Zion as an enclosed garden

This post will focus on a connection between two Hebrew roots and some of the associated symbolism.

גָּנַן -- "ganan: to cover, surround, defend"

"Ganan" is a primitive root which appears 8 times in the Old Testament, typically in this context:

35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. (Isaiah 37)

גַּן -- "gan: an enclosure, garden"

"Gan" derives from "ganan" (according to BibleHub) and appears 42 times in the Old Testament. The connection seems pretty obvious -- an enclosed garden is covered, surrounded, and defended from outsiders in order to protect and preserve the precious things found inside it.


With that background and overview out of the way, let's look at how these roots are used and what we can learn from it.

1) "Gan" is the word used in the phrase "Garden of Eden." 

There is definite temple relevance in thinking of the garden of Eden as an enclosed garden that is covered and defended from outsiders to protect and preserve the precious things inside it.

2) The Lord is the master of the garden.  

This is made abundantly clear in numerous passages -- the Lord alone does the defending of His garden. Notice the language used to describe the covenant of obedience required by the Lord in Deuteronomy 11, and the blessings and curses associated with the covenant in verses 26-28:

11 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; ... 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.
8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— 14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
...
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. (Deuteronomy 11, NIV)

In this passage "gan" is actually found at the end of verse 10, describing a common vegetable garden in Egypt.  The Lord warns the people that the promised land where He is leading them is not like a common garden, it is "a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven," cared for by the Lord so long as the covenant is kept.

3) Zion as an enclosed garden

The concept of Zion as a walled city on a mountain that flourishes by rain from the heavens is beautiful and multi-layered.

This promise comes at the cost of accepting the terms of the covenant. In righteous times, Zion flourishes.  In times of corruption, the curses come into view.

When Israel departs from the covenant, they are destroyed.  In Lamentations we read about the sad demise of the covenant people, and the House of Israel is likened to a garden that is being dug up (again demarcating the use of the root "gan" in bold)

6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden;
    he has destroyed his place of meeting.
The Lord has made Zion forget
    her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths;
in his fierce anger he has spurned
    both king and priest.

7 The Lord has rejected his altar
    and abandoned his sanctuary.
He has given the walls of her palaces
    into the hands of the enemy;
they have raised a shout in the house of the Lord
    as on the day of an appointed festival. (Lamentations 2)

4) Isaiah uses this symbolism to describe the re-establishment of a covenant people

2 

2 look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. 3 The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. (Isaiah 51, see also 2 Nephi 8)