Article February 6, 1943 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in these columns can be used, if deemed necessary, to elucidate some of the words or passages contained in the Bible Lessons. The Notes in this issue are related to the Lesson-Sermon designated to be read in Christian Science churches on February 21, 1943.]

"The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing" (Isa. 55:12)—There is general agreement among scholars that when these words were written the people of Israel were in exile in Babylon, a flat, alluvial plain in the vicinity of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The prophet appears to foresee their speedy release from bondage, and their glad return to "the mountains and the hills" of Palestine from which they came.

"Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come in the myrtle tree" (Isa. 55:13)—Often in the book of Isaiah and sometimes in other prophetic books, "briers and thorns" are referred to as symbols of desolation or of opposition, being of little if any value for constructive purposes. On the other hand, fir boards were used in constructing the temple (Isa. 60:13) and in shipbuilding (Ezek. 27:5); while myrtle boughs were used in making the "booths" used in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles (compare Neh. 8:15).

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