For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers: The introductory marker For carries the same function as it does in verse 29, namely, to stress the point being made. “Indeed” or “Truly” renders it well. The pronoun you is second person plural.

The oak tree and the garden, which are metaphors in verse 29 for the rites that took place there, reappear in this verse without emphasis on their implied meaning. The prophet uses similes here. He compares Israel first to an oak tree whose leaves have dried and fallen. The tree stands bare and seemingly dead. It is a picture of what Israel will become after it has been punished. The singular word leaf refers to all the leaves on the tree; it is a collective noun. The verb withers describes the drying process, either at the time when the leaves fall from the tree before winter, or when the tree is old and is dying (see Good News Translation).

Like a garden without water carries the picture of apparent death further. A garden without water is dry and the plants are in danger of dying. The analogy is parallel to the one in the first line: like the oak tree, the garden also is a symbol of the people. They will be a like a garden that produces nothing because it is dry. Garden (unlike “gardens” in verse 29) may be rendered “vegetable garden” or “small farm” here.

Alternative models for this verse are:

• Indeed you will become like a withered oak tree,
like a dried out garden.

• Truly you will become like an oak tree whose leaves have dried,
like a garden dying for lack of water.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .