Isaiah 1:29
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
Those who took delight in forbidden oaks and who selected gardens for self-indulgence will be brought to shame and to confusion over that choice. The oaks represent objects of unlawful desire, and the gardens represent places deliberately chosen for gratification rather than for innocent refreshment. The promised disgrace is not mere embarrassment but a confounded exposure of the folly of preferring forbidden pleasure to obedience.
The gardens in view are the pleasure grounds of the cities, made inviting with flowers and music, where intoxicating liquors are sold. Their attractiveness is a snare, drawing visitors toward drinking and revelry under the guise of beauty and entertainment. To choose such resorts is to choose the very setting of intemperance condemned by the verse.
That shame arrives together with the destruction of transgressors and of sinners, and with the consuming of those who forsake the Lord. Judgment falls alike on open rebellion and on abandonment of God, linking indulgence with apostasy. Its full fulfillment comes when the wicked become as a fading tree whose leaf withers and as a garden without water. Then the strong shall burn together with his work, and none shall quench the fire.