Cypress

Cypress in the Revised Version translates the Hebrew tirzah in Isaiah 44:14, where the word denotes the wood used by an idol-maker to carve a god and to warm himself at a fire. The King James Version renders it holm tree, and the identification with either the cypress or the holm oak (evergreen oak) is uncertain. Both are durable hardwoods available in the ancient Near East and suitable for the woodworking the passage describes.

Isaiah 44:13–17 is one of the most pointed satires of idolatry in the prophetic literature: the craftsman plants a cedar, a cypress, and an oak; uses part of the wood to warm himself and bake bread; and with the remainder makes a god and falls down before it, saying Deliver me; for thou art my god. The passage highlights the irrational character of idolatry — using the same material for fuel and for worship — as the paradigmatic example of what Hosea calls a deceived heart turning aside from reason and truth.