Holm

The holm-tree is a hardwood evergreen oak named once in scripture, in Isaiah's satire on the woodworker who shapes an idol from the same timber he burns for warmth.

A Tree for the Idol-Maker

The holm-tree appears in Isaiah's catalogue of the trees a craftsman selects to fashion a god: "He cuts down cedars, and takes the holm-tree and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest: he plants a fir-tree, and the rain nourishes it" (Isa 44:14). The tree stands alongside cedar, oak, and fir as raw material — useful timber that the idolater treats as both fuel and divinity in the verses that follow. The holm itself is a hard, dense evergreen oak; its inclusion underscores how ordinary, even prized, the wood is before it is carved into a worthless image.