12. Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah"
(De 32:32),
nauseous and unwholesome, trees of life-giving and life-restoring
virtue shall bloom similar in properties to, and exceeding in number,
the tree of life in Eden
(Re 2:7; 22:2, 14).
leaf . . . not fade--expressing not only the unfailing character of
the heavenly medicine of the tree of life, but also that the graces of
the believer (as a tree of righteousness), which are the leaves, and
his deeds, which are the fruits that flow from those graces, are
immortal
(Ps 1:3;
Jer 17:8;
Mt 10:42;
1Co 15:58).
new fruit--literally, "firstlings," or first fruit. They are still,
each month afresh, as it were, yielding their first-fruit
[FAIRBAIRN].
The first-born of a thing, in Hebrew idiom, means the chiefest. As
Job 18:13,
"the first-born of death," that is, the most fatal death.
JFB.
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