Ezekiel 15
1 Yahweh gave me another message. [He said],
The LORD’s word 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, the vine branch which is amongst 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.
Will wood be taken of it to make anything? 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 has devoured both its ends, and the middle of it is burnt. Is it profitable 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 suitable for no work. How much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it has been burnt, will it yet be suitable for 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 the Lord GOD says: “As the vine wood amongst the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will 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].
I will set my face against them. They will go out from the fire, but the fire will still devour them. Then you will 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.”
I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,” says the Lord GOD.
