15
The people of Jerusalem are like useless grapevines
1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said, 2 “You human, the wood of a grapevine is certainly not [RHQ] more useful that the branches of the trees in a 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. 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? 5 No; if it was not useful for anything before it was burned, it certainly cannot be made into something useful after the fire has burned and charred it.
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 Jerusalem are useless. 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. 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.”