"For behold, thus saith the Lord, I will liken thee, O house of aIsrael, like unto a tame bolive tree, which a man took and nourished in his cvineyard; and it grew, and waxed old, and began to ddecay."
The olive tree is a wonderful symbol for the House of Israel. "One Jewish legend identifies the tree of life as the olive tree,3 and with good reason. The olive tree is an evergreen, not a deciduous tree. Its leaves do not seasonally fade nor fall. Through scorching heat and winter cold they are continually rejuvenated. Without cultivation the olive is a wild, unruly, easily corrupted tree. Only after long, patient cultivating, usually eight to ten years, does it begin to yield fruit. Long after that, new shoots often come forth from apparently dead roots. As one stands in the olive groves and is struck by the gnarled tree trunks that are at once ugly and beautiful, it is hard to avoid the impression of travail—of ancient life and renewing life. Today some trees, still productive on the Mount of Olives, are 1,800 years old, and perhaps older.4 The olive tree appears almost "immortal." http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=124&chapid=1465
see also: Book of Mormon Student Manual: Jacob 5
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