Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
Then the word of the LORD 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, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in 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.
Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?
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?
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?
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.
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!
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 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.
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. 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.
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.”
Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
