You have been a safe place for poor people in trouble. You are like a shelter from floods and shade from the heat when powerful men attack. They are like rain streaming down the walls that protect us from the storm.
If this would happen, the king would be like a shelter to hide from the wind and rain, like streams of water in a dry land, and like the cool shadow of a large rock in a hot land.
The king was very important to us. He was like the breath we breathe, but he was trapped by them. The Lord himself chose the king, and we said this about the king, “We will live in his shadow. He protects us from the nations.”
My lover, among other men, you are an apple tree among the wild trees in the forest! I enjoy sitting in my lover’s shadow; his fruit is so sweet to my taste.
“So tell them this: The Lord GOD says, ‘It is true, I forced my people to go far away to other nations. I did scatter them among many countries. But I will be their temple for a short time while they are in those other countries.
If you people would respect him, he would be a safe place for you. But you don’t respect him, so he is like a stone that you stumble over. He is a rock that makes both families of Israel fall. He has become a trap that all the people of Jerusalem will fall into.
“But the thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to make me king over you, come and find shelter in my shade. But if you don’t want to do this, let fire come out of the thornbush. Let the fire burn even the cedar trees of Lebanon.’