Ezekiel 15 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The word of Yahweh came to me:

"Son of man — what is the vine wood compared to any branch among the trees of the forest?

Can wood be taken from it to make anything useful? Can you even carve a peg from it to hang something on?

Look — it gets thrown into the fire as fuel. The fire devours both ends and chars through the center. Is it good for anything now?

Even when it was whole, it could not be made into anything. How much less — once the fire has devoured it and it is charred — can it be put to any use at all?"

So this is what the Sovereign Yahweh says: "Like the vine wood among the trees of the forest — which I have given over to the fire as fuel — so I will give over the people living in Jerusalem.

I will set my face against them. They escaped one fire, but another fire will devour them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am Yahweh.

I will turn the land into a wasteland, because they have broken faith with me," declares the Sovereign Yahweh.