FLOURISHING/LUXURIANT/VIBRANT/GREEN: ra’anan, adjective (Strong’s 7488); Aramaic adjective: ra’anan (Strong’s 7487).
Root: רַעֲנָן
Sounds like: rah-a’nawn
Ra’anan is an adjective, which means it’s a descriptor word. It adds a description to the noun it is associated with, and in the Hebrew Bible it is always (with only one exception) associated with trees. For this reason, ra’anan has numerous translations, including green, leafy, luxuriant, and flourishing.
Green is a bit misleading. This isn’t about the tree’s colour. It’s about the tree’s success. The trees that are described as ra’anan are vibrant, nutrient-filled and flourishing. As we will see, in the Bible trees were near the top of the list of metaphorical objects, so the description of a tree’s status was important to note.
A Flourishing Bed?!
However, as mentioned, ra’anan was attached to something other than a tree (although it only happened once). This example is found in the erotic poem known as the Song of Songs (Shir ha-shirim):
Song of Songs 1:16
“How handsome you are, my beloved, and so delightful! Indeed, our bed is luxuriant [ra’a’nanah רַעֲנָנָֽה]!”
Another way to put it: their bed was flourishing. It might make you blush, but their bed was vibrant and healthy and ready to produce fruit. That’s the poetic inference used here. If this poem was meant to reflect the love story between God and His people, then it’s telling us that only together we can spiritually bear fruit. Love begets good fruit and when we reflect God’s love to the world, the garden grows bigger and the world flourishes with love at its core.
Sacred Space: High Hills and Flourishing Trees
The image of a flourishing tree was a symbol of health and prosperity, but it wasn’t exclusive to the people of Israel. Many of the ancient Ancient Near East cultures connected the luxuriant tree on a mountain with the favour of their pagan gods. All through the Hebrew Bible we can find examples of where the pagans worshipped their gods. It was consistently described as being on a high hill or mountain and under a ra’anan tree. It seems that, according to ancient cultures, a flourishing tree on a hill top it was the perfect place to worship a deity:
Deuteronomy 12:2
You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations, whom you are going to dispossess, serve their gods on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every leafy [flourishing: ra’a’nan רַעֲנָן] tree.
Years after claiming the promised land, these pagan influences remained, mostly because many people abandoned God and turned to the gods of their Canaanite neighbours. Canaanite sacred places were typically on mountains/hills, and included big trees, memorial stones, incense, sacrificial spaces and Asherim (idolic wooden poles or decorated trees). It was a grave mistake for the Israelites to copy these places, but that was what they did:
1 Kings 14:22-23
And the people of Judah did evil in the sight of YHWH, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they, too, built for themselves high places, memorial stones, and Asherim on every high hill and under every luxuriant [ra’a’nan רַעֲנָֽן] tree.
2 Kings 16:3-4 (see also 2 Chronicles 28:1-4)
He [Ahaz] walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and he even made his son pass through the fire, in accordance with the abominations of the nations whom YHWH had driven out before the sons of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green [ra’a’nan רַעֲנָֽן] tree.
2 Kings 17:9-11
And the sons of Israel did things secretly against YHWH their God which were not right. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. And they set up for themselves memorial stones and Asherim on every high hill and under every green [ra’a’nan רַעֲנָֽן] tree, and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did that YHWH had taken into exile before them; and they did evil things, provoking YHWH.
Prophets and the Luxuriant Tree
The prophets of YHWH consistently pointed out the root of evil that had taken hold of God’s people, under their flourishing trees and pagan sacred places:
Jeremiah 2:20-22 (see also Jeremiah 3:6-14, Jeremiah 11:16-17, Jeremiah 17:1-2)
“For long ago I broke your yoke and tore off your restraints; but you said, ‘I will not serve!’ For on every high hill and under every leafy [ra’a’nan רַעֲנָ֔ן] tree you have lain down as a prostitute. Yet I planted you as a choice vine, a completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine? Although you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is before Me,” declares the Lord YHWH.
