Son of man, relate a tale, and speak a parable to the house of Israel:

and say, Why has your mother become a whelp in the midst of lions? In the midst of lions she has multiplied her whelps.

And the nations heard a report of him; he was caught in their pit, and they brought him into the land of Egypt in chains.

And he went up and down in the midst of lions, he became a lion, and learned to take prey, he devoured men.

Then the nations set upon him from the countries round about, and they spread their nets upon him; he was taken in their pit.

Your mother was as a vine and as a blossom on a pomegranate tree, planted by water; her fruit and her shoot abounded by reason of much water.

But she was broken down in wrath, she was cast upon the ground, and the east wind dried up her choice [branches;] vengeance came upon them, and the rod of her strength was withered; fire consumed it.

And fire has gone out of a rod of her choice [boughs,] and has devoured her; and there was no rod of strength in her. Her race has become a parable of lamentation, and it shall be for a lamentation.

And I said, Not so, O Lord God! They say to me, Is not this that is spoken a parable?

I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter dark sayings [which have been] from the beginning.

In that day shall a parable be taken up against you, and a plaintive lamentation shall be uttered, saying, We are thoroughly miserable: the portion of my people has been measured out with a line, and there was none to hinder him so as to turn him back; your fields have been divided.

And they sought to lay hold of Him, but they feared the crowd, for they knew that He has spoken the parable against them. And leaving Him, they went away.

And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest [they are] in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'

And He said to me, Son of Man, I send you forth to the house of Israel, to them that provoke Me; who have provoked Me, they and their fathers to this day.

And you, son of man, fear them not, nor be dismayed at their face (for they will madden and will rise up against you round about, and you dwell in the midst of scorpions), be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their countenance, for they are a provoking house.

And you, son of man, hear Him that speaks to you; be not provoking, as the provoking house: open your mouth, and eat what I give you.

And it shall be continually stronger than a rock- be not afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their faces, because they are a provoking house.

Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the iniquities of those who have eyes to see, and see not; and have ears to hear, and hear not; because they are a provoking house.

For I the Lord will speak My words; I will speak and perform [them], and will delay no more, for in your days, O provoking house, I will speak the word, and will perform [it], says the Lord.

Son of man, say now to the provoking house, Know you not what these things were? Say [to them], Whenever the king of Babylon shall come against Jerusalem, then he shall take her king and her princes, and shall take them home to Babylon.

Hear, O heaven, and hearken, O earth! For the Lord has spoken, [saying], I have begotten and reared up children, but they have rebelled against Me.

Woe to the apostate children, says the Lord; you have framed counsel, not by Me, and covenants not by My Spirit, to add sins to sins;

For the people are disobedient, false children, who would not hear the law of God;

But they disobeyed, and provoked His Holy Spirit; so He turned to be an enemy, He Himself contended against them.

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, you also do.

Therefore thus says the Lord: O bloody city, the caldron in which there is scum, and the scum has not gone out of, she has brought it forth piece by piece, no lot has fallen upon it.

who say, Have not the houses been newly built? This is the caldron, and we are the flesh.

by reason of the Lord's anger. It shall not be inhabited, but it all shall be a desolation; and everyone that passes through Babylon shall scowl, and they shall hiss at all her plagues.

Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows,