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Yahweh threatens to lop down the high boughs and tall trees of Israel (Isaiah 10:33-34). This could be simply the tree of Israel, or the self-exalted elites who oppress the weak. But a number of the terms have more or less direct connections with the temple. <\/p>\n
The trees that are \u201clifted up in stature,\u201d and \u201cstature translates a word that is mostly used to describe the \u201cheight\u201d of various objects in the tabernacle and temple. These trees will be \u201ccut down,\u201d and that is precisely what Israel was supposed to do to the images and idols that filled the land (Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:3). In hewing down these tall trees the Lord is hewing down idols, or an idolatrous temple. \u201cHaughty ones\u201d uses the root gabah <\/em> , the root also of gibeah <\/em> , high place. That these trees are in \u201cLebanon\u201d strengthens the connection, since most of the temple wood was cedar. <\/p>\n Isaiah 10:33-34 seems to envisage the same sort of temple devastation \u2013 by axe! \u2013 found in Psalm 74. Note \u201cthicket\u201d in Psalm 74:5 and Isaiah 10:34. And, as for good measure, note the \u201cram caught in the thicket\u201d in Genesis 22:13 \u2013 caught in a thicket on Moriah, the temple mount. <\/p>\n Isaiah is talking about the devastation of the land by the Assyrians, but the land is a temple-land, and the devastation of the thickets of the land foreshadows Babylon\u2019s later destruction of the thicket of the temple. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yahweh threatens to lop down the high boughs and tall trees of Israel (Isaiah 10:33-34). This could be simply the tree of Israel, or the self-exalted elites who oppress the weak. But a number of the terms have more or less direct connections with the temple. The trees that are \u201clifted up in stature,\u201d and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-ot-isaiah"],"yoast_head":"\n