Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
And the word of Yahweh 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 can the vine-tree be more than any other tree, —any branch which hath been found 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 there be taken from it wood, to be made into any work? Or will men take therefrom a peg, to hang thereon any vessel?
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?
Lo! into the fire, it is given up for fuel, — The two ends thereof, doth the fire devour, And the middle thereof is charred, 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.
Lo! while it was yet whole, it could not be made into any work, — how much less when! the fire hath devoured it. and it is charred, can it still be made into 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 My Lord Yahweh, As a vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given up to the fire for fuel, 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].
Therefore will I set my face against them, Out of one fire, have they come forth But another fire, shall devour them, —So shall ye know that, I, am Yahweh, by 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.”
I will therefore give up the land as a desolation, —because they have committed treachery, Declareth My Lord., Yahweh.
