The second evil to bring the destructive judgments of God upon Israel is her wicked leaders, both the political and the religious leaders. The “head” refers to the government, and the “tail” refers to the false prophets (v. 15). The branch and the rush (v. 14) is Hebrew parallelism, repeating the same thing. The rush includes the leaves, stems, or needles extending from the branch of a tree or plant. The words are arranged differently and read better in the Book of Mormon than the King James text (vv. 14–15), but the message is the same.