Son of man, how is the wood of the vine, the vine branch, better than any other wood which is among the trees of the forest?

and say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah: A great eagle with large wings and long pinions, full of feathers of various colors, came to Lebanon and took the highest branch from the cedar.

Then he took some of the seed of the land and planted it in a fertile field; he placed it by abundant waters and set it like a willow tree.

There was another great eagle with large wings and many feathers; and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and stretched its branches toward him, away from the garden terrace where it had been planted, that he might water it.

Say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah: Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots, cut off its fruit, and leave it to wither? All of its sprouting leaves will wither, and no great power or many people will be needed to pluck it up by its roots.

and say to the forest of the South, Hear the Word of Jehovah! Thus says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it.

All flesh shall see that I, Jehovah, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.

Now I will sing to my Beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard. My Beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, please judge between Me and My vineyard.

And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard; I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down;

The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations has set out; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will fall into ruins without inhabitant.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Behold, My anger and My fury shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

And afterward, says Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, nor have pity, nor have mercy.

And like the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad; surely thus says Jehovah, Thus I will give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his rulers, and the rest of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt;

And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, until they are destroyed from the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.

behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Jehovah, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around. And I will completely destroy them, and make them a waste, and a hissing, and perpetual ruins.

And this whole land shall be a ruin and a waste. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your fathers, your kings, and your rulers, and the people of the land; did not Jehovah remember them, and did it not come into His mind?

Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, nor walked in His Law, nor in His statutes, nor did you walk in His testimonies, therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is this day.

Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will prepare and celebrate our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her. You will arise and carry out your vows, and prepare and celebrate your vows.

Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good. And all the men of Judah in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them.

But My Words and My statutes which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they turned back and said, As Jehovah of Hosts purposes to do to us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so He has dealt with us.