עֵץ

…and that they should proclaim this message and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness.

We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law.

We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the LORD year by year.

Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where we labor.

I also arranged for contributions of wood at the appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, with favor.

After the report had been investigated and verified, both officials were hanged on the gallows. And all this was recorded in the Book of the Chronicles in the presence of the king.

His wife Zeresh and all his friends told him, “Have them build a gallows fifty cubits high, and ask the king in the morning to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then go to the banquet with the king and enjoy yourself.” The advice pleased Haman, and he had the gallows constructed.

“Who is in the court?” the king asked. Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to ask the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows he had prepared for him.

Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs attending the king, said: “There is a gallows fifty cubits high at Haman’s house. He had it built for Mordecai, who gave the report that saved the king.” “Hang him on it!” declared the king.

So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

So King Xerxes said to Esther the Queen and Mordecai the Jew, “Behold, I have given Haman’s estate to Esther, and he was hanged on the gallows because he attacked the Jews.

Esther replied, “If it pleases the king, may the Jews in Susa also have tomorrow to carry out today’s edict, and may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.

He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.

He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

…like men wielding axes in a thicket of trees

Let the fields exult, and all that is in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy

The trees of the LORD have their fill, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted,

He struck their vines and fig trees and shattered the trees of their country.

…mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,

She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who lay hold of her are blessed.

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.

Without wood, a fire goes out; without gossip, a conflict ceases.

Like charcoal for embers and wood for fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

I made gardens and parks for myself, where I planted all kinds of fruit trees.

I built reservoirs to water my groves of flourishing trees.

The one who quarries stones may be injured by them, and he who splits logs endangers himself.

If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain upon the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my beloved among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

King Solomon has made his carriage out of the timber of Lebanon.

…with nard and saffron, with calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of frankincense tree, with myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.

When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!

The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them.

For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.

One lacking such an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He seeks a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.

I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,

The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.

He cuts down cedars or retrieves a cypress or oak. He lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a laurel, and the rain makes it grow.

And no one considers in his heart, no one has the knowledge or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, and I baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make something detestable with the rest of it? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and revealed His glory in Israel.