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Chapter Summary
God by his Prophet setting his benefits, 15. and the Jews' wickedness before their eyes, 31. compareth them with other idolaters: 35. and after threatened punishment, 45. with further comparison of other nations, 52. exhorting them to repentance, 60. offereth mercy by a new covenant of Christ's Gospel.
Jerusalem the Useless Vine
1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2“Son of man, what can be made from the stalk of a vine, compared to all the plants of the woods that are among the trees of the forests?
3Can any wood be taken from it, so that it may be made into a work, or formed into a peg so as to hang some kind of vessel upon it?
4Behold, it is used in the fire as fuel. The fire consumes both its ends; and its middle is reduced to ashes. So how can it be useful for any work?
5Even when it was whole, it was unsuitable for a work. How much more so, when fire has devoured it and burned it up, will nothing of it be useful?
6Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Like the stalk of the vine among the trees of the forests, which I have given to be devoured by fire, so will I deliver the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
7And I will set my face against them. They will go away from fire, and yet fire will consume them. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have set my face against them,
8and when I will have made their land impassable and desolate. For they have stood forth as transgressors, says the Lord God.”