9567. 'Their pomegranates and their branches shall be of one piece with it, all [shall be part] of it' means that the factual knowledge of good and the powers must spring from the Divine Spiritual, which comes from the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'pomegranates' as factual knowledge of good, dealt with in 9552; from the meaning of 'branches' as truths derived from good, and consequently powers, also dealt with above, in 9555, 9558; and from the meaning of the lampstand, which they 'shall be of one piece with', as the Divine Spiritual from the Lord in heaven and in the Church, dealt with in 9548. From these meanings it is evident that 'the pomegranates and the flowers shall be of one piece with the lampstand' means that the factual knowledge of good and the powers must spring from the Divine Spiritual, which comes from the Lord. What all this implies, see immediately below.

In general, trees represent the deepest and most significant intellectual concepts: the ones that come to us most directly from the Lord. This varies depending on us and our states: the people of the Most Ancient Church, who were in a state of loving the Lord, understood truth automatically and internally through what the Writings call "perception"; people in lower states (including most of us) have to work a little harder to learn it from the Word and by willing to follow the Lord. In other parts of the Bible, especially in the prophets and New Testament parables, the meaning of "tree" is broader, meaning not just a person's intellectual concepts but the whole person.

'Trees,' as in Joel 1:10-12, signify knowledges.