And thou shalt speak by a figure, a parable, to the provoking house, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Set on a pot, set it on, I say, and put water into it.
And thou, O son of man, fear not, neither be thou afraid of their words: for thou art among unbelievers and destroyers, and thou dwellest with scorpions. Fear not their words, neither be thou dismayed at their looks: for they are a provoking house.
And saying: Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious people that hath revolted from me. They and their fathers have transgressed my covenant even unto this day.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is in it, and its rust is not gone out of it. Cast it out piece by piece there hath no lot fallen upon it.
WOE to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin.
To whom he said: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing may not understand.
And they sought to lay hands on him, but they feared the people. For they knew that he spoke this parable to them. And leaving him, they went their way.
In that day a parable shall be taken up upon you, and a song shall be sung with melody by them that say: We are laid waste and spoiled: the portion of my people is changed: how shall he depart from me, whereas he is returning that will divide our land?
Say to the provoking house: Know you not what these things mean? Tell them: Behold, the king of Babylon cometh to Jerusalem: and he shall take away the king and the princes thereof and carry them with him to Babylon.
For I the Lord will speak: and what word soever I shall speak, it shall come to pass, and shall not be prolonged any more: but in your days, ye provoking house, I will speak the word, and will do it, saith the Lord God.
Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house: who have eyes to see and see not, and ears to hear and hear not: for they are a provoking house.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Your slain, whom you have laid in the midst thereof, they are the flesh, and this is the caldron: and I will bring you forth out of the midst thereof.
And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: What seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof from the face of the north.
And Eliseus returned to Galgal. And there was a famine in the land; and the sons of the prophets dwelt before him. And he said to one of his servants: Set on the great pot, and boil pottage for the sons of the prophets.
If so be they at least will hear, and if so be they will forbear, for they are a provoking house: and they shall know that there hath been a prophet in the midst of them.