Verse 5
5. Upright as the palm tree Rather, as a palm tree of turned work, etc. The word rendered “palm tree,” occurs besides only in Judges 4:5, where it clearly has this meaning. But as in later Hebrew, (for example, Song of Solomon 3:6; Joel 2:30, and in the Talmud,) the root yields the sense of pillar. Keil would give it that sense in this place, and so translates, as a lathe-turned pillar, etc., that is, lifeless and motionless.
This verse is peculiar to Jeremiah. There is nothing answering to it in either of the kindred passages in Isaiah. The whole passage is grotesquely faithful, and the conclusion commends itself, They cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
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