summer

¹⁷You have made all the limits of the earth. The summer and the spring were formed by you.

²²All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, will not cease.”

³⁰When presently they produce fruit from themselves, you know that summer is near.

¹These things the Lord has revealed to me. And behold, a hook to draw down fruit.

³²So, from the fig tree learn a parable. When its branch has now become tender and the leaves have sprung forth, you know that summer is near.

⁴For, day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. I have been converted in my anguish, while still the thorn is piercing.

⁶Go to the ant, you lazy one, and consider her ways, and so learn wisdom. ⁷For though she has no ruler, nor instructor, nor leader, ⁸she provides meals for herself in the summer, and she gathers at the harvest what she may eat.

⁵He who gathers the harvest is a wise son. But he who snores in warm weather is a son of confusion.

¹In the manner of snow in the summer, and rain at the harvest, so also is glory unfit for the foolish.

²⁹And he told them a comparison: “Take notice of the fig tree and of all the trees. ³⁰When presently they produce fruit from themselves, you know that summer is near. ³¹So you also, when you will have seen these things happen, know that the kingdom of God is near. ³²Amen I say to you, this lineage shall not pass away, until all these things happen. ³³Heaven and earth shall pass away. But my words shall not pass away. ³⁴But be attentive to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts may be weighed down by self-indulgence and inebriation and the cares of this life. And then that day may overwhelm you suddenly.

²⁰The harvest has passed by, the summer is at an end, and we have not been saved.

²⁵the ants, an infirm people who provide food for themselves at the harvest,

²⁸Now from the fig tree discern a parable. When its branch becomes tender and the foliage has been formed, you know that summer is very near.

¹⁰Behold, I live at Mizpah, so that I may follow the instruction of the Chaldeans who are sent to us. But as for you, gather the vintage, and the harvest, and the oil, and store it up in your vessels, and dwell in your cities, which you hold.”

¹⁷Every excellent gift and every perfect gift is from above, descending from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor any shadow of alteration.

¹²all the Jews, I say, returned from all the places to which they had fled, and they came into the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they gathered wine and an exceedingly great harvest.

⁴And the falling flower, the glory of his exultation, who is at the summit of the fat valley, will be like a premature fruit before the ripeness of autumn, which, when the onlooker beholds it, as soon he takes it in his hand, he will devour it.

¹Woe to me, for I have become just like one who gleans the clusters of the vintage in autumn. There is no cluster of grapes to consume; my soul desired figs out of season.