For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
Parallel translations
- WEB For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has 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 17:5–6Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
- Jer 31:12Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for 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 17:9–10Say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof.
- Matt 21:19And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.
- Ezek 17:24And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD 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 the LORD have spoken and have done it.
- Isa 5:6And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
- Ezek 31:4–18The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
- Isa 58:11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
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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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