For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

ISAIAH 1:30KJV
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Isaiah 1:30 (KJV)

What does Isaiah 1:30 mean?

Isaiah 1:30 warns that those who turn away from the Lord will lose their strength and come to ruin. The verse compares them to a tree losing its leaves and a garden deprived of the water it needs to live.

The Lord speaks through Isaiah to people in Judah and Jerusalem. After the mention of oaks and gardens in verse 29, Isaiah uses those same features to picture what will happen to the people themselves.

The Hebrew behind Isaiah 1:30

  • “oak” — אֵלָה (ʾelah): This word refers to a large tree, often understood as an oak or a terebinth. Its size makes the picture of fading leaves especially striking: even a substantial tree can show signs of decline.
  • “fadeth” — נָבֵל (navel): This word carries the sense of withering or losing freshness. The fading leaf shows decline in something that had been alive and green.

Why Isaiah 1:30 matters

  • The comparison is aimed at people, not merely at the places they chose. In verse 29, the people are ashamed of the oaks and gardens they desired; in verse 30, “ye shall be as” a fading tree and a dry garden.
  • The two images make the loss visible in different ways. The oak’s fading leaf shows decline, while the garden “that hath no water” points to the loss of what sustains its growth.
  • The warning belongs to a wider passage about people who have abandoned the Lord. Verse 28 connects their end with those “that forsake the Lord,” giving a reason for the warning in verse 30.

Where else these words appear

“oak” Hebrew H424 · used in 12 verses

  • Genesis 35:4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
  • 2 Samuel 18:9 And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
  • 1 Chronicles 10:12 They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.

“garden” Hebrew H1593 · used in 12 verses

  • Numbers 24:6 As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.
  • Isaiah 1:29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
  • Jeremiah 29:5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;

“leaf” Hebrew H5929 · used in 13 verses

  • Genesis 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
  • Job 13:25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
  • Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

“fadeth” Hebrew H5034 · used in 21 verses

  • Exodus 18:18 Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
  • Psalms 37:2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
  • Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.