And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
By the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat. Instead of the "vine of Sodom and grapes of Gomorrah" ( Deuteronomy 32:32), nauseous and unwholesome, trees of life-giving and life-restoring virtue shall bloom, similar in properties to, and exceeding in number, the tree of life in Eden (Revelation 2:7 ; Revelation 22:2 ; Revelation 22:14 ).
Whose leaf shall not fade - expressing not only the unfailing character of the heavenly medicine of the tree of life, but also that the graces of the believer (as a tree of righteousness), which are the leaves, and his deeds, which are the fruits that flow from those graces, are immortal ( Psalms 1:3; Jeremiah 17:8; Matthew 10:42; 1 Corinthians 15:58 ).
It shall bring forth new fruit - literally, firstlings, or first-fruit. They are still, each mouth, afresh, as it were, yielding their first-fruit (Fairbairn). It shall have fresh and ripe fruit in all seasons: literally, early ripe fruit [yªbakeer ( H1069)]. The first-born of a thing, in Hebrew idiom, means the chiefest. As Job 18:13, "the first-born of death" - i:e., the most fatal death.
Because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary - `because the waters thereof (namely, that watered the trees) issued forth from the sanctuary' (Henderson).