Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
2 “You human, the wood of a grapevine is certainly not [RHQ] more useful that the branches of the trees in a forest.
Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest?
3 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.
Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?
4 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?
Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire has devoured both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work?
5 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.
Behold, when it was whole, it was fit for no work. How much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned, shall it yet be fit for any work!
6 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].
Therefore thus says the lord Jehovah: As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
7 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].
And I will set my face against them. They shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah when I set my face against them.
8 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.”
And I will make the land desolate because they have committed a trespass, says the lord Jehovah.
