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.

Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which 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 of it to do any work? or will men 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 is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the middle of it is burned. 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.

Behold, when it was whole, it was fit for no work: how much less then shall it be fit for any work, 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 GOD; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will 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; they shall go out from one fire, and another 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 committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.