Ezekiel 15

The word of the LORD came to me. He said:

1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Note"The word of the LORD came to me" is a set formula that opens a prophetic message, marking what follows as something Ezekiel received rather than composed. LORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew, four consonants usually written YHWH, which readers of the Hebrew text did not pronounce aloud.

2"Son of man, how is the wood of a grapevine better than the wood of any other tree? How is it better than a branch among the trees of the forest?

2Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

Note"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning simply "human being" or "mortal." It is how God addresses Ezekiel throughout the book, over ninety times. The grapevine was a stock image for Israel in Hebrew poetry and prophecy, so the comparison would have been recognized at once. The point turns on carpentry: vine wood is soft, thin and crooked, valued only for its fruit, and useless as timber.

3Can you take wood from a vine and make anything useful out of it? Can anyone even make a peg from it to hang a pot or a dish on?

3Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?

NoteA "peg" here is a wooden pin driven into a wall, the ordinary household fitting from which pots, tools and utensils were hung in a house with little furniture. The test is deliberately modest, vine wood is not even strong or straight enough for that.

4Look, it gets thrown into the fire for fuel. The fire burns up both ends of it, and the middle is charred. Is it good for making anything now?

4Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work?

5Look, even when it was whole, it was no good for making anything. So it is even less useful now that the fire has eaten it and it is charred.

5Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned?

6So this is what the Lord GOD says: As I have handed the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest over to the fire for fuel, so I will hand over the people who live in Jerusalem.

6Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Note"Lord GOD" renders two Hebrew words together, a title meaning "master" followed by the personal name of God. The King James Version signals the difference by printing the second word in capitals; it does not mean two different beings.

7I will set my face against them. They may come out of one fire, but another fire will burn them up. When I set my face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.

7And I will set my face against them; they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.

Note"Set my face against" is an idiom for turning deliberate hostile attention on someone, the opposite of the blessing in which God's face shines on a person. It implies a fixed decision, not a passing mood. The fire imagery points to the burning of a captured city; the picture is of people who survive one destruction only to be caught in the next. Ezekiel was writing among Judeans already deported to Babylon, before Jerusalem's final fall in 586 BC.

8I will leave the land empty and ruined, because they have been unfaithful to me, says the Lord GOD."

8And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.