¹The word of Yahweh came to me, saying:

²Son of man, pose a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel.

³You will say: This is what the Adonai Yahweh said: The great eagle, great of wings, long of pinion, full of plumage, which had variegated color, came to the Lebanon and took the treetop of the cedar.

⁴He plucked off the head of its young twigs, brought it to a land of merchants, and put it in a city of traders.

⁵He took some of the seed of the land and put it in a field of seed; he took it beside many waters and set it as a willow.

⁶It sprouted and became a sprawling vine, low in height, so that its branches turned toward him and its roots were under him; and it became a vine and made limbs and sent out boughs.

⁷And there was one great eagle, great of wings and many of plumage; and behold, this vine bent her roots toward him and sent out her branches to him, that he might water her from the beds of her planting.

⁸In a good field, beside many waters, she was planted, to make branches and to bear fruit, to become a magnificent vine.

⁹Say: This is what the Adonai Yahweh said: Will she succeed? Will he not pull up her roots and strip off her fruit, so that she dries up—all her fresh-plucked growth dries up? And not by a great arm or a numerous people can she be lifted from her roots.

¹⁰And behold, she is planted: will she succeed? Will she not wither completely when the east wind touches her, wither on the beds of her growth?

¹¹The word of Yahweh came to me, saying:

¹²Say now to the house of rebellion: Do you not know what these things are? Say: Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took her king and her officials, and brought them to himself, to Babylon.

¹³And he took from the seed of the kingdom and cut a covenant with him, and brought him into an oath; and the rams of the land he took.

¹⁴That it might be a low kingdom, not lifting itself up, keeping his covenant so that it would stand.

¹⁵But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers to Egypt, to give him horses and a numerous people. Will he succeed? Will the one who does these things escape? Can he break a covenant and escape?

¹⁶As I live, the utterance of the Adonai Yahweh: surely in the place of the king who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, with him in the middle of Babylon he will die.

¹⁷And not with a great army and a numerous assembly will Pharaoh act for him in the battle, when a mound is poured out and a siege-wall built, to cut off many living beings.

¹⁸He despised an oath by breaking a covenant, and look, he had given his hand; yet he did all these things. He will not escape.

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Adonai Yahweh: as I live, surely my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke — I will set it on his head.

²⁰And I will spread out my net over him, and he will be caught in my net; and I will bring him to Babylon, and I will enter into judgment with him there for his treacherous act that he committed against me.

²¹And all his fugitives among all his troops will fall by the sword, and those who are left will be scattered to every wind; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken.

²²Thus says the Adonai Yahweh: I myself will take from the treetop of the cedar, the high one, and I will set it; from the head of its young shoots I will pluck off a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

²³On the mountain of the height of Israel I will plant it; it will lift up boughs, and make fruit, and become a mighty cedar; and under it every little bird, every wing, will dwell; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.

²⁴And all the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought low the high tree and lifted up the low tree, dried up the fresh tree, and have made the dry tree bud. I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it.