Psalm 1/Notes/Phrasal.v. 3.585040

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The description transplanted by water channels (שָׁתוּל עַל־פַּלְגֵי מָיִם)[1] suggests that "this is not the picture of a tree growing naturally beside a river, but of a tree planted (better 'transplanted') by a gardener beside a watercourse or irrigation channel."[2] "The happiness of the righteous man is illustrated by the simile of a tree, which is removed from its native soil and transplanted to the most favored soil, in a fertile garden irrigated by many channels of water, such as Wady Urtas, where were the gardens of Solomon; Engedi, famed for its fertility; the gardens of Damascus, Egypt, and Babylon, irrigated by canals drawn from the great rivers."[3] The garden imagery in Psalm 1 is, in turn, reminiscent of Eden and the temple of God.[4]

  1. ↑ The preposition עַל is a contingent locative, i.e., "in the vicinity of" (Mena 2012, 88-90).
  2. ↑ Rogerson & McKay 1977, 17. Cf. the instruction of Amen-em-opet, which contrasts the impulsive person who is "like a tree growing in the open," with the silent person who is "like a tree growing in a garden. It flourishes and doubles its yield; It (stands) before its lord. Its fruit is sweet; its shade is pleasant; and its end is reached in the garden..." (ANET 421f.)
  3. ↑ Briggs 1906.
  4. ↑ Cf. Ps. 92:14: "They are transplanted in YHWH's house; they flourish in the courts of our God;" Ps 52:10: "I am like a flourishing olive tree in God's house." See Creach 1999, 34–46.