Ezekiel 15
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 15[a]
The Useless Vine. 1 This word of the Lord came to me:
2 Son of man, how is the wood of the vine
better than any other wood,
the vine branch from a tree in the forest?
3 Is its wood used to make anything?
Are pegs fashioned from it to hang anything?
4 If it is thrown on the fire for fuel,
and the fire consumes both ends and chars the middle,
is it useful for anything?
5 When it was whole,
it served no purpose.
How much less, when the fire has consumed it
and it is charred,
can it be used for anything?
6 Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest
that I have thrown on the fire for fuel,
so will I treat the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
7 I have set my face against them.
Although they escape from the fire,
that fire will still devour them.
And you will know that I am the Lord
when I turn my face against them.
8 I will reduce the entire land into a desolate waste
because they have been unfaithful,
says the Lord God.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 15:1 Ezekiel likes allegories and parables (Ezek 17:2). We have already met in Isaiah, the song of the disappointed vineyard owner (Isa 5:7). A vineyard was valuable for its fruit, not for its wood.
Yechezkel 15
Orthodox Jewish Bible
15 And the Devar Hashem came unto me, saying,
2 Ben adam, how is the etz hagefen (wood of the grapevine) better 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 yated (peg) of it to hang any vessel thereon?
4 Hinei, it is cast into the eish for fuel; the eish devoureth both the ends of it, and the middle of it is charred. Is it fit for any melachah (work)?
5 Hinei, when it was tamim (whole), it was fit for no work; how much less shall it be fit yet for any work, when the eish hath devoured it, and it is charred?
6 Therefore thus saith Adonoi Hashem: As the etz hagefen among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the eish for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
7 And I will set My face against them; they shall go out from one eish, and another eish shall devour them; and ye shall have da’as that I am Hashem, when I set My face against them.
8 And I will make ha’aretz desolate, because they have committed ma’al (unfaithfulness, betrayal of a trust), saith Adonoi Hashem.
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2008, 2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International