YHWH ached for His people to turn back to Him. He wanted nothing more for the people to leave their high hills and shiny trees and come to His holy mountain, but their hard hearts made it difficult:
Isaiah 57:3-5, 13
“But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute! Of whom do you make fun? Against whom do you open wide your mouth and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of deceit, who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every luxuriant [ra’a’nan רַעֲנָ֑ן] tree, who slaughter the children in the ravines, under the clefts of the rocks?
…“When you cry out, let your collection of idols save you. But the wind will carry them all up, and a breath will take them away. But the one who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land and possess My holy mountain.”
Through Ezekiel, YHWH announced that the wicked would not survive. They would be found lifeless under their flourishing trees:
Ezekiel 6:13
[YHWH:] “Then you will know that I am YHWH, when their dead are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every leafy tree [ra’a’nan רַֽעֲנָן֙] and under every massive oak with thick branches—the places where they offered a soothing aroma to all their idols.”
However, YHWH would not abandon His people. Those who turned back to Him would grow and flourish because YHWH was like the true life-giving tree. From YHWH comes our fruit:
Hosea 14:4-8
[YHWH:] I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, because My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will sprout, His majesty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine. His fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant [ra’a’nan רַֽעֲנָ֔ן] juniper; from Me comes your fruit.”
YHWH’s declaration in the Hosea scroll puts Him in the place of the great flourishing tree. Our reward comes from YHWH. He is the Life-Giver and the Garden-Maker.
YHWH’s Vibrant People Will Be Fruitful
From God comes our fruit. Symbolically, we, as YHWH’s people, ought to be vibrant, flourishing, and fruitful:
Psalm 92:12-14
The righteous person will sprout like the palm tree, he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of YHWH, they will bloom in the courtyards of our God. They will still yield fruit in advanced age; full and flourishing [w-ra’a’nannim וְרַֽעֲנַנִּ֣ים] they shall be.
David grabbed onto this metaphor and used it to describe himself:
Psalm 52:8-9
[David:] But as for me, I am like a green [flourishing/vibrant: ra’a’nan רַ֭עֲנָן] olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the faithfulness of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever, because You have done it, and I will wait on Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your godly ones.
As we have seen, the tree stood as a metaphor for the health of the people. This was a very popular and well-known metaphor in the ancient world. Yeshua commonly used these kinds of garden metaphors in his preaching and teaching.
When Yeshua curse the fig tree this metaphor was at the crux of his message:
Mark 11:12-14,
On the next day, when they had left Bethany, He became hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if perhaps He would find anything on it; and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening.
Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple grounds. And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written: ‘My House will be called a House of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” And the chief priests and the scribes heard this, and they began seeking how to put Him to death; for they were afraid of Him, because all the crowd was astonished at His teaching. And whenever evening came, they would leave the city.
As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. And being reminded, Peter said to Him, “Rabbi, look, the fig tree that You cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.”
This wasn’t about Yeshua being mean to a tree. He was pointing out that Israel was like a poisonous tree. When Yeshua said, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” He wanted to put an end to the crappy produce that Israel was selling. He then went into the Temple and overturned the tables filled with literal produce but tainted with greed and deception. In both situations Yeshua was making a statement: Israel was a spoiled, rotten, tree. Their roots were not tethered to their Creator. They were death-producers, not life-producers… and they would succumb to the curse they placed upon themselves:
Luke 6:43-45
[Jesus:] “For there is no good tree that bears bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree that bears good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”
The Flourishing Wicked will not Flourish Forever
The Biblical wisdom literature teaches us that the wicked will not flourish forever. Their empty existence will cast off it’s life and bear no fruit:
Job 15:31-33
[Eliphaz:] “Let him [the wicked] not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for his reward will be emptiness. It will be accomplished before his time, and his palm branch will not be green [ra’a’nanah רַעֲנָֽנָה]. He will drop off his unripe grape like the vine, and will cast off his flower like the olive tree.”
Lifelessness doesn’t belong in God’s Garden Kingdom and so the wicked, who bore no fruit, would disappear:
Psalm 37:35-38
[David:] I have seen a wicked, violent person spreading himself like a luxuriant [ra’a’nan רַעֲנָֽן] tree in its native soil. Then he passed away, and behold, he was no more; I searched for him, but he could not be found. Observe the blameless person, and look at the upright; for the person of peace will have a future. But wrongdoers will altogether be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be eliminated.
