EZEKIEL 15 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

Jerusalem as a Useless Vine1 The word of the Lord came to me:

GILL, "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. The destruction of Jerusalem had been represented under various types and similes before, as of a siege, and a sharp razor; and here of a fruitless and useless vine, only fit for the fire; which was delivered out by a spirit of prophecy. The Targum calls it the word of prophecy, as usual.

HENRY 1-2, "The prophet, we may suppose, was thinking what a glorious city Jerusalem was, above any city in the world; it was the crown and joy of the whole earth;and therefore what a pity it was that it should be destroyed; it was a noble structure, the city of God, and the city of Israel's solemnities. But, if these were the thoughts of his heart, God here returns an answer to them by comparing Jerusalem to a vine. 1. It is true, if a vine be fruitful, it is a most valuable tree, none more so; it was one of those that were courted to have dominion over the trees, and the fruit of it is such as cheers God and man (Jdg_9:12, Jdg_9:13); it makes glad the heart, Psa_104:15. So Jerusalem was planted a choice and noble vine, wholly a right seed (Jer_2:21); and, if it had brought forth fruit suitable to its character as a holy city, it would have been the glory both of God and Israel. It was a vine which God's right hand had planted, a branch out of a dry ground, which, though its original was mean and despicable, God had made strong for himself (Psa_80:15), to be to him for a name and for a praise. 2. But, if it be not fruitful, it is good for nothing, it is as worthless and useless a production of the earth as even thorns and briers are: What is the vine-tree, if you take the tree by itself, without consideration of the fruit? What is it more than any tree, that it should have so much care taken of it and so much cost laid out upon it? What is a branch of the vine, though it spread more than a branch which is among the trees of the forest, where it grows neglected and exposed? Or, as some read it, What is the vine more than any tree if the branch of it be as the trees of the forest; that is, if it bear no fruit, as forest-trees seldom do, being designed for timber-trees, not fruit-trees? Now there are some fruit-trees which, if they do not bear, are nevertheless of good use, as the wood of them may be

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made to turn to a good account; but the vine is not of this sort: if that do not answer its end as a fruit-tree, it is worth nothing as a timber-tree. Observe,

JAMISON, "Eze_15:1-8. The worthlessness of the vine as wood especially when burnt, is the image of the worthlessness and guilt of the Jews, who shall pass from one fire to another. This chapter represents, in the way of a brief introduction, what the sixteenth chapter details minutely.

K&D 1-8, "And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze_15:2. Son of man, what advantage has the wood of the vine over every wood, the vine-branch, which was among the trees of the forest? Eze_15:3. Is wood taken from it to use for any work? or do men take a peg from it to hang all kinds of vessels upon? Eze_15:4. Behold, it is given to the fire to consume. If the fire has consumed its two ends, and the middle of it is scorched, will it then be fit for any work? Eze_15:5. Behold, when it is uninjured, it is not used for any work: how much less when the fire has consumed it and scorched it can it be still used for work? Eze_15:6. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, As the wood of the vine among the wood of the forest, which I give to the fire to consume, so do I give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Eze_15:7. And direct my face against them. They have gone out of the fire, and the fire will consume them; that ye may learn that I am Jehovah, when I set my face against them. Eze_15:8. And I make the land a desert, because they committed treachery, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - Israel is like the wood of the wild vine, which is put into the fire to burn, because it is good for nothing. From Deu_32:32-33 onwards, Israel is frequently compared to a vine or a vineyard (cf. Psa_80:9.; Isa 5; Hos_10:1; Jer_2:21), and always, with the exception of Ps 80, to point out its degeneracy. This comparison lies at the foundation of the figure employed, in Eze_15:2-5, of the wood of the wild vine. This wood has no superiority over any other kind of wood. It cannot be used, like other timber, for any useful purposes; but is only fit to be burned, so that it is really inferior to all other wood (Eze_15:2 and Eze_15:3). And if, in its perfect state, it cannot be used for anything, how much less when it is partially scorched and consumed (Eze_15:4 and Eze_15:5)! ַמה־ִּיְהֶיה, followed by ִמן, means, what is it above (ִמן, comparative)? - i.e., what superiority has it to ָּכל־ֵעץ, all kinds of wood? i.e., any other wood. 'ָרה ַהְזמ ֲאֶׁשר וגו is in apposition to ֵעץ and is not to be ,ַהֶּנֶפןconnected with ִמָּכל־ֵעץ, as it has been by the lxx and Vulgate, - notwithstanding the Masoretic accentuation, - so as to mean every kind of fagot; for ָרה ְזמ does not mean a fagot, but the tendril or branch of the vine (cf. Eze_8:17), which is still further defined by the following relative clause: to be a wood-vine, i.e., a wild vine, which bears only sour, uneatable grapes. The preterite ָהָיה (which was; not, “is”) may be explained from the idea that the vine had been fetched from the forest in order that its wood might be used. The answer given in Eze_15:3 is, that this vine-wood cannot be used for any purpose whatever, not even as a peg for hanging any kind of domestic utensils upon (see comm. on Zec_10:4). It is too weak even for this. The object has to be supplied to ת ַלֲעׂש to make, or apply it, for any work. Because it cannot be used as timber, it is :ִלְמָלאָכהburned. A fresh thought is introduced in Eze_15:4 by the words 'ֵאת ְׁשֵני The two .ק

