Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And the word of Jehovah 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, what is the wood of the vine more than any wood, —a branch, that 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 from it to be wrought into any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang a vessel upon?
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 devoureth both the ends of it, and the middle of it is burned. Is it then 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, nothing could be made of it; how much less can anything be made of it when the fire hath devoured it and it is burned!
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 to it 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 out 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 desolate, because they have grievously trespassed, saith the Lord Jehovah.
