Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And there is a word of YHWH 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 that has been, Among 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.
Is wood taken from it to use for work? Do they take a pin of it to hang any vessel on 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?
Behold, it has been given to the fire for fuel, The fire has eaten its two ends, And its midst has been scorched! Is it profitable for 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, in its being perfect it is not used for work, How much less when fire has eaten of it, And it is scorched, Has it been used yet 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, thus said Lord YHWH: “As the vine-tree among trees of the forest, That I have given to the fire for fuel, So I have given 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 have set My face against them, They have gone forth from the fire, And the fire consumes them, And you have known that I [am] YHWH, In My setting 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 have made the land a desolation, Because they have committed a trespass,” A declaration of Lord YHWH!
