1. The Lord spoke to me.
2. “Mortal man,” he said, “tell the Israelites a parable
3. to let them know what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to them: there was a giant eagle with beautiful feathers and huge wings, spread wide. He flew to the Lebanon Mountains and broke off the top of a cedar tree,
4. which he carried to a land of commerce, and placed in a city of merchants.
5. Then he took a young plant from the land of Israel and planted it in a fertile field, where there was always water to make it grow.
6. The plant sprouted and became a low, wide-spreading grapevine. The branches grew upward towards the eagle, and the roots grew deep. The vine was covered with branches and leaves.