Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And 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.
And you, son of man—of all the wood, of the branches that are among the trees of the forest, what shall be made of the wood of the vine?
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.
Will they take wood of it to make [it fit] for work? will they take of it a peg to hang any vessel upon it?
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?
It is only given to the fire to be consumed; the fire consumes that which is yearly pruned of it, and it is utterly gone. Will it be useful 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.
Not even while it is yet whole will it be [useful] for [any] work: if the fire shall have utterly consumed it, will it still be [fit] for 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 say, Thus says the Lord, As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given up to the fire to be consumed, so have I given up 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 of the fire, and [yet] fire shall devour them; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have 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 give up the land to ruin, because they have utterly transgressed, says the Lord.
