'Roots' in the Bible
then I will uproot Israel from My land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have consecrated for My Name, out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all nations.
“His [godless] roots are wrapped around a pile of rocks,And he gazes at a house of stones.
“The roots [of the wicked] are dried up below,And above, his branch is cut off and withers.
“Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert,The poor go to their work, diligently seeking food;As bread for their children in the desert.
“Man puts his hand on [and tears apart] the flinty rock;He overturns the mountains at the base [looking for treasure].
“They pluck [and eat] saltwort (mallows) among the bushes,And their food is the root of the broom shrub.
“Behold, He spreads His lightning around Him [against the dark clouds],And He covers the depths of the sea.
Then a Shoot (the Messiah) will spring from the stock of Jesse [David’s father],And a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.
“For he will be [nourished] like a tree planted by the waters,That spreads out its roots by the river;And will not fear the heat when it comes;But its leaves will be green and moist.And it will not be anxious and concerned in a year of droughtNor stop bearing fruit.
Then it sprouted and grew and became a low, spreading vine whose branches turned [in submission] toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and yielded shoots and sent out branches.
“There was [also] another great eagle with great wings and many feathers; and behold, this vine (Zedekiah) bent its roots toward him and sent out its branches toward him, away from the beds where it was planted, for him to water.
Thus says the Lord God, ‘Ask, “Will it thrive? Will he (Nebuchadnezzar) not uproot it and strip off its fruit so that all its sprouting leaves will wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to uproot it [ending Israel’s national existence].
“Nevertheless leave the stump with its roots in the ground,Bound with a band of iron and bronzeIn the new grass of the field;And let him be wet with the dew of heaven,And let him feed with the animals in the grass of the earth.
In that the king saw an angelic watcher, a holy one, descending from heaven and saying, “Cut the tree down and destroy it; but leave the stump with its roots in the earth, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him feed with the beasts of the field until seven periods of time pass over him,”
And in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree [in the earth], your kingdom shall be restored to you after you recognize (understand fully) that Heaven rules.
While I was considering the horns, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, and three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots before it; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth boasting of great things.
But out of a branch of her [familial] roots will one (her brother, Ptolemy III Euergetes I) arise in his place, and he will come against the [Syrian] army and enter the fortress of the king of the North, and he will deal with them and will prevail.
I shall be like the dew to Israel;He will blossom like the lily,And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
“Yet it was I [not the false gods] who destroyed the Amorite before them,Though his height was like the height of the cedars,And he was as strong as the oaks;I even destroyed his fruit above and his root below.
“I descended to the [very] roots of the mountains.The earth with its bars closed behind me [bolting me in] forever,Yet You have brought up my life from the pit (death), O Lord my God.