Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And the word of the LORD 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 vine-tree more than any tree, the vine branch which grew up 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 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 hath devoured both the ends of it, and the midst of it is singed; 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 meet for no work; how much less, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is singed, shall it yet be meet 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 GOD: As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so do 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; out of the fire are they come forth, and the fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, 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 acted treacherously, saith the Lord GOD.'