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clauses in Eze_15:4 are to be connected together. The first supposes a case, from which the second is deduced as a conclusion. The question, “Is it fit for any work?” is determined in Eze_15:5 in the negative. ַאף :ֵיָחר perfect; and :ָנָחר .as in Eze_14:21 :ִּכיimperfect, Niphal, of ָחַרר, in the sense of, to be burned or scorched. The subject to waַוֵּיָחר is no doubt the wood, to which the suffix in ֲאָכַלְתהּו refers. At the same time, the two clauses are to be understood, in accordance with Eze_15:4, as relating to the burning of the ends and the scorching of the middle. - Eze_15:6-8. In the application of the parable, the only thing to which prominence is given, is the fact that God will deal with the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the same manner as with the vine-wood, which cannot be used for any kind of work. This implies that Israel resembles the wood of a forest-vine. As this possesses no superiority to other wood, but, on the contrary, is utterly useless, so Israel has no superiority to other nations, but is even worse than they, and therefore is given up to the fire. This is accounted for in Eze_15:7 : “They have come out of the fire, and the fire will consume them” (the inhabitants of Jerusalem). These words are not to be interpreted proverbially, as meaning, “he who escapes one judgment falls into another” (Hävernick), but show the application of Eze_15:4 and Eze_15:5 to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Out of a fire one must come either burned or scorched. Israel has been in the fire already. It resembles a wild vine which has been consumed at both ends by the fire, while the middle has been scorched, and which is now about to be given up altogether to the fire. We must not restrict the fire, however, out of which it has come half consumed, to the capture of Jerusalem in the time of Jehoiachin, as Hitzig does, but must extend it to all the judgments which fell upon the covenant nation, from the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes to the catastrophe in the reign of Jehoiachin, and in consequence of which Israel now resembled a vine burned at both ends and scorched in the middle. The threat closes in the same manner as the previous one. Compare Eze_15:7 with Eze_14:8, and Eze_15:8 with Eze_14:15 and Eze_14:13.BI 1-8, "What is the vine tree more than any tree.The worthless vine doomed for the fireFounding on old similitudes, the prophet assumes that Israel is the vine, and compares it as a tree or as wood with the other trees of the forest. It is as wood that it is put in comparison with the trees. He is studiously silent in regard to the fruit of the vine. This which gave the vine its preeminence (Jdg_9:13), cannot be touched upon, for it does not exist. It is the wood of the vine only that can be compared with the other trees of the forest, the feeble, Creeping plant with the lofty trees around it. Judah never had any pretensions to be a powerful state, or to enter into competition in wealth or military resources with the kingdoms round about. As a tree among the trees, a state among the states, what was it good for? And especially now, what is it good for, when it has already been in the fire, its ends consumed and its heart charred? What is it fit for, or need it expect, but to be flung again into the fire and wholly consumed? (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Fit only for the fireThese fallen branches form the fuel which the woodman gathers for his fire. They are at once fit for the burning, for there is no sap, no resisting element of life in them; the burning fitly consummates the process of oxidation long ago begun and carried on in

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them. In a similar way there are in the True Vine dry and withered branches, having no share in His vitality—whose connection with Him is a purely mechanical one. They are deformities upon Him. The dispensations of God’s Providence that help to develop the growth and fruitfulness of Christ’s true disciples only wither them into greater deadness, and blanch them into greater deformity, and cause to grow upon them the noxious parasitic growths of worldly lusts. The flame of Tophet is the fit consummation of the spiritual oxidation and decay that has been going on for years. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.)

