³¹ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”^(A)

¹⁷ For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household;^(A) and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?^{(B) 18} And,

⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.^(A)

¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”^(A)

³ and say to her: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am against you.^(A) I will draw my sword^(B) from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.^{(C) 4} Because I am going to cut off the righteous and the wicked, my sword^(D) will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north.^(E)

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) 48} Everyone will see that I the Lord have kindled it; it will not be quenched.^(E)’”

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)

²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster^(A) on the city that bears my Name,^(B) and will you indeed go unpunished?^(C) You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword^(D) on all^(E) who live on the earth,^(F) declares the Lord Almighty.’