Ezekiel 47:12

47:12 On both sides of the river’s banks, every kind of tree will grow for food. Their leaves will not wither nor will their fruit fail, but they will bear fruit every month, because their water source flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” ¹ 

Leviticus 26:4

26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that ²  the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ³ 

Psalms 85:12

85:12 Yes, the Lord will bestow his good blessings, ⁴ 

and our land will yield ⁵  its crops.

Psalms 92:12-14

92:12 The godly ⁶  grow like a palm tree;

they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. ⁷ 

92:13 Planted in the Lord’s house,

they grow in the courts of our God.

92:14 They bear fruit even when they are old;

they are filled with vitality and have many leaves. ⁸ 

Isaiah 4:2

The Branch of the Lord

4:2 At that time ⁹ 

the crops given by the Lord will bring admiration and honor; ¹⁰ 

the produce of the land will be a source of pride and delight

to those who remain in Israel. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 35:1-2

The Land and Its People Are Transformed

35:1 Let the desert and dry region be happy; ¹² 

let the wilderness ¹³  rejoice and bloom like a lily!

35:2 Let it richly bloom; ¹⁴ 

let it rejoice and shout with delight! ¹⁵ 

It is given the grandeur ¹⁶  of Lebanon,

the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the grandeur of the Lord,

the splendor of our God.

Isaiah 61:3

61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,

by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,

oil symbolizing joy, ¹⁷  instead of mourning,

a garment symbolizing praise, ¹⁸  instead of discouragement. ¹⁹ 

They will be called oaks of righteousness, ²⁰ 

trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. ²¹ 

John 15:5-8

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ²²  in me – and I in him – bears ²³  much fruit, ²⁴  because apart from me you can accomplish ²⁵  nothing. 15:6 If anyone does not remain ²⁶  in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, ²⁷  and are burned up. ²⁸  15:7 If you remain ²⁹  in me and my words remain ³⁰  in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. ³¹  15:8 My Father is honored ³²  by this, that ³³  you bear ³⁴  much fruit and show that you are ³⁵  my disciples.

[47:12]  ¹ sn See Rev 22:1-2.

[26:4]  ² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:4]  ³ tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.

[85:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “what is good.”

[85:12]  ⁵ tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.

[92:12]  ⁶ tn The singular is used in a representative sense, with the typical godly person being in view.

[92:12]  ⁷ sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size.

[92:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “they are juicy and fresh.”

[4:2]  ⁹ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the vegetation of the Lord will become beauty and honor.” Many English versions understand the phrase צֶמַח יְהוָה (tsemakh yÿhvah) as a messianic reference and render it, “the Branch of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and others). Though צֶמַח (tsemakh) is used by later prophets of a royal descendant (Jer 23;5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12), those passages contain clear contextual indicators that a human ruler is in view and that the word is being used in a metaphorical way of offspring. However, in Isa 4:2 there are no such contextual indicators. To the contrary, in the parallel structure of the verse צֶמַח יְהוָה corresponds to “produce of the land,” a phrase that refers elsewhere exclusively to literal agricultural produce (see Num 13:20, 26; Deut 1:25). In the majority of its uses צֶמַח refers to literal crops or vegetation (in Ps 65:10 the Lord is the source of this vegetation). A reference to the Lord restoring crops would make excellent sense in Isa 4 and the prophets frequently included this theme in their visions of the future age (see Isa 30:23-24; 32:20; Jer 31:12; Ezek 34:26-29; and Amos 9:13-14).

[4:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the fruit of the land will become pride and beauty for the remnant of Israel.”

[35:1]  ¹² tn The final mem (ם) on the verb יְשֻׂשׂוּם (yÿsusum) is dittographic (note the initial mem on the following noun מִדְבָּר [midbar]). The ambiguous verbal form is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel). The jussive is used rhetorically here, not as a literal command or prayer.

[35:1]  ¹³ tn Or “Arabah” (NASB); NAB, NIV, TEV “desert.”

[35:2]  ¹⁴ tn The ambiguous verb form תִּפְרַח (tifrakh) is translated as a jussive because it is parallel to the jussive form תָגֵל (tagel).

[35:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and let it rejoice, yes [with] rejoicing and shouting.” גִּילַת (gilat) may be an archaic feminine nominal form (see GKC 421 §130.b).

[35:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “glory” (KJV, NIV, NRSV); also a second time later in this verse.

