Palm tree

The date palm is one of the most useful trees in the ancient Middle East. It grows up to thirty metres tall, with a slender straight trunk topped by a crown of long, arching green fronds. A single tree produces clusters of sweet dates — sometimes more than two hundred fruits in a cluster — which ripen in autumn and can be dried for long storage. The trunk was used for timber, the fronds for shade and roofing, and the fibre of the trunk for rope. Jericho was known as the City of Palms because the Jordan Valley was full of them (Deuteronomy 34:3).

In the ancient world, waving or spreading palm branches was a gesture of welcome for a conquering king or victorious general. When the crowd in Jerusalem cut palm branches and spread them before Jesus as he rode in on a donkey (John 12:13), they were not simply decorating the road — they were making a royal proclamation. The gesture said: this man is our king, our deliverer. The Feast of Tabernacles also required worshippers to carry palm branches (Leviticus 23:40). In Revelation 7:9, the great multitude standing before the throne of God holds palm branches in their hands — the gesture of welcome and victory that began in Jerusalem now fills heaven. Psalm 92:12 declares that the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree.