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Jacob — Chapter 5

Jacob continues to talk to his people.

¹ Brothers and sisters, do you remember what the prophet Zenos said to Israel? He said:

² Listen to me, O House of Israel, because I am a prophet of the Lord.

³ And God has said: Israel, you are like a tame olive tree that a man planted in his orchard; and it grew, and got old, and began to die.

⁴ When the man saw that his olive tree was starting to die, he said: “I will prune it, and dig around its roots, and feed it, so that maybe new young branches will grow, and it will not die after all.”

⁵ So he pruned it, and dug around its roots, and fed it just like he said.

⁶ After a while part of the tree grew a few new young branches, but the main branches were still dying.

⁷ When the man saw that, he said to his servant: “I will be very sorry if this tree dies, so go and cut off some branches from a wild olive tree and bring them to me. We will cut off the old branches that are starting to die and throw them into the fire and burn them up.

⁸ “I am going to cut off many of the new young branches and graft them onto other trees. Then it will not matter if the rest of the tree dies, because I will still get good olives from these new young branches that I will graft onto other trees.

⁹ “Take the wild olive tree branches and put them where I have cut off the tame olive tree branches. Throw the old branches that I have cut off into the fire, so they will not cover up the ground here.”

¹⁰ So the man’s servant did what he was told to do, and grafted the wild olive tree branches onto the tame olive tree.

¹¹ And the man had his servant dig around the roots of the tame tree, and pruned it, and fed it, saying: “I do not want this tree to die, so I have done everything I can to save it.

¹² “Watch this tree very carefully, and feed it just like I have told you to.

¹³ “I am going to graft these young branches onto trees on the far side of the orchard–do not worry about where. I am doing this so I can still grow some olives from this olive tree, because it makes me sad to think that this tree would die and I could not have any more olives from it.”

¹⁴ So the man grafted the young branches of the tame olive tree onto other trees in the far side of the orchard, some on one tree, and some on another, and some on another, just as he thought best.

¹⁵ After a long time, the man said to his servant: “Come, let’s go work in the orchard.”

¹⁶ So the man and his servant went to work in the orchard, and the servant said to the man: “Look at the tame olive tree!”

¹⁷ The man saw that the tree with the wild branches grafted onto it had begun to grow good olives just like before.

¹⁸ And he said to his servant: “Look, the wild branches have helped the rest of the tree to grow, and the wild branches are growing good olives. If we had not grafted the wild branches onto the tree, it would have died, but now I will be able to pick lots of good olives and save them to use in the winter.”

¹⁹ Then the man said to his servant: “Let’s go to the far side of the orchard and see if there are any good olives on the tame branches that I grafted onto other trees, so I can save them to use in the winter.”

²⁰ So they went to the other trees, and the man said to the servant: “Look at these trees.” And the servant saw that the first tree had many good olives on it. And the man said to the servant: “Pick these good olives and save them so I can have them to use in the winter. I fed this tree for a long time so it would grow many good olives.”

²¹ Then the servant said to the man: “Why did you graft one of the tame olive tree branches onto this tree? This part of the orchard is not a very good place to grow things.”

²² And the man said to him: “Don’t tell me what to do. I knew this was not a very good place to grow things, but I told you that I fed this tree for a long time, and you can see that it has grown many good olives.”

²³ Then the man said to the servant: “Look over at that tree, where I grafted another tame olive tree branch. You know that this place is an even worse place to grow things than the first place, but look at the tree! I have fed it for a long time, and it has grown many good olives. Pick them so I will have them to use in the winter.”

²⁴ Then the man said to the servant again: “Look over there where I have grafted another tame olive tree branch. I fed that tree, too, and it has grown good olives.”

²⁵ Then the man said to the servant: “Look over there at the last tree. That tree is growing in a very good place, and I have fed it for a long time. But only part of this tree has grown good olives, and the other part has grown bad olives, even though I fed it just like the other trees.”

²⁶ So the man said to the servant: “Cut off the branches that grew bad olives and throw them into the fire.”

