Isaiah 1:30

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

Ye shall be as an oak - ye shall be like the "oaks," the object of your "desire" (). People become like the gods they worship: they never rise above, their level (). So men's sins become their own scourges ().

Whose leaf fadeth. Contrast as to the elect remnant which 'shall survive. The leaf of the idoloak fades by a law of necessary consequence, having no living sap or "water" from God.

And as a garden that hath no water. Righteous retribution in kind is marked by the fact that "garden" answers to "gardens" ().