Isaiah 44:14

He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak,.... To make gods of, trees both pleasant and durable, but all unfruitful:

which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest; taking a great deal of pains in seeking out such trees as were most fit for his use, and a great deal of care in the growth of them, that they might answer his end, as well as exerting his strength in cutting of them down:

he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it; a tree that soon grows up, and which he plants for the purpose to make a god of; and this being watered and nourished with rain, which God vouchsafes, though designed for an idolatrous use, grows, and is fit for what it was intended; and being so, he cuts it down, and, makes an image of it; which shows his folly and madness, that a tree of his own planting, which he has seen the growth of, and yet be so sottish as to imagine that a god may be may be made of it. The word for "rain" signifies a body in the Syriac g language, as Kimchi observes, and for which he produces Daniel 4:33, and so Aben Ezra says it signifies in the Arabic language h; and the sense is, "the body" of the tree "grew up", and being grown up, was cut down, and used as follows.

g "corpus", Luke iii. 22. 2Cor. x. 10. Castel. Lex. Polyglott. col. 627. So in the Chaldee language. h So, according to Schindler, signifies a body, Lex. Pentaglott. col. 347, 348.