²⁷ But the servant said to him: “Let’s prune it, and dig around its roots, and feed it for a little more time, and maybe it will grow good olives that you can save to use in the winter.”

²⁸ So the man and his servant fed all of the olive trees in the orchard.

²⁹ A long time later the man said to his servant: “Come, let’s work in the orchard again, because soon there will not be any more time to pick olives to use in the winter. The end of the world is coming.”

³⁰ So the man and the servant went to the orchard, and they came to the tame olive tree with the wild branches grafted onto it. There were many kinds of olives all over it.

³¹ The man tasted all the different kinds of olives, and said: “We have fed this tree a long time, and it used to grow good olives.

³² “But this time all the olives are bad, even though we worked hard to help it grow good olives. It makes me sad that I am going to lose this tree.”

³³ The man said to the servant: “What can we do to the tree so it will grow good olives again for me to use?”

³⁴ And the servant said to the man: “You can see that the wild olive branches have kept the roots alive, and so you see the branches are still good.”

³⁵ But the man said to the servant: “The tree will not do me any good if all it grows is bad olives.

³⁶ “But I know that the roots are good, so I saved them. They made the wild olive branches grow good olives the last time.

³⁷ “But the wild branches with their bad olives have taken over the whole tree, and now the tree grows only bad olives. It has grown so many bad olives that the tree is starting to die again. If we don’t do something to save it, we will have to cut it down and throw it into the fire.”

³⁸ Then the man said to his servant: “Let’s go to the far side of the orchard and see if any of the tame olive tree branches are growing bad olives.”

³⁹ So they went to the far side of the orchard, and they saw that all the tame olive tree branches were growing bad olives.

⁴⁰ The wild olive tree branches that grew bad olives killed the tame olive tree branches that had grown good olives.

⁴¹ And the man cried, and said to the servant: “What more could I have done for the trees in my orchard?

⁴² “I knew that all the olives in the orchard were bad except the olives from the tame olive tree. Now even the tame olive tree and its branches are growing bad olives. Now all the trees in the orchard are not good for anything except to be burned in the fire.

⁴³ “This last tree where the tame olive tree branch died was planted in the very best part of the orchard.

⁴⁴ “You saw that I weeded and cut down all the trees and plants in this part of the orchard so that this tree could grow there.

⁴⁵ “You saw that one of the branches grew good olives, and the other branches grew bad olives. But the branches that grew bad olives killed the branch that grew good olives, because I did not cut them off.

⁴⁶ “Even though we took such good care of the orchard, all the trees are growing bad olives. None of them are growing good olives for me to use in the winter. Now they are all wild olive trees, and all they are good for is to be burned in the fire, but it makes me sad to do that to them.

⁴⁷ “But what else could I have done for the trees in the orchard? Was I too lazy to feed them? No, I fed them, and I pruned them, and worked hard almost all day long. Now there is almost no time left to work on them any more, because the end of the world is coming. It makes me so sad to have to cut down all these trees and burn them up in the fire. Who turned all these good trees into bad trees?”

⁴⁸ And the servant said to the man: “Do you think that maybe the branches have grown too tall for the roots of the tree? Maybe the branches just grew so tall that the good roots could not help them grow good olives, so the branches grew bad ones instead. Do you think that this could be why the good trees have become bad trees?”

⁴⁹ Then the man said to the servant: “Let’s cut down all the trees in the orchard and throw them into the fire, so they will not cover up the ground in the orchard. What more could I have done for the trees in my orchard?”

⁵⁰ But the servant said to the man: “Please give the trees one more chance.”

⁵¹ And the man said: “Yes, I will give the trees another chance, because it would make me very sad to have to cut down all the trees in the orchard.

⁵² “So let’s take the tame olive tree branches that we grafted onto these trees in the far side of the orchard, and graft them back onto the tame olive tree. And let’s cut off the branches of the tame olive tree that are growing the worst olives.

⁵³ “Let’s try this so the tree will not die. Maybe I will be able to save the roots for a good reason.

