¹And the word of the Lord came to me and said, ²“Son of Adam, propound a riddle, and tell the house of Israel a parable, ³and say, ‘This is what my Lord the Lord says:

«The great eagle, with large wings, with long flight-feathers,

With full plumage, which has various colours,

Has gone to Lebanon

And has taken the top of the cedar tree.

⁴He has plucked its topmost shoots off

And brought it all to the land of the merchant

And placed it in a city of traders.

⁵He took some of the seed of the land

And put it in a field ready to be sown.

He took it to a water-rich place

And set it out like willow trees.

⁶And it grew and became a vine

Which spread out at low height,

And it turned its branches towards him,

And its roots were under him.

So it became a vine,

And it produced tendrils and sent out shoots.

⁷And there was another great eagle,

With large wings and copious plumage,

And look, this vine stretched its roots hungrily towards him

And sent its branches from the terrace on which it was planted

To him for him to water it.

⁸It was planted in a good field,

With much water,

To produce branches and to bear fruit,

To become a magnificent vine.» ’

⁹Say, ‘This is what my Lord the Lord says:

«Will it thrive?

Will he not uproot it

And cut its fruit off

So that it withers?

All the foliage of its growth will wither,

But not by a powerful arm,

Or by a mighty people coming to pluck it up by its roots.

¹⁰So look, will it, having been planted, thrive?

When the east wind hits it,

Will it not completely wither?

It will wither on the terraces

Where it is cultivated.» ’ ”

¹¹And the word of the Lord came to me and said, ¹²“Please say to the rebellious house, ‘Do you not know what these things represent?’ Say, ‘Look, the king of Babylon has come to Jerusalem, and he has captured its king and its officials, and he has brought them to his place in Babylon. ¹³And he has taken some of the royal seed and has made a covenant with him and has made him take an oath, and he has taken the high-ranking people of the land ¹⁴so that the kingdom might be lowly, so that it should not exalt itself, so that it should keep his covenant, for it to stand. ¹⁵But he rebelled against him by sending his envoys to Egypt, asking Pharaoh to give him horses and a large body of men. Will he who does these things either be successful or escape? Or if he breaks the covenant, will he escape? ¹⁶As I live, says my Lord the Lord, he will certainly die in the location of the king who made him king, because he despised his oath and because he broke his covenant. He will die with him in the precincts of Babylon. ¹⁷And Pharaoh will not attend to him with a large army or a vast contingent in war, in casting up ramparts or in building a wall of circumvallation or in cutting down many people. ¹⁸Since he has despised the oath in breaking the covenant, and he has made an agreement and done all these things, he will not escape. ¹⁹Therefore this is what my Lord the Lord says: «As I live, it is certainly my oath which he has despised, and my covenant which he has broken, and I will requite it on his head. ²⁰And I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my netting, and I will bring him to Babylon, and I will contend with him there for his perversity with which he has acted towards me. ²¹And all his men who flee in all his governmental departments will fall by the sword, and those who remain will be scattered to every wind, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.» ²²This is what my Lord the Lord says: «So I for my part will take a piece of the top of the tall cedar tree and set it; I will pluck from the prime of his shoots a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. ²³I will plant it on a mountain in the heights of Israel, and it will produce a branch and bear fruit, and it will become a noble cedar, and under it every bird of every kind will dwell – they will dwell in the shadow of its foliage. ²⁴And all the wild trees will know that I, the Lord, have brought down a tall tree and have exalted a lowly tree, and that I have caused a fresh tree to dry up and have made a dry tree blossom. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.» ’ ”