Ezekiel 15

¹ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows:

² ‘Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than wood from the branch of a forest tree?

³ Do people use its wood to carve it into something? Do they make a peg out of it, and hang things on it?

⁴ There it is, thrown on the fire for fuel. The fire burns off both ends; the middle is charred; is it fit for carving now?

⁵ While it was intact, it was impossible to carve; burned and charred, will it be now fit for carving?

⁶ Therefore, the Lord Yahweh says this: As the wood of the vine among the forest trees, which I have thrown on the fire for fuel, so have I treated the citizens of Jerusalem.

⁷ I have turned my face against them. They have escaped the fire, but the fire will devour them yet. And you will learn that I am Yahweh, when I turn my face against them.

⁸ I mean to reduce the country to desert, to punish their faithlessness to me – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.’