Judgment and Covenant Renewal

4 ^[a]“Surely the day is coming;^(A) it will burn like a furnace.^(B) All the arrogant^(C) and every evildoer will be stubble,^(D) and the day that is coming will set them on fire,^(E)” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch^(F) will be left to them.

⁴⁷ Say to the southern forest:^(A) ‘Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am about to set fire to you, and it will consume^(B) all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and every face from south to north^(C) will be scorched by it.^(D)

² “Son of man, how is the wood of a vine^(A) different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest? ³ Is wood ever taken from it to make anything useful?^(B) Do they make pegs^(C) from it to hang things on? ⁴ 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?^{(D) 5} If it was not useful for anything when it was whole, how much less can it be made into something useful when the fire has burned it and it is charred?

⁶ “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. ⁷ I will set my face against^(E) them. Although they have come out of the fire^(F), the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the Lord.^(G)