9 Bible Verses about Old Testament Parables

The trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree replied, Should I leave my fatness, which because of me, God and man are honoured, to go and sway over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou and reign over us.read more.
But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit to go and sway over the trees? Then the trees said unto the vine, Come thou and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheers God and man, to go and sway over the trees? Then all the trees said unto the bramble, Come thou and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and confide under my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many sheep and cows, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children; it ate of his own food and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter.read more.
And a traveller came unto the rich man, who did not wish to take of his own sheep and of his own cows to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that had come to him.

And Jehoash, the king of Israel, sent to Amaziah, king of Judah, this reply, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife. And the wild beasts that were in Lebanon passed by and trode down the thistle.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard in the horn of the sons of oil; and he had fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a winepress therein; and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard.read more.
What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Therefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; and break down its wall, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned, nor hoed; but briers and thorns shall come up there; I will even command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of the hosts is the house of Israel and every man of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

Son of man, propose a figure and compose an enigma unto the house of Israel and say: Thus hath the Lord GOD said, A great eagle with great wings and long members, full of feathers of diverse colours, came unto Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar: he cropped off the principal shoot and carried it into a land of markets; he set it in the city of the merchants.read more.
He also took of the seed of the land and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters and set it as a willow tree. And it grew and became a vine of many branches, low of stature, whose branches looked at him, and its roots were under him: so it became a vine and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs. There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers; and, behold, this vine joined her roots toward him and extended her branches toward him that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. It was planted in a good soil by many waters that it might bring forth branches and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. Say thou: Thus hath the Lord GOD said, Shall it be prospered? Shall he not pull it up its roots and destroy its fruit and let it wither? All of the leaves of her spring shall wither, even without great power or many people plucking it up by its roots. Yea, behold, being planted, shall it be prospered? Shall it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.

Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Aholah the elder and Aholibah her sister; they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names: Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.read more.
And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she fell in love with her lovers, the Assyrians her neighbours, which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all those that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all whom she fell in love; with all their idols she defiled herself. Neither did she leave her whoredoms of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity and poured their whoredom upon her. Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, of whom she fell in love. These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women, for they had executed judgments upon her. And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. She fell in love with the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed to perfection, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they both took the same way and that she increased her whoredoms, for when she saw men painted upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans painted in colour, girded with girdles upon their loins, and mitres painted upon their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the manner of the men of Babylon, born in the land of the Chaldeans, she fell in love with them as soon as she saw them with her eyes and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom and she was polluted with them, and her soul was disjointed from them. So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness; then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus thou didst call to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the breasts of thy youth. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy desire is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side: the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, rulers, and princes, and captains, and all the Assyrians with them: all of them desirable young men; all of them captains and rulers, great lords and renowned; all of them riding upon horses. And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with a multitude of peoples, which shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet round about, and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge thee according to their laws. And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal with thee in furor; they shall take away thy nose and thine ears; and what is left shall fall by the sword; they shall take thy sons and thy daughters; and thy remnant shall be devoured by the fire. They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes and take away the vessels of thy glory. Thus will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee and thy whoredom of the land of Egypt, so that thou shalt not lift up thine eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. For thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, I deliver thee into the hand of those whom thou hatest, into the hand of those from whom thy soul is alienated: And they shall deal with thee hatefully and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. I will do these things unto thee because thou hast gone a whoring after the Gentiles and because thou art polluted with their idols. Thou hast walked in the way of thy sister; therefore I will put her cup into thine hand. Thus hath the Lord GOD said: Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large; the Gentiles shall laugh thee to scorn and hold thee in derision; it contains much. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and with pain because of the cup of astonishment and desolation, because of the cup of thy sister Samaria. Thou shalt even drink it and finish it, and thou shalt break its shards and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, said the Lord GOD. Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Because thou hast forgotten me and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms. And The LORD said unto me: Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah and declare unto them their abominations? For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands, and with their idols they have committed adultery and have even caused their sons, whom they bore unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their sons unto their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house. And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, behold, they came for the love of whom thou didst wash thyself, paint thy eyes, and deck thyself with ornaments, and sit upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, upon which thou hast set my incense and my oil. And in her was heard a voice of a multitude at a feast; and with the men of renown were brought the Sabeans from the wilderness to multiply the men, and they put bracelets upon their hands and crowns of glory upon their heads. Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Now shalt thy whoredoms come to an end, and she with them; for they have come to her, as those who come to a woman that plays the harlot, so they went in unto Aholah and unto Aholibah, the lewd women. Therefore righteous men shall judge them by the law of adulteresses and after the law of women that shed blood because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.

And speak unto the house of rebellion by parable and say unto them, Thus hath the Lord GOD said; Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it: gather her pieces of meat into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. Take the choice of the flock and burn also the bones under it and make it boil well and let them seethe the bones of it therein.read more.
For thus hath the Lord GOD said: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein and whose scum is not gone out of it! For her pieces, because of her pieces let it be removed; let no lot fall upon it. For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she did not poured it upon the ground, to cover it with dust; that wrath might rise up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the high place of the rock that it should not be covered. Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Woe to the bloody city! I will also make a great fire, multiplying the wood, kindling the fire, to consume the flesh and to make the broth, and the bones shall be burned; setting afterward the empty pot upon the coals thereof that it may become red hot and may burn and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. In fraud she has become weary, and her great scum did not go forth out of her; her scum shall be in the fire. In thy perverse filthiness thou shalt die because I have cleansed thee, and thou didst not cleanse thyself from thy uncleanness; thou shalt never cleanse thyself again, until I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. I, the LORD, have spoken: I came and worked. I will not turn back, neither will I have mercy, neither will I repent; according to thy ways and according to thy doings, they shall judge thee, said the Lord GOD.

Which things are an allegory; for these women are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, which begat unto slavery, which is Hagar.

accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence he also received him in a figure.