[61:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “oil of joy” (KJV, ASV); NASB, NIV, NRSV “the oil of gladness.”

[61:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “garment of praise.”

[61:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a faint spirit” (so NRSV); KJV, ASV “the spirit of heaviness”; NASB “a spirit of fainting.”

[61:3]  ²⁰ tn Rather than referring to the character of the people, צֶדֶק (tsedeq) may carry the nuance “vindication” here, suggesting that God’s restored people are a testimony to his justice. See v. 2, which alludes to the fact that God will take vengeance against the enemies of his people. Cf. NAB “oaks of justice.”

[61:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “a planting of the Lord to reveal splendor.”

[15:5]  ²² tn Or “resides.”

[15:5]  ²³ tn Or “yields.”

[15:5]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in him, this one bears much fruit.” The pronoun “this one” has been omitted from the translation because it is redundant according to contemporary English style.

[15:5]  ²⁵ tn Or “do.”

[15:6]  ²⁶ tn Or “reside.”

[15:6]  ²⁷ sn Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire. The author does not tell who it is who does the gathering and throwing into the fire. Although some claim that realized eschatology is so prevalent in the Fourth Gospel that no references to final eschatology appear at all, the fate of these branches seems to point to the opposite. The imagery is almost certainly that of eschatological judgment, and recalls some of the OT vine imagery which involves divine rejection and judgment of disobedient Israel (Ezek 15:4-6, 19:12).

[15:6]  ²⁸ tn Grk “they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”

[15:7]  ²⁹ tn Or “reside.”

[15:7]  ³⁰ tn Or “reside.”

[15:7]  ³¹ sn Once again Jesus promises the disciples ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. This recalls 14:13-14, where the disciples were promised that if they asked anything in Jesus’ name it would be done for them. The two thoughts are really quite similar, since here it is conditioned on the disciples’ remaining in Jesus and his words remaining in them. The first phrase relates to the genuineness of their relationship with Jesus. The second phrase relates to their obedience. When both of these qualifications are met, the disciples would in fact be asking in Jesus’ name and therefore according to his will.

[15:8]  ³² tn Grk “glorified.”

[15:8]  ³³ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause is best taken as substantival in apposition to ἐν τούτῳ (en toutw) at the beginning of the verse. The Father is glorified when the disciples bring forth abundant fruit. Just as Jesus has done the works which he has seen his Father doing (5:19-29) so also will his disciples.

[15:8]  ³⁴ tn Or “yield.”

[15:8]  ³⁵ tc Most mss (א A Ψ Ë¹³ 33 Ï) read the future indicative γενήσεσθε (genhsesqe; perhaps best rendered as “[and show that] you will become”), while some early and good witnesses (Ì^66vid B D L Θ 0250 1 565 al) have the aorist subjunctive γένησθε (genhsqe; “[and show that] you are”). The original reading is difficult to determine because the external evidence is fairly evenly divided. On the basis of the external evidence alone the first reading has some credibility because of א and 33, but it is not enough to overthrow the Alexandrian and Western witnesses for the aorist. Some who accept the future indicative see a consecutive (or resultative) sequence between φέρητε (ferhte) in the ἵνα (Jina) clause and γενήσεσθε, so that the disciples’ bearing much fruit results in their becoming disciples. This alleviates the problem of reading a future indicative within a ἵνα clause (a grammatical solecism that is virtually unattested in Attic Greek), although such infrequently occurs in the NT, particularly in the Apocalypse (cf. Gal 2:4; Rev 3:9; 6:4, 11; 8:3; 9:4, 5, 20; 13:12; 14:13; 22:14; even here, however, the Byzantine mss, with א occasionally by their side, almost always change the future indicative to an aorist subjunctive). It seems more likely, however, that the second verb (regardless of whether it is read as aorist or future) is to be understood as coordinate in meaning with the previous verb φέρητε (So M. Zerwick, Biblical Greek §342). Thus the two actions are really one and the same: Bearing fruit and being Jesus’ disciple are not two different actions, but a single action. The first is the outward sign or proof of the second – in bearing fruit the disciples show themselves to be disciples indeed (cf. 15:5). Thus the translation followed here is, “that you bear much fruit and show that you are my disciples.” As far as the textual reading is concerned, it appears somewhat preferable to accept the aorist subjunctive reading (γένησθε) on the basis of better external testimony.