Proverbs 3:18

'He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.' [Psalm 1:3] There are many who interpret these words very simply to mean that just as a tree, if planted near water, will take root and grow and not wither away because it has enough moisture, so in like manner one who meditates on the law of God will derive strength and life from his meditation. This is their simple interpretation. But we shall combine spiritual things with spiritual things [1 Cor. 2:13] and read of the tree of life that was planted in Paradise, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree of life was planted in the Garden of Eden and in Eden there rose a river that separated into four branches [Gen 2:9]... Likewise we read in Solomon - if one accepts that book as Solomon's, for he speaks there of wisdom (Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God [1 Cor. 1:24]) then, as I was saying, where Solomon says: 'She is a tree of life to those who grasp her,' [Prov 3:18] he is speaking of wisdom. Now, if wisdom is the tree of life, Wisdom itself, indeed, is Christ. You understand now that the man who is blessed and holy is compared to this tree, that is, he is compared to Wisdom. Consequently, you see, too, that the just man, that blessed man who has not followed in the counsel of the wicked - who has not done that but has done this - is like the tree that is planted near running water. He is, in other words, like Christ, inasmuch as He 'raised us up together, and seated us together in heaven.' [Eph. 2:6] You see, then, that we shall reign together with Christ in heaven; you see, too, that because this tree has been planted in the Garden of Eden, we have all been planted there together with Him. 'He is like a tree planted near running water.' Indeed, it is from that fountainhead that all rivers take their rise. […]

She is a tree of life to those, etc. Just as Moses testifies that the tree of life was placed in the midst of paradise, so through the wisdom of God, namely Christ, the Church is made alive, of which even now the sacraments of …

The third mode of generation is by means of propagation, and this in a fourfold way: as of a growth coming from a seed, a tree from a root, a conceived offspring from the belly or womb of the mother, or children from a begetting …

A tree - A pledge of everlasting life. He alludes to the tree of life, and intimates, that this is the only restorer of that life which we have lost by sin.

): She is a tree of life. True grace is that to the soul which the tree of life would have been, from which our first parents were shut out for eating of the forbidden tree. It is a seed of immortality, a well of living waters, springing up to life eternal.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

She is a tree of life,....

She is a tree of life - עץ חיים ets chaiyim, “the tree of lives,” alluding most manifestly to the tree so called which God in the beginning planted in the garden of Paradise, by eating the fruit of which all the wastes of nature might have been continually repaired, so as to prevent death for ever. This is an opinion which appears probable enough. The blessings which wisdom - true religion - gives to men, preserve them in life, comfort them through life, cause them to triumph in death, and ensure them a glorious immortality.

Wisdom allegorized as a tree of life-- (Ge 2:9; 3:22) whose fruit preserves life, gives all that makes living a blessing. The place of wisdom in the economy of creation and providence commends it to men, who, in proportion to their finite powers, may possess this invaluable attribute, and are thus encouraged by the divine example of its use to seek its possession.

This and the other references in Proverbs Pro 11:30; Pro 13:12; Pro 15:4 are the only allusions in any book of the Old Testament, after Genesis, to the “tree” itself, or to its spiritual significance. Further, there is the tendency to a half-allegorizing application of that history. “The tree of life” which Adam was not to taste lies open to his children. Wisdom is the “tree of life,” giving a true immortality. The symbol entered largely into the religious imagery. of Assyria, Egypt, and Persia. Philo, going a step further, found in the two trees the ideal representatives of speculative knowledge and moral wisdom; and the same image subserves a higher purpose in the promises and the visions of Rev 2:7; Rev 22:2.