While I was watching,
there was a tree in the middle of the land.
It was enormously tall.
4:11 The tree grew large and strong.
Its top reached far into the sky;
it could be seen from the borders of all the land.
4:12 Its foliage was attractive and its fruit plentiful;
on it there was food enough for all.
Under it the wild animals used to seek shade,
and in its branches the birds of the sky used to nest.
All creatures used to feed themselves from it.
4:13 While I was watching in my mind’s visions on my bed,
a holy sentinel came down from heaven.
4:14 He called out loudly as follows:
‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches!
Strip off its foliage
and scatter its fruit!
Let the animals flee from under it
and the birds from its branches!
4:15 But leave its taproot in the ground,
with a band of iron and bronze around it
surrounded by the grass of the field.
Let it become damp with the dew of the sky,
and let it live with the animals in the grass of the land.