⁵⁴ “The other tame olive tree branches I grafted onto other trees are still alive, too, so I will take the branches of this tree and graft them onto those other trees. Yes, I will graft onto those trees more branches from the tame olive tree, so I can save the roots of the tame olive tree. Then maybe the roots will get strong enough to grow new branches that will have good olives on them.”

⁵⁵ So they took the branches from the tame olive tree that had turned wild and grafted them onto the other trees, which had turned wild, too.

⁵⁶ And they took the tame olive tree branches from the other trees that had turned wild and grafted them back onto the tame olive tree.

⁵⁷ Then the man said to the servant: “Cut off only the branches of the trees that grow the worst olives, and graft in the other branches as I told you to.

⁵⁸ “Then we will feed the trees in the orchard again, and we will cut off all the old or dead or bad branches and throw them into the fire.

⁵⁹ “We will do this to help the roots get strong. Maybe changing the branches will help the tree grow good olives instead of bad olives.

⁶⁰ “Maybe grafting the tame branches back onto the tame olive tree will help all the trees grow good olives again. That would make me very happy, and it would make me glad to have worked so hard to save the trees.

⁶¹ “Call other servants to help us work as hard as we can to help these trees grow those very good olives again.

⁶² “Let’s work very hard, because this is the last time I will prune the trees in the orchard, because the end of the world is coming.

⁶³ “Graft the branches onto the trees. Work first on the trees that I worked on last, then work on the trees that I worked on first. Dig around the roots of the young trees and the old trees, and feed them all again for the last time.

⁶⁴ “Dig around their roots, and prune them, and feed them for the last time, because the end of the world is coming. Do everything you can to help the branches grow good olives.

⁶⁵ “As they grow, cut off any big branches which are growing bad olives. Do not cut off all the bad branches right away, because that might kill the trees.

⁶⁶ “It would make me very sad to lose the trees of the orchard, so cut down only the big branches which are growing bad olives. Make the roots and the branches of the trees the same size until there are more branches which are growing good olives. Then you can cut off all the bad branches and throw them into the fire so they will not cover up the ground here. This way I will get rid of all the bad olives in the orchard.

⁶⁷ “I will graft the tame olive tree branches back onto the tame olive tree again.

⁶⁸ “And I will graft the tame branches back onto the tame olive tree so they will grow good olives again.

⁶⁹ “The bad branches will be cut off and thrown right out of the orchard, because this will be the last time I will prune the trees in the orchard.”

⁷⁰ So the man sent his servant to get other servants, but there were not very many of them.

⁷¹ The man said to them: “Go and work as hard as you can in the orchard, because this is the last time I will feed the trees of the orchard. Winter is coming, and the end of the world is coming soon. But if you work hard, you will share all the olives with me that I have saved to use during the hard times to come.”

⁷² So the servants worked as hard as they could, and the man worked with them. The servants did everything the man told them to do.

⁷³ Good olives began to grow again in the orchard. The good branches got stronger and bigger, and the bad branches were cut off and thrown away. The servants kept the branches and roots of the trees the same size.

⁷⁴ They worked as hard as they could to do what the man had said, until all the branches which grew bad olives had been cut off and thrown out of the orchard. Then all the trees were tame like the tame olive tree, and they all grew good olives, and the man saved the good olives which he loved very much.

⁷⁵ When the man saw that the olives were all good, and that all the trees in the orchard were growing good olives, he told his servants: “This was the last time that we fed the trees of the orchard, and you can see that everything was done the way I wanted. I have saved the good olives, and the trees are tame like they were when they were planted a long time ago. You are all blessed, because you worked hard with me in the orchard. You did everything I told you, and helped the trees grow many good olives. Now the trees of the orchard all grow good olives, and all the bad olives are gone. You will all share the good olives with me and be happy with me.

⁷⁶ “I will save many good olives for a long time so I will have them to use in the winter which is coming soon. This is the last time that I fed the trees, and pruned them, and dug around their roots. And because I did this, they will grow good olives for a long time for me to save, just as I said.

⁷⁷ “When the time comes that the trees grow bad olives again, I will save all the good olives and throw away all the bad ones. Then the winter will come and the end of the world with it, and I will burn up the orchard with fire.”