, and they go and dwell with the people.
and he gathereth unto him the Bene-Ammon and Amalek, and goeth and smiteth Israel, and they possess the city of palms;
And all the men of Israel have risen from their place, and arrange themselves at Baal-Tamar, and the ambush of Israel is coming forth out of its place, out of the meadow of Gibeah.
and he buildeth Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the cities of store that he hath built in Hamath.
and that they proclaim and cause to pass over all their cities, (and in Jerusalem,) saying, 'Go ye out to the mount, and bring leaves of the olive, and leaves of the oil tree, and leaves of the myrtle, and leaves of the palms, and leaves of thick trees, to make booths as it is written.'
Taste ye and see that Jehovah is good, O the happiness of the man who trusteth in Him.
And Thou exaltest as a reem my horn, I have been anointed with fresh oil.
The righteous as a palm-tree flourisheth, As a cedar in Lebanon he groweth.
Still they bring forth in old age, Fat and flourishing are they,
This thy stature hath been like to a palm, And thy breasts to clusters. I said, 'Let me go up on the palm, Let me lay hold on its boughs, Yea, let thy breasts be, I pray thee, as clusters of the vine, And the fragrance of thy face as citrons,
With silver and with gold they beautify it, With nails and with hammers they fix it, And it doth not stumble. As a palm they are stiff, and they speak not, They are surely borne, for they step not, Be not afraid of them, for they do no evil, Yea, also to do good is not in them.
and narrow windows are unto the little chambers, and unto their posts at the inside of the gate all round about -- and so to the arches -- and windows all round about are at the inside, and at the post are palm-trees.
and its windows, and its arches, and its palm-trees are according to the measure of the gate whose face is eastward, and by seven steps they go up on it, and its arches are before them.
and seven steps are its ascent, and its arches are before them, and palm-trees are to it, one on this side, and one on that side, at its posts;
and its arches are unto the outer court, and palm-trees are unto its posts, and eight steps are its ascent.
and its arches are toward the outer court, and palm-trees are toward its posts, on this side and on that side, and eight steps are its ascent.
and its posts are to the outer court, and palm-trees are unto its posts, on this side and on that side, and eight steps are its ascent.
And it is made with cherubs and palm-trees, and a palm-tree is between cherub and cherub, and two faces are to the cherub; and the face of man is unto the palm-tree on this side, and the face of a young lion unto the palm-tree on that side; it is made unto all the house all round about. read more. from the earth unto above the opening are the cherubs and the palm-trees made, and on the wall of the temple.
And made on them, on the doors of the temple, are cherubs and palm-trees as are made on the walls, and a thickness of wood is at the front of the porch on the outside. And narrow windows and palm-trees are on this side, and on that side, at the sides of the porch, and the side-chambers of the house, and the thick places.
And the south quarter southward is from Tamar unto the waters of Meriboth-Kadesh, the stream unto the great sea: and this is the south quarter southward.
And it hath come to pass, Every one who hath been left of all the nations, Who are coming in against Jerusalem, They have also gone up from year to year, To bow themselves to the King, Jehovah of Hosts, And to celebrate the feast of the booths.
took the branches of the palms, and went forth to meet him, and were crying, 'Hosanna, blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord -- the king of Israel;'
Those, indeed, therefore, having been scattered abroad, from the tribulation that came after Stephen, went through unto Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to none except to Jews only;
save that the Holy Spirit in every city doth testify fully, saying, that for me bonds and tribulations remain; but I make account of none of these, neither do I count my life precious to myself, so that I finish my course with joy, and the ministration that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify fully the good news of the grace of God.
and the haven being incommodious to winter in, the more part gave counsel to sail thence also, if by any means they might be able, having attained to Phenice, there to winter, which is a haven of Crete, looking to the south-west and north-west,
on every side being in tribulation, but not straitened; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; read more. at all times the dying of the Lord Jesus bearing about in the body, that the life also of Jesus in our body may be manifested, for always are we who are living delivered up to death because of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our dying flesh, so that, the death indeed in us doth work, and the life in you. And having the same spirit of the faith, according to that which hath been written, 'I believed, therefore I did speak;' we also do believe, therefore also do we speak; knowing that He who did raise up the Lord Jesus, us also through Jesus shall raise up, and shall present with you, for the all things are because of you, that the grace having been multiplied, because of the thanksgiving of the more, may abound to the glory of God; wherefore, we faint not, but if also our outward man doth decay, yet the inward is renewed day by day; for the momentary light matter of our tribulation, more and more exceedingly an age-during weight of glory doth work out for us -- we not looking to the things seen, but to the things not seen; for the things seen are temporary, but the things not seen are age-during.
and did raise us up together, and did seat us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
For our citizenship is in the heavens, whence also a Saviour we await -- the Lord Jesus Christ --
for nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer, and by supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God;
If, then, ye were raised with the Christ, the things above seek ye, where the Christ is, on the right hand of God seated, the things above mind ye, not the things upon the earth,
After these things I saw, and lo, a great multitude, which to number no one was able, out of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands,
After these things I saw, and lo, a great multitude, which to number no one was able, out of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands,