Ezekiel 15

1 A message from the Lord came to me, saying,

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 “Son of man, is wood from a vine better than the wood from any other tree in the forest?

“Son of man, what can be made from the stalk of a vine, compared to all the plants of the woods that are among the trees of the forests?

3 Can you make anything useful from vine wood? Can you use it to make even just a peg to hang up pots and pans?

Can any wood be taken from it, so that it may be made into a work, or formed into a peg so as to hang some kind of vessel upon it?

4 No, you just throw it on the fire to keep the fire burning. Even then the fire burns both ends, but only chars the middle part. Can you use it for anything?

Behold, it is used in the fire as fuel. The fire consumes both its ends; and its middle is reduced to ashes. So how can it be useful for any work?

5 Even before you burned it you couldn't make it into anything useful. It's even less useful once the fire has burned and charred it!

Even when it was whole, it was unsuitable for a work. How much more so, when fire has devoured it and burned it up, will nothing of it be useful?

6 So this is what the Lord God says: In the same way that I have taken the wood of a vine from the forest and thrown it on the fire to be burned, so I'm going to throw away the people of Jerusalem.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Like the stalk of the vine among the trees of the forests, which I have given to be devoured by fire, so will I deliver the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

7 I will turn against them. While they might have escaped this fire, another fire is going to burn them up. When I turn against them, then you will know that I am the Lord.

And I will set my face against them. They will go away from fire, and yet fire will consume them. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have set my face against them,

8 I'm going to turn the country into a wasteland, because they were unfaithful to me, declares the Lord God.”

and when I will have made their land impassable and desolate. For they have stood forth as transgressors, says the Lord God.”