Isaiah 1:29-31

A fragment on tree-worship, possibly late, but probably Isaiah's. It is an immemorial form of idolatry (p. 100), and persists to the present time. The prophet warns his hearers that they will be disappointed in the divine denizens of terebinths (mg.) and springs in the sacred gardens (cf. Isaiah 65:3; Isaiah 66:17). They will themselves fail like the terebinth, whose divine life fails with the fading leaf in autumn or the spring, no longer bubbling with divine energy, but scorched up by the heat. The parched terebinths and gardens are so inflammable that a spark sets them ablaze. Thus ripe for ruin are the strong; they are like tow, and their own work will be the spark that destroys them.