They shall not build, and another inhabit,.... As the Canaanites did, whose houses the Israelites inhabited; but they shall inhabit the houses they have built, and shall not be dispossessed by an enemy:they shall not plant, and another eat; the fruit of the vines, olives, fig trees, or others, planted by them:for as the days of a tree are the days of my people; not as of a leaf which falls every year, but as of a tree, and as of such that last long, as oaks, cedars, and the like; though perhaps a tree bearing fruit fit to eat is meant; and the sense be, that the Lord's people should live as long as the trees planted by them, and so should eat the fruit thereof, and not leave them to others to partake of.
The Targum, Septuagint, and Arabic versions, render it,"as the days of the tree of life;''which, some of the Rabbins say, were five hundred years. The allusion may be to the tree of life in paradise, and may be expressive of the long life of good men in this state; and as the tree of life was typical of Christ, who is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon him, it may denote that eternal life his people have by him.
And mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands; what they have built and planted; they shall live long in their houses, and for many years partake of the fruit of their vineyards.