PLANTS IN SCRIPTURE 1+3 



compares the figure of manna unto the seed of coriander. 

 In Jeremy J we find the expression, " straight as a 

 palm tree." And here the wicked in their flourishing 

 state are likened unto a bay tree. Which, sufficiently 

 answering the sense of the text, we are unwilling to 

 exclude that noble plant from the honour of having 

 its name in Scripture. Yet we cannot but observe, 

 that the septuagint renders it cedars, and the vulgar 

 accordingly, v'tdi imp'ium superexaltatum y et elevatum 

 sicut cedros Libani ; and the translation of Tremellius 

 mentions neither bay nor cedar; sese explicantem tanquam 

 arbor mdigena virens ; which seems to have been 

 followed by the last low Dutch translation. A private 

 translation renders it like a green self-growing laurel. 

 The high Dutch of Luther's Bible retains the word 

 laurel ; and so doth the old Saxon and Iceland trans- 

 lation ; so also the French, Spanish, and Italian of 

 Diodati : yet his notes acknowledge that some think 

 it rather a cedar, and others any large tree in a 

 prospering and natural soil. 



But however these translations differ, the sense is 



allowable and obvious unto apprehension : when no 



particular plant is named, any proper to the sense may 



be supposed ; where either cedar or laurel is mentioned, 



1 Jer. x 5. 



