Psa 78:2, Eze 17:2, 19:2-14, 20:49, Mic 2:4, Mar 12:12, Luk 8:10 | ESV | STEP | I will open my mouth in a parable ; I will utter dark sayings from of old ,

2 and say:

What was your mother? ^eA lioness!
Among lions she crouched;
in the midst of young lions
she reared her cubs.
3 And she brought up one of her cubs;
^fhe became a young lion,
^gand he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men.
4 The nations heard about him;
^hhe was caught in their pit,
ⁱand they brought him with hooks
to the land of Egypt.
5 When she saw that she waited in vain,
that her hope was lost,
^jshe took another of her cubs
and made him a young lion.
6 He prowled among the lions;
he became a young lion,
and he learned to catch prey;
he devoured men,
7 and seized ^{▼▼Hebrew knew} their widows.
He laid waste their cities,
and the land was appalled and all who were in it
at the sound of his roaring.
8 ^lThen the nations set against him
from provinces on every side;
^mthey spread their net over him;
ⁿhe was taken in their pit.
9 With hooks ^othey put him in a cage ^{▼▼Or in a wooden collar}
and ^qbrought him to the king of Babylon;
they brought him into custody,
that his voice should no more be heard
on ^rthe mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother was ^slike a vine in a vineyard ^{▼▼Some Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts in your blood}
planted by the water,
^ufruitful and full of branches
^vby reason of abundant water.
11 Its strong stems became
rulers’ scepters;
it towered aloft
among the thick boughs; ^{▼▼Or the clouds}
it was seen in its height
with the mass of its branches.
12 But the vine was plucked up in fury,
cast down to the ground;
^xthe east wind dried up its fruit;
they were stripped off and withered.
As for its strong stem,
fire consumed it.
13 ^yNow it is planted in the wilderness,
in a dry and thirsty land.
14 ^zAnd fire has gone out from the stem of its shoots,
has consumed its fruit,
^aaso that there remains in it no strong stem,
no scepter for ruling.
This is ^aba lamentation and has become a lamentation.

Ezekiel 20:49

49 Then I said, ^ac“Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, ^ad‘Is he not a maker of parables?’”

Micah 2:4

4 In that day ^aethey shall take up a taunt song against you
and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
^afhe changes the portion of my people;
^aghow he removes it from me!
^ahTo an apostate he allots our fields.”

Mark 12:12

12 And ^aithey were seeking to arrest him ^ajbut feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they ^akleft him and went away.

Luke 8:10

10 he said, ^al“To you it has been given to know ^amthe secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so ^anthat ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’