The MYRTLE — a low, fragrant, evergreen shrub. Its branches are among the 'boughs of leafy trees' waved at the Feast of Booths (Nehemiah 8:15), and it is the plant behind a famous name: Esther's Hebrew name is HADASSAH, 'myrtle.' In Zechariah's first vision the divine horseman-patrol stands 'among the myrtle trees that were in the ravine' (1:8) — Israel pictured as something small, sweet-smelling, and in the shade, with heaven's cavalry planted right in its midst. Isaiah makes the myrtle a sign of the reversed curse: 'instead of the brier, the myrtle' (55:13). → first discussed at Zechariah 1:8