mulberry trees Summary and Overview

MUL'BERRY TREES . All agree that this is a mistranslation, but many different renderings are suggested. Some of the best recent authorities advocate the aspen or poplar, a few species of which grow in Palestine. The "going" in the tree-tops, which was to be the sign that God went out before the host, 2 Sam 5:23-24, may have been the rustle of these leaves, which are proverbial for their readiness to tremble before the slightest breeze.

beqaim. 2 Samuel 5:23-24; Septuagint translated "pear trees"; Royle "the gnat tree," Arabic shajrat al bak, a kind of poplar, or the aspen trembling at the slightest breath. The gentle (compare 1 Kings 19:19.) "sound of a going in the tops" was the sign of God's "going out before" David's army. "Angels tread light, and He that can walk upon the clouds can, when He pleases, walk on the tops of the trees. Though thou see Him not, yet thou shalt hear Him, and faith shall be confirmed by hearing" (Matthew Henry). Abulfadl says baca is the Arabic name of a shrub like the balsam, but with longer leaves and larger rounder fruit, from which if a leaf be broken a white tearlike sap flows; whence the name comes, namely, from baaqah, to weep. In Psalm 84:6, "who passing through the valley of Baka, (the Hebrew letter 'Aleph (? ) final probably being the Hebrew letter He[h] (? )) make it a well," the sense is, though in a valley of weeping (where the only waters are those of tears), such as David passed through in his flight from Absalom (2 Samuel 15:30), saints make it a well of ever flowing comfort and salvation (John 4:14; Isaiah 12:3).