2 Esdras 4:13-15

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

Parable of the Forest and the Sea

¹³ He answered me and said, ‘I went into a forest of trees of the plain, and they made a plan ¹⁴ and said, “Come, let us go and make war against the sea, so that it may recede before us and so that we may make for ourselves more forests.” ¹⁵ In like manner the waves of the sea also made a plan and said, “Come, let us go up and subdue the forest of the plain so that there also we may gain more territory for ourselves.”