Ezekiel 15
1 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
2 “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?
“You human, the wood of a grapevine is certainly not [RHQ] more useful that the branches of the trees in a forest.
3 Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?
No one [RHQ] ever takes a branch of a grapevine and makes anything [useful] from it. No one [RHQ] even makes pegs from them to hang things on.
4 No, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?
And after a branch of a grapevine is thrown into a fire, and the fire burns both ends and chars/scorches the branch in the middle, will it then be useful for anything?
5 Even when it was whole, it could not be made useful. How much less can it ever be useful when the fire has consumed it and charred it!
No; if it was not useful for anything before it was burned, it certainly cannot [made into something] useful after the fire has burned and charred it.
6 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the people of Jerusalem.
Therefore, this is what [I], Yahweh the Lord, say: The wood of grapevines is useful only for fuel in a fire. Similarly, the people who live in [are useless].
7 And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.
I will reject [IDM] them. [It will be as though] they have escaped from a fire, but there will still be a fire that will burn them up. And when I punish [EUP] them, you [people who remain alive] will know that I, Yahweh, [have done it].
8 Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
I will cause your country to become a wasteland because your people have not been loyal [to me. That is what I], Yahweh, the Lord, say.”
