Bible Verses About Prophets: Frequently spoke in parables and riddles

ADONAI sent Natan to David. He came and said to him, "In a certain city there were two men, one rich, the other poor.

The rich man had vast flocks and herds;

but the poor man had nothing, except for one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and reared. It had grown up with him and his children; it ate from his plate, drank from his cup, lay on his chest - it was like a daughter to him.

One day a traveler visited the rich man, and instead of picking an animal from his own flock or herd to cook for his visitor, he took the poor man's lamb and cooked it for the man who had come to him."

David exploded with anger against the man and said to Natan, "As ADONAI lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

For doing such a thing, he has to pay back four times the value of the lamb - and also because he had no pity."

I want to sing a song for someone I love, a song about my loved one and his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

He dug up its stones and cleared them away, planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in the middle of it, and carved out in its rock a winepress. He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only sour, wild grapes.

Now, citizens of Yerushalayim and people of Y'hudah, judge between me and my vineyard.

What more could I have done for my vineyard that I haven't already done in it? So why, when I expected good grapes, did it produce sour, wild grapes?

Now come, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge, and [its grapes] will be eaten up; I will break through its fence, and [its vines] will be trampled down.

I will let it go to waste: it will be neither pruned nor hoed, but overgrown with briars and thorns. I will also order the clouds not to let rain fall on it.

Now the vineyard of ADONAI-Tzva'ot is the house of Isra'el, and the men of Y'hudah are the plant he delighted in. So he expected justice, but look - bloodshed! - and righteousness, but listen - cries of distress!

"Human being, propound this riddle, tell the house of Isra'el this allegory,

say that Adonai ELOHIM says this: 'A big eagle having great wings and long pinions full of varicolored feathers came to the L'vanon and took over the top of the cedar.

He cropped off the topmost of its young twigs, carried them to a land of traders and set them down in a city of merchants.

He also took some of the seed in the land and planted it in fertile soil, placing it where there was abundant water, as one would a willow.

It grew to become a fruitful vine sprawling over the ground; its branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him - thus it became a vine, sprouting branches and putting forth shoots.

"'There was another big eagle with great wings and many feathers; and the vine bent its roots toward him and put forth its branches toward him, so that he might water it more than in the bed where it was planted.

It had been planted in good soil, near plenty of water, so that it would produce branches, bear fruit and become a noble vine.'

"Say that Adonai ELOHIM asks: 'Will it succeed? Won't he pull it up by the roots and cut off its fruit; so that it dries up; and all its sprouting leaves wither? There will be no great power and few people there when it is plucked up by the roots.

Will it thrive just because it was planted? Won't it wither altogether when the east wind strikes it? Yes, it will wither right there in the beds where it was growing.'"