Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
In chapter 4 the King has just called His bride a locked garden, and now He walks through it naming what grows inside. Two questions follow: whose garden is this, and what is He looking for in it?
"Orchard" — a walled paradise
The word translated "orchard" is where our word "paradise" comes from. But writers warn against reading the heavenly paradise into it.
Plumstead ConferenceIn the Old Testament the Hebrew word is probably a Persian word which normally does not mean paradise, but our word "paradise" comes from it… It is also the same word in Ecclesiastes 2:5 and Song of Solomon 4:13, but we should not apply any of these to the paradise of which we are speaking here.
Three pictures: garden, orchard, fountain
The King uses three pictures here. Each one says something the others do not.
Andrew MillerThe bride of the Lord is compared here to a "garden," an "orchard," and "a fountain." She is so filled with all that is pleasant and fruitful to Him — the graces of the Holy Spirit in her are so varied — that there is abundance for the heart of her Lord… The "garden" may be known for its choice collection of flowers, scented shrubs and all kinds of pleasant plants. The "orchard" is known for every sort of tree bearing precious fruit. The "fountain" is what waters the whole scene.
Whose plants?
Where the ESV has "shoots", older translations read "plants". One writer traces those plants from Israel to the Church, and then down to the single believer.
W. W. FeredayIsrael was God's cultivated garden in the earlier age. The Church is His cultivated garden now. So the apostle writes in 1 Cor. 3:9, "You are God's field." Individual saints are His plants, tenderly cared for with infinite wisdom and love.
Fruit: the character of Christ reproduced
The fruit has a source. It comes from the spring and the sealed fountain named in the verse before.
Hamilton SmithThe "spring" and the "fountain" will turn the garden of the Lord into a fruitful garden — "a paradise of pomegranates with precious fruits". The Spirit, when He is not grieved, will produce in our hearts "the fruit of the Spirit". The Apostle tells us this fruit "is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal. 5:22). And what are these precious fruits of the Spirit? They are the character of Christ reproduced in the believer.
Spices: the fragrance of worship
The verse does not stop at fruit. It turns to henna and nard — and the shift of image marks a shift in what the heart is doing.
Hamilton SmithIn Scripture, fruit speaks of the excellencies of Christ, but the spices, with their fragrance, speak of worship that has Christ for its object. In worship there is no thought of receiving blessing from Christ. The thought is of bringing the homage of our hearts to Christ… Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with "a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard". On other occasions she was at His feet as a receiver, to get instruction or to find sympathy in her sorrow. This time she was there as a giver, bringing the worship of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness.
A garden of many kinds
A garden is not a row of identical plants.
Hamilton SmithThe plants may vary in size and beauty, in fragrance and fruitfulness, but all are for the delight of the King. And so in the garden of the Lord; no two saints are alike, but all minister to His delight.
Knowing what we are to Him
This list is Christ's own estimate of His people. Taking it in changes where the believer's eyes rest.
The Christian's FriendThis is how Christ values "His own," and we should carry the sense of all this in our souls — the sense of what He sees His people to be. If we carried in our souls more the thought of what we are to Christ, He would be more to us. The eye would then be more off ourselves, and off one another.
Summary
- Paradise. Our word "paradise" comes from the word translated "orchard" here. Writers still warn that this garden is not the heavenly paradise.
- Watered. The spring and sealed fountain make this garden fruitful. The supply is inside the garden, not carried in from outside.
- Fruit. The precious fruits are the fruit of the Spirit — the character of Christ reproduced in the believer.
- Fragrance. Fruit speaks of Christ's excellencies received. The spices speak of worship given back, like Mary's nard poured out.
- Valued. No two plants in this garden match, yet every one is grown for the King's delight. Knowing what we are to Him takes our eyes off ourselves and off each other.