The Olive Tree Allegory

Treating the Decaying Olive Tree by Pruning and Digging

Jacob 5:1: Jacob explains that the allegory is quoted from the writing of a prophet named Zenos, who wrote on the brass plates.
Jacob 5:2–3: The House of Israel is compared to to an aging and decaying olive tree.
Jacob 5:4–5: The master of the vineyard, noticing the decay, prunes it and nurtures the olive tree.
Jacob 5:6: The tree starts producing new offshoots, but the top of the tree begins to die.

Jacob 5:7–9: The master instructs his servant to remove the dying branches, burn them, remove the new off shoots to plant elsewhere, and to graft in braches from a wild olive tree.
Jacob 5:10: The servant does as instructed.
Jacob 5:11–13: The master tells his servant to dig, prune, and nourish the tree, and then to graft the offshoots he removed to various locations in the vineyard.
Jacob 5:14: The servant does as instructed.

Jacob 5:15–16: A long while later, the master and the servant go back to check up on the tree.
Jacob 5:16–17: The tree that they grafted wild branches into had begun to produce tame fruit.
Jacob 5:18: The master explains that the success is due to the wild branches drawing up moisture from the roots.
Jacob 5:19: The master and servant then go check up on the offshoots that have been grafted throughout the vineyard.
Jacob 5:20: The offshoot that had been grafted in to other trees have produced fruit; the master instructs his servant to go plant the seeds that the fruit produced.
Jacob 5:21: The servant asks why the master wants him to plant in in poor soil.
Jacob 5:22: The master assures the servant he knows what he is doing.
Jacob 5:23: The master points out another tree that succeeded despite being in poor soil.
Jacob 5:24: The master points out yet another similar tree.
Jacob 5:25: The master then shows another tree that was planted in good soil yet did not flourish.
Jacob 5:26: The master tells the servant to burn all unproductive branches.
Jacob 5:27: The master tells the servant to join him in more pruning, digging and nourishing, in hopes that the tree will produce good fruit.
Jacob 5:28: The master and servant labor hard throughout all the vineyard.

Jacob 5:29: After a long period of time, the master and servant return to the vineyard.
Jacob 5:30: They notice that the tree with wild branches grafted into it has produced much fruit.
Jacob 5:31–32: The master tastes the fruit, and declares that it tastes bad.
Jacob 5:33: The master wonders what he can do to make it produce good fruit.
Jacob 5:34: The servant points out that the wild branches helped the roots.
Jacob 5:35–37: The master says that good roots aren’t worth anything if they don’t ultimately produce good fruit.
Jacob 5:38: The master suggests going to other parts of the vineyard to sample the fruit.
Jacob 5:39–40: They find that the entire vineyard is corrupt and is producing foul–tasting fruit.
Jacob 5:41–47: The master, weeping bitterly, wonders what more he could have done for his vineyard, and laments the corruption.
Jacob 5:48: The servant hypothesizes that the cause of the corruption is the imbalance between the roots and the branches.

Jacob 5:49: The exasperated master, now referred to as the Lord of the vineyard, proposes to cut down all the trees and burn them.
Jacob 5:50: The servant suggest waiting a little longer.
Jacob 5:51–54: The Lord of the vineyard agrees, and plans to take out the offshoots and graft them back into the tree that they came from, and take out the wild branches from that tree.
Jacob 5:55–56: They act according to plan, re–grafting all branches back to their original tree.
Jacob 5:57–59: Following the grafting, the Lord of the vineyard tells the servant to keep the wild branches, and to remove only the very worst ones.

Jacob 5:60: The Lord of the vineyard hopes to be able to produce fruit from the natural branches.
Jacob 5:61–64: The Lord of the vineyard summons all his servants to labor for the sake of the trees.
Jacob 5:65–66: The Lord of the vineyard instructs his servants to clear out the wild branches out gradually.
Jacob 5:67–69: The natural branches will return to their source, and the bad branches will be burned.

Jacob 5:70–71: The servants labor as planned; the Lord of the vineyard reminds them that there isnt much time left.
Jacob 5:72–74: The plan works, and natural fruit is produced from the natural trees and the wild branches are gradually removed.

Jacob 5:75: The Lord of the vineyard praises his servants as they bask in their success.
Jacob 5:76–77: The Lord of the vineyard predicts that bad fruit will once again infiltrate the vineyard and that time he will gather the good and burn the vineyard.

Jacob 6:1–2: Jacob, having concluded his quote, explains that the olive tree allegory predicts a second gathering of Israel.
Jacob 6:3–4: Jacob praises those who work with the Lord, and praises God’s mercy.
Jacob 6:5–6: Jacob invites all to come unto God.
Jacob 6:7–8: Jacob analyzes elements of the allegory and admonishes humanity not to reject God and to produce good fruit.
Jacob 6:9–10: Jacob reminds his people of impeding judgment, and encourages all to come unto Christ.
Jacob 6:11–13: Jacob gives a final exhortation to enter the gate that leads to eternal life.