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.
7. “There was another giant eagle with huge wings and thick plumage. And now the vine sent its roots towards him and turned its leaves towards him, in the hope that he would give it more water than there was in the garden where it was growing.
8. But the vine had already been planted in a fertile, well-watered field so that it could grow leaves and bear grapes and be a magnificent vine.
9. “So I, the Sovereign Lord, ask: will this vine live and grow? Won't the first eagle pull it up by its roots, pull off the grapes, and break off the branches and let them wither? It will not take much strength or a mighty nation to pull it up.