Apple

Apples in the Bible sit mostly in poems about love and in sayings about kind words. Proverbs 25:11 says “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver”, a picture of something that is lovely because it is given at the right moment. In the Song of Solomon the beloved is “as the apple tree among the trees of the wood”, sweet fruit under a welcome shadow. Joel 1:12 turns the tree into a sign of loss, with the apple tree withered and joy withered with it. The KJV’s word may have meant a fruit other than the one we know, so let the poetry carry the meaning.

6 verses

Proverbs

Proverbs 25:11

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon 2:3

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

Song of Solomon 2:5

Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

Song of Solomon 7:8

I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;

Song of Solomon 8:5

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.

Joel

Joel 1:12

The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

(Heb. tappuah, meaning “fragrance”). Probably the apricot or quince is intended by the word, as Palestine was too hot for the growth of apples proper. It is enumerated among the most valuable trees of Palestine (Joel 1:12), and frequently referred to in Canticles, and noted for its beauty (2:3, 5; 8:5). There is nothing to show that it was the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Dr. Tristram has suggested that the apricot has better claims than any other fruit-tree to be the apple of Scripture. It grows to a height of 30 feet, has a roundish mass of glossy leaves, and bears an orange coloured fruit that gives out a delicious perfume. The “apple of the eye” is the Heb. ishon, meaning manikin, i.e., the pupil of the eye (Prov. 7:2). (Comp. the promise, Zech. 2:8; the prayer, Ps. 17:8; and its fulfilment, Deut. 32:10.)

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The so-called “apple of Sodom” some have supposed to be the Solanum sanctum (Heb. hedek), rendered “brier” (q.v.) in Micah 7:4, a thorny plant bearing fruit like the potato-apple. This shrub abounds in the Jordan valley. (See ENGEDI.)