The Fire and the Vine

^1-2 [To Ezekiel:] 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 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will [men] take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?

⁴ Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel.

The fire devoures both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned.

Is it meet for any work?

⁵ Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work.

How much less shall it be meet yet for [any] work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned?

⁶ So I say: 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 set my face against them.

They shall go out from [one] fire, and [another] fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them.

⁸ I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass.