Date

The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) was one of the most valuable trees of ancient Palestine and the Near East, providing fruit, sap, leaves for thatching, and timber. The Hebrew word tamar means both the date palm tree and its fruit, and was also used as a personal name (Tamar, Genesis 38:6; 2 Samuel 13:1). Date palms are mentioned among the trees of the booths in the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:15; Leviticus 23:40) and are implied in Joel 1:12 among the trees afflicted by the locust plague. Jericho was proverbially known as the "city of palm trees" (Deuteronomy 34:3; 2 Chronicles 28:15). In the New Testament, the crowds spread palm branches before Jesus at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:13), and the redeemed in Revelation 7:9 stand with palm branches as a symbol of victory.