Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

By the wrath of the Lord Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another.

It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.

No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?”

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”

Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.”

And after it is thrown on the fire as fuel and the fire burns both ends and chars the middle, is it then useful for anything?

“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem.

You will be fuel for the fire, your blood will be shed in your land, you will be remembered no more; for I the Lord have spoken.’”

“‘Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel.

They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.

Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?