The people of Jerusalem are like useless grapevines

1Yahweh 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.

3No 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.

4And 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?

5No; if it was not useful for anything before it was burned, it certainly cannot bemade into something useful after the fire has burned and charred it.

6Therefore, 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 Jerusalemare useless.

7I 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.

8I 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.”