Used (as it is still by the modern Jews) on the return from Babylon to adorn booths for the feast of tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:15). It then grew on the hills about Jerusalem and Olivet, where now there are only the olive and the fig tree. Hereafter about to grow in what was a wilderness (Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 4:18). The myrtle in Zechariah 1:8; Zechariah 1:10-11, symbolizes the Jewish church, not a stately cedar but a lowly though fragrant myrtle. Its depression made the Jews despond; the Angel of Jehovah standing (as in His abiding place, Psalm 132:14) among the myrtles guarantees her safety, lowly though she be. The myrtle was probably imported into Israel from Babylon in the time of Isaiah who first mentions it. It is a native of Persia. Esther received her name Hadassah, "the myrtle," in the Persian court (Esther 2:7). In Samaria and Galilee on the banks of rivers it still abounds. Its starry blossoms amidst dark and odorous leaves, and flexible branches, furnish a beautiful garland, so that in Greece it was held sacred to Venus the goddess of beauty.