3734 — As the Days of a Tree
By Editor
Please explain what is meant by the tree mentioned in Isa. 66:17. J. M. In our Common Version it would seem to indicate that those who are doing these abominable things would hide behind trees. It probably has reference to trees that were set apart to a sacred use in heathen idolatries. The Revised Version does not contain the word "tree" in this text, and it will be noticed in the Common Version that "tree" is italicized, showing that it is not in the original. The Revised Version reads: "They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go unto the gardens, behind one in the midst"—the margin of which is "one tree," or "Asherah," that is, a sacred emblem worshiped by the idolaters of old, a symbol of nature-worship—"eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together, saith Jehovah." It is simply a reference to the old idolatrous feasts, showing that the same in principle will be in existence when the Lord comes.