The birds of the sky live beside them; they chirp among the bushes. ¹ 

For like the crackling of quick-burning thorns ¹  under a cooking pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This kind of folly ²  also is useless. ³ 

With bow and arrow ¹  men will hunt ²  there, for the whole land will be covered ³  with thorns and briers.

The nations will be burned to ashes; ¹  like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.

So God sent ¹  a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up.

You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered ¹  from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? ² 

They put a purple cloak ¹  on him and after braiding ²  a crown of thorns, ³  they put it on him.

Abraham looked up ¹  and saw ²  behind him ³  a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he ⁴  went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

The Lord God appointed ¹  a little plant ²  and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue ³  him from his misery. ⁴  Now Jonah was very delighted ⁵  about the little plant.

He stretched out ¹  and fell asleep under the shrub. All of a sudden an angelic messenger ²  touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

For ¹  evil burned like a fire, ²  it consumed thorns and briers; it burned up the thickets of the forest, and they went up in smoke. ³ 

At the sound of the approaching horsemen and archers the people of every town will flee. Some of them will hide in the thickets. Others will climb up among the rocks. All the cities will be deserted. No one will remain in them.

God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry ¹  about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry ²  as I could possibly be!” ³ 

The best of them is like a thorn; the most godly among them are more dangerous than a row of thorn bushes. ¹  The day you try to avoid by posting watchmen – your appointed time of punishment – is on the way, ²  and then you will experience confusion. ³ 

Surely they will be totally consumed ¹  like ²  entangled thorn bushes, ³  like the drink of drunkards, ⁴  like very ⁵  dry stubble.

Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, ¹  or a vine produce figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water.

Now ¹  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ²  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ³ 

Let us rise early to go to the vineyards, to see if the vines have budded, to see if their blossoms have opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom – there I will give you my love.

For you ignore ¹  the God who rescues you; you pay no attention to your strong protector. ²  So this is what happens: You cultivate beautiful plants and plant exotic vines. ³ 

The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it, nor could the fir trees ¹  match its boughs; the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches; no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.