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[I] wish you may possess health and spirits to enjoy, after we shall have seated ourselves under our own Vines and Figtrees, if it is the gracious will of Providence to permit it, the return of many happy years.
-George Washington to John Armstrong, 10 January 1783(1)
George Washington, like most gentlemen of his time and social standing, was well acquainted with the eloquent prose of the English Bible and often alluded to it in his writings. No biblical passage is referenced more frequently in his voluminous papers than the ancient Hebrew blessing and prophetic vision of the New Jerusalem in which every man sits safely "under his vine and under his fig tree" (Micah 4:4).2 This was the great Virginian's favorite scriptural phrase.3 The image of reposing under one's own vine and fig tree vividly captures the agrarian ideals of simplicity, contentment, domestic tranquility, and self-sufficiency.
A preliminary survey of Washington's papers reveals that he quoted this phrase on nearly four dozen occasions during the last half of his life. Most, but not all, references were made in private missives, anticipating a retirement to Mount Vernon, his beloved home on the south bank of the Potomac River. Washington, it should be noted, was not alone among his contemporaries in his attraction to this Hebrew blessing.4 Even Martha Washington borrowed the phrase in her correspondence.5
The image of a man dwelling under a vine and fig tree appears three times in the Old Testament (Micah 4:4; I Kings 4:25; Zechariah 3:10) and once in the Apocrypha (I Maccabees 14:12). Although Washington was almost certainly familiar with all these verses, the phraseology he used referencing the motif accords most closely with Micah 4:4. Given that he provided no biblical citation for his many uses of the motif, can one be sure that Washington had Micah 4:4 in mind and not one of the other texts? Washington occasionally followed mention of the vine and fig tree with language to the effect that "none shall make them afraid." This phrase follows immediately the vine and fig tree motif in the book of Micah but not in the other Old Testament passages, leading one to conclude that Washington was referencing Micah 4:4 (although language similar to Micah 4...