For thus says the Lord GOD; How much more when I send my four severe judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the wild beast, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast?

Son of man, How is the wood of the vine tree better than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

Behold, when it was whole, it was fit for no work: how much less shall it be fit yet for any work, when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned?

How weak is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you do all these things, the work of a brazen harlot;

And they shall take up a lamentation for you, and say to you, How are you destroyed, that were inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, which was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who cause their terror to be on all that inhabit it!

Therefore, O you son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus you speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we waste away in them, how should we then live?