For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.
Parallel translations
- KJV For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
- BSB For you will become like an oak whose leaves are withered, like a garden without water.
- NKJV For you shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fades, And as a garden that has no water.
- NASB For you will be like an oak whose leaf withers away, Or like a garden that has no water.
- NLT You will be like a great tree with withered leaves, like a garden without water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They will become like a withering oak and a waterless garden. Those who trusted idols will share the lifelessness of what they worshiped.
Overview
In poetic reversal, the very gardens they prized become images of their own decay. Apart from God, the source of living water, they wither. This contrasts with the blessing of the one who trusts the LORD, pictured elsewhere as a well-watered tree (Jeremiah 17:8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 17:5–6Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
- Jer 31:12They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
- Ezek 17:9–10“Say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? Not by a strong arm or many people can it be raised from its roots.
- Matt 21:19Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, “Let there be no fruit from you forever!” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
- Ezek 17:24All the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish. I, Yahweh, have spoken and have done it.’”
- Isa 5:6I will lay it a wasteland. It won’t be pruned nor hoed, but it will grow briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
- Ezek 31:4–18The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.
- Isa 58:11and Yahweh will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters don’t fail.
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 1:30 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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