According to David, the wicked would be completely destroyed, eliminated, annihilated… nothing more would remain of them. Like a log in a blazing fire they will disappear into nothingness. Yeshua also stressed this point:
John 15:1-6
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself but must remain in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and dries up; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
The wicked will disappear, like ash in the wind, but the followers of YHWH, those connected to the vine, will flourish and grow and produce a generous crop. This is Kingdom living… a love-filled flourishing life.
And the good news is, the wicked have every chance to repent and become a revitalized flourishing tree. In the scroll of Daniel, the mighty Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, spoke about flourishing in his palace when suddenly he had a startling dream:
Daniel 4:4-5a
“I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing [w-ra’a’nan וְרַעְנַ֖ן] in my palace. I saw a dream and it startled me…”
The word “flourishing” was a hint that a tree was about to take the stage. In his dream Nebuchadnezzar saw a strong tree of great height that was visible to the whole world. It had beautiful leaves and abundant fruit but an angelic watcher came from the heavens and ordered the tree to be cut down to a stump. Concerned about the dream’s meaning, Nebuchadnezzar ordered his divination priests to find out what it meant. They were unable to deduce the dream and so Daniel was called in to be the interpreter. Daniel’s verdict: Nebuchadnezzar was the tree that would be cut down, but the roots were still in the ground. There was a chance to sprout again and be a good tree under the dominion of YHWH.
Daniel 4:26
[Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar:] And in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will remain as yours after you recognize that it is Heaven that rules.
Recognizing that YHWH reigns and heaven rules is essential to being a good “tree”. No matter how powerful we become in life, we must always remember we are the children of God, not gods ourselves.
God in High Garden Places
God has always met people where they were at. He knew that humans associated high garden places as being closer to the divine, so we should not be surprised when we read in the Hebrew Bible that God meets people on mountains with trees and bushes. Even Yeshua (Jesus) preached in the hills of Galilee, and the night before He was crucified, went up a mountain and into an olive garden to pray:
Luke 22:39-42
And He [Jesus] came out and went, as was His habit, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. Now when He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you do not come into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
It was immediately after this that Yeshua was betrayed by Judas and arrested by Jewish religious officials. YHWH’s beloved Son was apprehended on a garden mountain… arrested in sacred space. In this moment, humans were not the vibrant, flourishing beings they were meant to be. They were not garden-ready… as far from Eden as they could be.
- Judas betrayed his Rabbi (Matt 26:49-50, Mark 14:45, Luke 22:47-48, John 18:2)
- weapons were drawn and a sword struck another human being (Matt 26:51, Mark 14:47, Luke 22:50, John 18:10)
- the religious elite plotted evil in the darkness (Matt 26:55, Luke 22:50, John 18:3)
- the disciples abandoned Yeshua out of fear (Matt 26:56b, Mark 14:50)
- one follower of Jesus ran away, naked (Mark 14:51-52), much like Adam and Eve did when they felt shame, as a result of their disobedience in the Garden of Eden.
At that moment on the garden mountain, when Yeshua was arrested, these humans behaved like scared, lifeless, withering trees, bearing no fruit.
The actions of these men sent Yeshua to the hill of Golgotha where He was hung on a tree. It’s tragic, it’s poetic, it’s divine. Yeshua stopped flourishing (death) for a brief moment and then He came back as the Gardener (John 20:15) to help us live and grow and flourish as the children of YHWH.
Jeremiah 17:7-8
“Blessed is the man who trusts in YHWH, and whose trust is YHWH. For he will be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream, and does not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green [ra’a’nan רַֽעֲנָ֑ן], and it will not be anxious in a year of drought, nor cease to yield fruit.”
We were created to flourish, not to be weighed down by fear and anxiety. Trust in YHWH. He has a plan for each of us, and it’s all about getting us back to the Garden where He vibrantly waits for us with open arms.
Next week: HARD WORK
Hebrew Word Lessons 