Save "Paradise: The King’s Orchard"
Paradise: The King’s Orchard

The word “paradise” is a Persian loanword into hebrew, and into english as well. The meaning seems consistent with a cultivated garden, a forest, or a park that’s walled off and reserved for the king’s personal enjoyment.

Though the word only appears three times in the biblical text, it is more widely used in later centuries, and we're also invited to think about the Garden in Eden as the paradise of a king.

Here are the ways we can understand “paradise” when it shows up in the biblical text:

• in Song of Songs 4:13 this garden being spoken about is walled off from others and for the king’s sole enjoyment

• in Ecclesiastes 2:5 the same Teacher who speaks about building these paradises also identifies himself as king in 1:12

• in Nehemiah 2:8 this paradise is identified explicitly in the text as “the paradise that is the king’s”

שְׁלָחַ֙יִךְ֙ פַּרְדֵּ֣ס רִמּוֹנִ֔ים עִ֖ם פְּרִ֣י מְגָדִ֑ים כְּפָרִ֖ים עִם־נְרָדִֽים׃

Your limbs are an orchard of pomegranates
And of all luscious fruits,
Of henna and of nard—

עָשִׂ֣יתִי לִ֔י גַּנּ֖וֹת וּפַרְדֵּסִ֑ים וְנָטַ֥עְתִּי בָהֶ֖ם עֵ֥ץ כׇּל־פֶּֽרִי׃
I made gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
וְאִגֶּ֡רֶת אֶל־אָסָף֩ שֹׁמֵ֨ר הַפַּרְדֵּ֜ס אֲשֶׁ֣ר לַמֶּ֗לֶךְ אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִתֶּן־לִ֣י עֵצִ֡ים לְ֠קָרוֹת אֶת־שַׁעֲרֵ֨י הַבִּירָ֤ה אֲשֶׁר־לַבַּ֙יִת֙ וּלְחוֹמַ֣ת הָעִ֔יר וְלַבַּ֖יִת אֲשֶׁר־אָב֣וֹא אֵלָ֑יו וַיִּתֶּן־לִ֣י הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ כְּיַד־אֱלֹהַ֖י הַטּוֹבָ֥ה עָלָֽי׃
and a letter to Asaf the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
פַּרְדֵּס m. (b. h.; v. Ges. Hebr. Dict.10 s. v.) enclosure, park, pleasure garden. Tosef. Bets. I, 10 החיה שקינתה בפ׳ game which nests in a park. Sot. 10ᵃ (ref. to אשל, Gen. XXI, 33) עשה פ׳ ונטע וכ׳ he made a garden and planted therein &c.; Gen. R. s. 54; a. e.—Trnsf. enclosure in heaven, esoteric philosophy. Ḥag. 14ᵇ ארבעה נכנסו לפ׳ וכ׳ four men entered the enclosure (engaged in esoteric philosophy), one cast a look and died &c.; Tosef. ib. II, 3; Y. ib. II, 77ᵇ top.—Pl. פַּרְדֵּסוֹת, פַּרְדֵּי׳. Arakh. III, 2 (14ᵃ) פ׳ סבסטי the pleasure gardens of Sebaste, v. חוֹלַת; Tosef. ib. II, 8. Pes. 56ᵃ פורצין ובפַרְדְּסוֹתֵיהֶן … (some ed. ובפַרְדְּסֵיהֶן) made openings in their gardens and orchards; Men. 71ᵃ; Tosef. Pes. II (III), 21; a. e.
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