Ecclesiastes 12:5

Cities and their bloodstained leaders will wait for punishment from above. A most bitter and bloody time will arise like a blossoming almond tree, continuous punishments will be imposed like a swarm of flying locusts, and lawbreakers will be thrown out of the way like a black and contemptible caper plant. The good person will enter into his eternal home with rejoicing, but the bad people will fill all their homes with mourning.

Those who have dealt with the world of plants say the following about the almond: Among all the plants it grows leaves in springtime and sheds them not before all the other trees have gotten bare; it is very durable.This is why it is said about the "priestly rod" that it was of almond wood. It did not last a short time; from Moses until the coming of the Savior it was a visible sign.… This is what we think: Even if there are plants from other teachings, they bloom later, that is, after the true teaching, and cease before it; they vanish when it appears. This rod, therefore, has extinguished the other rods, those of the false apostles, and of the false prophets.… The sentence "the almond blooms" can be understood in a moral sense. The almond has two layers around the edible kernel: something hard that has to be cracked and something bitter, that is, the outer shell. The outer shell can be seen as the body, since it is bitter, tending to the sensual. The hard part, however, is the soul, since it is strong and big. The edible in the kernel is the spirit. When the sentence of the apostle comes to fruition—"May the God of peace sanctify you, perfect your spirit, your soul, and your body"—then the almond blooms. In its blooming it envelops all the three. The human being blooms, when it progresses in virtue, when it transforms its body so that it imitates the body of Christ.

"Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way. "That is, they will not be able to enter on difficult tasks and with tired knees and frightened footsteps, will not be able to go out in the open, and will fear the offence of steps." And the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets. "The speech now explains the limbs of a man of the Church through a metaphor. And when old-age comes his hair will grow white, his feet will swell, his lust will grow cold and he will be destroyed by death. Then he will be returned to the earth, and then in the house of his eternity you will remember his tomb and his ashes with reverence, and a crowd will walk before the mourners at his funeral. But the flower of the almond-tree, which we have in place of grey hairs, some interpret as the sacred thorn, because, while the flesh of the buttocks decreases, the thorn grows and flowers. More precisely, in that verse which says, "the grasshopper will be a burden", you must note that where we have in our manuscripts 'grasshopper', the Hebrew has "aagab", which is rather ambiguous for us. For it can be translated as 'heel' or as 'grasshopper'. Just as for example in the beginning of Jeremiah, the word "soced" if the accent is changed can mean 'a nut' or 'wakefulness'. And this is said to him: "what do you see, Jeremiah?" and he replies, "a nut". [Ier. 1, 11.] And the Lord says to him, "you have seen well, for I will wake over my work so that I might complete it." [Ier. 1, 12.] Or that explanation: it also has the etymology of the word 'nut', because God is about to keep awake. And what the people has deserved it will be given, is what the text seems to say. Thus now he shows the ambiguity of the word through its etymology, showing that the legs of old men swell up and that gout weighs upon the organs. This does not happen to all men, but to most, and this is "synecdoche" where a part is called by the name of the whole. Indeed where we read 'desire' the Hebrew has "abiona. "This in itself has many meanings, and is interpreted as 'love', 'lust', 'longing', or 'desire'. And it has the meaning, as I have said above, that the lust of an old man grows cold, and the organs of intercourse sag. But this is said because these words are…