ASH

1. The name of a tree (Heb., tidh·harʹ) that occurs twice in the Hebrew Scriptures, at Isaiah 41:19 and 60:13. In the first text it is included among trees such as the juniper and cypress, which are to flourish in the desert plain under foretold paradisaic conditions, and in the latter text it is included among the same trees as part of the “glory of Lebanon.” The identification of this tree is conjectural, but there is some evidence that favors the ash tree.​—See Theologische Literaturzeitung, Leipzig, 1926, p. 216.

Two varieties of ash, Fraxinus ornus and Fraxinus oxycarpa, are found along rivers and streams in the mountains of Lebanon and the upper extremity of Palestine, though not throughout Palestine generally. This tree qualifies as part of the “glory of Lebanon,” for it is a large tree growing up to 15 m (50 ft) high. It has light-green foliage and ash-colored branchlets. Although of the same family botanically as the olive, the ash differs from the olive in that it sheds its leaves each fall.

2. See ASH CONSTELLATION.