Trees and Kings

The Old Testament prophets did not hesitate to use the rhetorical conventions accessible to them when delivering their sermons of salvation and judgment. One source of comparison used frequently in the prophets and widely throughout the ancient Near East is the image of a tree. In Trees and Kings, William Osborne evaluates the cultural and cognitive setting that potentially gave rise to this figurative tree imagery, drawing on both comparative study with ancient Near Eastern tree imagery and the cognitive-linguistic approach to metaphor theory.

Osborne examines tree metaphors that appear in the texts of Israel's writing prophets, specifically Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He takes this material as largely reflective of the Israelite prophetic tradition from the 8th–6th centuries BC. Tree imagery in the Old Testament is certainly not limited to these prophetic books, and this study takes many of these texts into consideration in seeking to understand tree imagery in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel better. The question is rarely asked, why do the prophets often defer to the metaphorical use of the tree? The goal of this study is to answer this important question by comparing and contrasting tree metaphors in much of the prophetic literature of the Old Testament with tree imagery and metaphors encountered from the ancient Near East.

“Osborne’s study offers additional nuance to prior examinations of prophetic agricultural imagery, demonstrating that both ancient Israel and its surrounding cultures commonly utilized tree imagery in distinct ways that bear upon one’s understanding of the prophetic texts.”—Joseph W. Mueller, Religious Studies Review

William R. Osborne is Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological studies at College of the Ozarks.

List of Figures

Preface

Abbreviations

1. Background and MethodologyIntroduction

Prophetic Rhetoric

Methodological Considerations

Previous Research and the Present Study

Conclusion

2. Tree Imagery in the Ancient Near East: Egypt and MesopotamiaTrees in the Ancient Near East

Tree Imagery, Gods, and Kings in Ancient Egypt

Gods and Trees in Ancient Egypt

Trees, Temples, and Kings in Ancient Egypt

Tree Imagery, Gods, and Kings in Mesopotamia

3. Tree Imagery in the Ancient Near East: Syria-Palestine and the BibleTree Imagery in Syria-Palestine

Tree Metaphors and Imagery in and around the Biblical Text

Trees and the Righteous

Trees and Love Songs

Trees as Sacred Sites in Ancient Israel

Conclusion

4. Trees and Kings in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and EzekielIntroduction

Trees and Kings in Isaiah

Tree and Kings in Jeremiah

Trees and Kings in Ezekiel

Conclusion

5. Summary and ConclusionsSummary

Areas of Future Research

Appendix: A Catalog of Tree Imagery in the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

Bibliography