Ezekiel 15

God gave me another message. He said,

"Son of man, the wood of a grapevine is certainly not more useful than the branches of the trees in a forest.

No one even makes pegs from it to hang things on.

And after a branch of a grapevine is thrown into a fire and the fire burns both ends and chars the branch in the middle, after that will it be useful for anything?

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.

Therefore, this is what I, God the Lord, say: The wood of grapevines is useful only for fuel in a fire. Similarly, the people who live in Jerusalem are useless.

I will reject 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 them, you people who remain alive will know that I, God, have done it.

I will cause your country to become a wasteland because your people have not been loyal to me. That is what I, God, the Lord, say."