A time is coming when the LORD will punish the powers above and the rulers of the earth.

God will crowd kings together like prisoners in a pit. He will shut them in prison until the time of their punishment comes.

So now I, the Sovereign LORD, am telling them that they are just as useless as that. I will bring them all together in Jerusalem

Yes, I will gather them in Jerusalem, build a fire under them, and melt them with my anger.

Tell my rebellious people this parable that I, the Sovereign LORD, have for them: Set the pot on the fire and fill it up with water.

Use the meat of the finest sheep; pile the wood under the pot. Let the water boil; boil the bones and the meat."

There was murder in the city, but the blood was not spilled on the ground where the dust could hide it; it was spilled on a bare rock.

This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "The city of murderers is doomed! I myself will pile up the firewood.

Now set the empty bronze pot on the coals and let it get red-hot. Then the pot will be ritually pure again after the corrosion is burned off,

All your hard work will do you no good, because your land will not produce crops and the trees will not bear fruit.

You will plant vineyards and take care of them, but you will not gather their grapes or drink wine from them, because worms will eat the vines.

You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them, because they will be taken away as prisoners of war.

Is there anything I failed to do for it? Then why did it produce sour grapes and not the good grapes I expected?

I will let it be overgrown with weeds. I will not trim the vines or hoe the ground; instead, I will let briers and thorns cover it. I will even forbid the clouds to let rain fall on it."

She would never acknowledge that I am the one who gave her the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and all the silver and gold that she used in the worship of Baal.

So at harvest time I will take back my gifts of grain and wine, and will take away the wool and the linen I gave her for clothing.

They have destroyed our grapevines and chewed up our fig trees. They have stripped off the bark, till the branches are white.

The fields are bare; the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed, the grapes are dried up, and the olive trees are withered.

The grapevines and fig trees have withered; all the fruit trees have wilted and died. The joy of the people is gone.

Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty,

I have brought drought on the land---on its hills, grainfields, vineyards, and olive orchards---on every crop the ground produces, on people and animals, on everything you try to grow."

I sent scorching winds and hail to ruin everything you tried to grow, but still you did not repent.

He saw a fig tree by the side of the road and went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. So he said to the tree, "You will never again bear fruit!" At once the fig tree dried up.

Then Jesus told them this parable: "There was once a man who had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. He went looking for figs on it but found none.

But the gardener answered, 'Leave it alone, sir, just one more year; I will dig around it and put in some fertilizer.

He is like a tree growing near a stream and sending out roots to the water. It is not afraid when hot weather comes, because its leaves stay green; it has no worries when there is no rain; it keeps on bearing fruit.

They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do.

But evil people are not like this at all; they are like straw that the wind blows away.

The sun rises with its blazing heat and burns the plant; its flower falls off, and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way the rich will be destroyed while they go about their business.