Olive Olive-Tree

Olive Olive-Tree

Olive, Olive-Tree. 1 Kings 6:23. The olive, olea Europæa. It grows plentifully almost everywhere near the shores of the Mediterranean, and is abundant in Palestine. Deuteronomy 6:11; Deuteronomy 8:8. Olive yards are therefore commonly mentioned as a considerable part of a man's property. 1 Samuel 8:14; 1 Chronicles 27:28. This tree flourishes in Syria, in warm and sunny situations, on a rocky soil, at a height not greater than about 3000 feet above the level of the sea. It increases slowly to a moderate altitude of twenty or thirty feet, with a knotty trunk, and numerous extended branches. The leaves grow in pairs, of a pale dusty color, and are not deciduous. The white flowers appear in June; and the fruit is an oblong berry, first green, and, when fully ripe, a blackish-purple. The wood is something like box, but softer, with dark gray veins. The olive tree lives to a great age. With an olive leaf in her mouth the dove returned to Noah when the waters of the flood were abated. Genesis 8:11. The high estimation in which the olive tree was held is seen by its being placed first in Jotham's parable. Judges 9:8-9. And it is often mentioned as indicating plenty, prosperity, and strength; the allusion taking its force from the products, from the evergreen character, and the protracted existence of the tree, e.g., Psalms 52:8, an olive being often planted in the court of a building, Psalms 128:3, young shoots springing, from an old trunk; Jeremiah 11:16; Hosea 14:6. And various applications of the berries are referred to, Deuteronomy 24:20, the oil, Leviticus 24:2, which was an article of commerce, 1 Kings 5:11, and the wood, 6:31-33.