Ezekiel 15

The vine’s wood

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, how is the vine's wood better than the wood of all the trees in the forest?

3 Can you make anything useful from its wood? Can you make a peg from it and hang objects on it?

4 If not, can it be used as firewood? Fire would consume its two ends, but its middle part would only get charred. So is it useful for anything?

5 Look, even when it was whole, it was worthless. Now that the fire has consumed it, and it is charred, it's even more useless.

6 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: Of all the trees in the forest, I have decreed that the vine's wood is destined to be consumed by fire. So also have I decreed for those who live in Jerusalem,

7 and I have confronted them. They may try to go out from the fire, but the fire will consume them. You will know that I am the LORD, because I confronted them.

8 I will turn the land into a ruin because they acted faithlessly, proclaims the LORD God.

Ezekiel 15 Commentary

Chapter 15

Jerusalem like an unfruitful vine.

- If a vine be fruitful, it is valuable. But if not fruitful, it is worthless and useless, it is cast into the fire. Thus man is capable of yielding a precious fruit, in living to God; this is the sole end of his existence; and if he fails in this, he is of no use but to be destroyed. What blindness then attaches to those who live in the total neglect of God and of true religion! This similitude is applied to Jerusalem. Let us beware of an unfruitful profession. Let us come to Christ, and seek to abide in him, and to have his words abide in us.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 15

The destruction of Jerusalem is again prophesied of in this chapter, and is set forth under the simile of a vine tree, which, for its uselessness, is committed to the fire. The simile is in Eze 15:1-5; the application of it in Eze 15:6-8.