Come and save this grapevine that you planted, this young vine you made grow so strong!

Our enemies have set it on fire and cut it down; look at them in anger and destroy them!

"Mortal man," he said, "how does a vine compare with a tree? What good is a branch of a grapevine compared with the trees of the forest?

It is only good for building a fire. And when the ends are burned up and the middle is charred, can you make anything out of it?

Now this is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "Just as a vine is taken from the forest and burned, so I will take the people who live in Jerusalem

They have been unfaithful to me, and so I will make the country a wilderness." The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

Tell the southern forest to hear what the Sovereign LORD is saying: Look! I am starting a fire, and it will burn up every tree in you, whether green or dry. Nothing will be able to put it out. It will spread from south to north, and everyone will feel the heat of the flames.

The ax is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.

Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned.

Cattle know who owns them, and donkeys know where their master feeds them. But that is more than my people Israel know. They don't understand at all."

Such people are too stupid to know what they are doing. They close their eyes and their minds to the truth.

It makes as much sense as eating ashes. His foolish ideas have so misled him that he is beyond help. He won't admit to himself that the idol he holds in his hand is not a god at all.

Obey them faithfully, and this will show the people of other nations how wise you are. When they hear of all these laws, they will say, 'What wisdom and understanding this great nation has!'

"Israel is a nation without sense; they have no wisdom at all.

They fail to see why they were defeated; they cannot understand what happened.

The LORD says, "My people are stupid; they don't know me. They are like foolish children; they have no understanding. They are experts at doing what is evil, but failures at doing what is good."

Then I thought, "These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do.

I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely they know what their God requires, what the LORD wants them to do." But all of them have rejected the LORD's authority and refuse to obey him.

Pay attention, you foolish and stupid people, who have eyes, but cannot see, and have ears, but cannot hear.

I am the LORD; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through.

Even storks know when it is time to return; doves, swallows, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But, my people, you do not know the laws by which I rule you.

My people are doomed because they do not acknowledge me. You priests have refused to acknowledge me and have rejected my teaching, and so I reject you and will not acknowledge your sons as my priests.

because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God, and I would heal them.'

Those who hear the message about the Kingdom but do not understand it are like the seeds that fell along the path. The Evil One comes and snatches away what was sown in them.

Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do.

they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others.

Israel, the LORD who created you says, "Do not be afraid---I will save you. I have called you by name---you are mine.

They are my own people, and I created them to bring me glory."

It makes as much sense as eating ashes. His foolish ideas have so misled him that he is beyond help. He won't admit to himself that the idol he holds in his hand is not a god at all.

The LORD says, "Israel, remember this; remember that you are my servant. I created you to be my servant, and I will never forget you.

"I am the LORD, your savior; I am the one who created you. I am the LORD, the Creator of all things. I alone stretched out the heavens; when I made the earth, no one helped me.

he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret

that he said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them."

They forgot their God, their mighty savior, the one who had given them life.

'I will no longer help them,' he said; 'then I will see what happens to them, those stubborn, unfaithful people.

My anger will flame up like fire and burn everything on earth. It will reach to the world below and consume the roots of the mountains.

They will die from hunger and fever; they will die from terrible diseases. I will send wild animals to attack them, and poisonous snakes to bite them.

But they made fun of God's messengers, ignoring his words and laughing at his prophets, until at last the LORD's anger against his people was so great that there was no escape.

So the LORD brought the king of Babylonia to attack them. The king killed the young men of Judah even in the Temple. He had no mercy on anyone, young or old, man or woman, sick or healthy. God handed them all over to him.

So the LORD was angry with his people; he was disgusted with them.

But I will not have pity on them; I will do to them what they have done to others."

They even tried to stop us from preaching to the Gentiles the message that would bring them salvation. In this way they have brought to completion all the sins they have always committed. And now God's anger has at last come down on them!

with a flaming fire, to punish those who reject God and who do not obey the Good News about our Lord Jesus.

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from his glorious might,

For God will not show mercy when he judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgment.