Ezekiel 15

1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],

And the word of Jehovah came unto 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 wood of the vine more than any wood, 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 thereof to do 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 given to the fire for fuel: the fire consumeth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned; is it fit 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 used for no work; how much less when the fire hath consumed it, and it is burned, should it yet be used 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 saith the Lord Jehovah: As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I 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 [one] fire, and [another] 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 a desolation, because they have wrought unfaithfulness, saith the Lord Jehovah.