If the first portion ¹  of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches. ² 

do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message ¹  in all their cities and in Jerusalem: ²  “Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.”

The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ¹  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ²  Otherwise ³  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches ¹  against the stronghold and set fire to it. ²  All the people ³  of the Tower of Shechem died – about a thousand men and women.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹  in the inner rooms of your house; your children ²  will be like olive branches, as they sit all around your table.

Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹  The tallest trees ²  will be cut down, the loftiest ones will be brought low.

There will be some left behind, like when an olive tree is beaten – two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches,” says the Lord God of Israel.

For the fortified city ¹  is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the desert. Calves ²  graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. ³ 

When its branches get brittle, ¹  they break; women come and use them for kindling. ²  For these people lack understanding, ³  therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them; the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

The Lord commanded the enemy, ¹  “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. ²  But do not destroy them completely. Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the Lord. ³ 

I, the Lord, once called ¹  you a thriving olive tree, one that produced beautiful fruit. But I will set you ²  on fire, fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. ³  Then all your branches will be good for nothing. ⁴ 

“‘There was another great eagle ¹  with broad wings and thick plumage. Now this vine twisted its roots toward him and sent its branches toward him to be watered from the soil where it was planted.

But it was plucked up in anger; it was thrown down to the ground. The east wind ¹  dried up its fruit; its strong branches broke off and withered – a fire consumed them.

All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth, in its shade all the great ¹  nations lived.

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.

For Israel’s sake I destroyed the Amorites. ¹  They were as tall as cedars ²  and as strong as oaks, but I destroyed the fruit on their branches ³  and their roots in the ground. ⁴ 

It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest garden plant and becomes a tree, ¹  so that the wild birds ²  come and nest in its branches.” ³ 

It is like a mustard seed ¹  that a man took and sowed ²  in his garden. It ³  grew and became a tree, ⁴  and the wild birds ⁵  nested in its branches.” ⁶ 

So they took branches of palm trees ¹  and went out to meet him. They began to shout, ²  “Hosanna! ³  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! ⁴  Blessed is ⁵  the king of Israel!”