the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Cluster
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or We meet with this word upon many occasions in Scripture, but eminently so in two places. First, when the spies went up to search the promised land, and brought back the cluster of the rich fruit of Eshcol, (Numbers 13:23) And again, the church, in the book of the Songs, (Song of Song of Solomon 1:14) where she commends her beloved, under the sweet similitude of the same, "My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi." I conceive, that the beauties of the comparison in both instances are well worth attending to, in a work of this kind, and, therefore, I take for granted, that the reader will not be displeased in my detaining him on the occasion.
Nothing could be more happily chosen in both instances, when intended, as in the first, to set forth the fulness, and sweetness, and blessedness of the promised land than a cluster of its fruits. Christ, who is himself the glorious object intended to be set forth, is, indeed, a rich cluster of all divine and human excellencies in one, full of grace for his people here, and full of glory to all above. An ancient author tells us, that the Jews were accustomed to call such men as excelled in good qualities, Eshcoloth; that is, clusters. And hence they had a saying, that after the death of Jose Ben Joezen, a man of Tzereda, and Jose Ben Jochanan, a man of Jerusalem, the clusters ceased.
In the other instance, in direct allusion to Christ, in the church's commendation of him, (Song of Song of Solomon 1:14) there in an uncommon degree of beauty in the similitude. The word camphire is in the original, copher, and in the Misnah is translated, cyprus. And Dr. Shaw, in his travels, describes the plant as being very beautiful and fragrant, advancing in height to ten or twelve feet, and full of clusters. Here also, as in the former instance, Christ is elegantly set forth. For as the grapes of Eshcol represented the fulness of Christ, and the blood of the grape became no unapt resemblance of Him who trod the wine press of the wrath of God, and whose blood, in cleansing the sinner, revives the soul in the assurance of pardon, mercy, and peace, by his cross, so the cypress, or the camphire, in the fragrancy of its clusters, becomes no less typical of His incense and merits, in whose righteousness alone the church is accepted. I must not dismiss this view of the subject before that I have farther remarked, that the word, translated camphire, is by some rendered (copher) atonement. The learned Bishop Patrick hath observed, that the Hebrew Doctors, by dividing the word Eshcol into two words, found out the mystery of the Messiah in the passage, and read them thus, my beloved is unto me the Esh, that is, the man; Col, copher; that is, a cluster of atonement. I leave the reader to his own observation upon the subject, with only remarking, that on the supposition the Hebrew Doctors were right, what a lovely Scripture this is in the Songs, (Song of Song of Solomon 1:14) when the church so sings of Christ. Surely, Jesus is all this, and infinitely more. Jesus calls himself the vine, (John 15:1) and the church saith that his growth is in the vineyards of Engedi, the richest soil of all the earth, where not only the finest grapes, but the loftiest palm trees abounded, even Hazazon-lamar. See (2 Chronicles 20:2) In Jesus dwelleth "all the fulness of the GODHEAD bodily." He is, indeed, a cluster of all that is desirable "in the life that now is, and that which is to come."
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Cluster'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/c/cluster.html. London. 1828.
