Lecture fortieth

The Prophet now concludes his subjects which was, that as God executed judgments so severe on the people, it was a wonder that they remained stupefied, when thus reduces to extremities. The vine, he says, has dried up, and every kind of fruit; he adds the fig-tree, afterwards the Nwmr remun, the pomegranate, (for so they render it,) the palm, the apple-tree, ¹ and all trees. And this sterility was a clear sign of God's wrath; and it would have been so regarded, had not men either wholly deceived themselves, or had become hardened against all punishments. Now this anai<sqhsi<a (insensibility) is as it were the very summit of evils; that is, when men feel not their own calamities, or at least understand not that they are inflicted by the hand of God. Let us now proceed --

¹ Of the three foregoing trees we may add this account:
The pomegranate, Nwmr, grows about 20 feet high, has a straight stem and spreading branches, and bears large red blossoms. Its fruit is about the size of an orange, and is delicious and cooling.
The palm or date-tree, rmt, is sometimes as high as 100 feet, and remarkably straight. Its fruit grows in clusters under its leaves, and is in taste very sweet. Palm branches were emblems of victory.
What is called here the apple-tree, xwpt, was no doubt the citron-tree. The word is derived from hpn, to breathe, on account of the extreme fragrance it emits. -- Ed.