Sin makes men worthlessProfessors of religion, if they do not live up to their profession, but contradict it, if they degenerate and depart from it, are the most unprofitable creatures in the world, like the salt that has lost its savour, and is thenceforth good for nothing. Other nations were famed for valour or politics, some for war, others for trade, and retained their credit; but the Jewish nation, being famous as a holy people, when they lost their holiness and became wicked, were thenceforth good for nothing; with that they lost all their credit and usefulness, and became the most base and despicable people under the sun. Daniel and ether pious Jews were of great use in their generation; but the idolatrous Jews then, and the unbelieving Jews now, since the preaching of the Gospel, have been, and are, of no common service, not fit for any work. (M. Henry.)

Fruitful and uselessThe single idea of this brief chapter is that if the vine should fail in grapes it fails altogether. There is a whole philosophy of life in that single and simple fact. The great and solemn doctrine is this, that everything is to be judged by the purpose for which it was created. Here is a school: what ideas do we associate with the word school? Reading, study, letters, arts, instruction, mental illumination, intellectual development and progress: these ideas are right, they are cognate, they are just. Does this school produce that result? No. What then? Then it is not a school: it is a place of darkness, or an asylum of ignorance; it is a corner of imprisonment, or a place of mental degradation. What do you think of this painting? It is a likeness of your dearest friend. Having given you this introduction to the painting, what will be your standard of judgment? You will at once seek your friend in it; it will not do for you to say that the drapery is beautifully painted, the foreground is excellent, and the background is superb, and everything about it of the nature of technique would please an artist of the highest degree: you are not looking in that direction, because in that direction you have no vision; the gate of that outlook is locked against you: but you know your friend, and your friend is not there. Will you purchase that picture? No. If it had been a picture only you might have bought it; but it professed to be a friend. It lies. That which, introduced to me as a work of art, might have charmed me, shocks me when it comes under false pretences. So, then, you have the same law of the fifteenth chapter of Ezekiel operating through and through your life; you keep your shop upon it, you conduct your whole business upon it: why do you shrink from applying it to yourself, your character, the result of your training? Oh that men were wise, that they were fearless enough to apply their own commonsense to their own moral condition! This standard of judgment will keep us right in estimating everything. Do you seek grapes on thorns? You are operating in the wrong direction. Do you seek figs on thistles? You will never find them. You must judge everything by its purpose, and

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according as a thing serves its purpose is it really good and really valuable. That standard would keep us right in all judgment if we would abide by it. Judge prayer by the same standard. What is the object of prayer? Submission to the Divine will. It is no part of my business to pray conclusively, and without leaving God any alternative, that the child’s life may be spared. The child is not mine. No man or woman has a child; the child is God’s: “All souls are Mine.” I will therefore say, Lord, I love this little child, and without it I feel as if I could not live: may I have it a while longer? No. Thy will, my God, be done. The same judgment ought to be applied to the Bible. For what should a man go to the Bible? For God. Will he find God there? On every page. You are now in the right direction, you have gone upon the proper quest; you will receive answers along that line, and doors will fly back along the whole circle of the horizon to admit you into larger liberty. In all things judge by the purpose. The Bible is a vine that grows, so to say, revelations of God. And judge men by the same standard. What is the great purpose of man? To represent God. When he fulfils that purpose he fulfils his election and calling; when he fails of that purpose, no matter what he is, he has failed to bring forth fruit unto God. How all things would be harmonised and adjusted righteously if we could receive this rule! One star differeth from another star in glory: judge each star by its weight, distance, magnitude, and relation to the whole solar system as known to us. (J. Parker, D. D.)

A parabolic picture of IsraelI. God has placed some sections of the human race under special culture.

1. This was the case with the Jews (Deu_32:32; Isa_1:1-31; Psa_80:1-19; Jer_2:21).2. This is the case with Christendom.3. This is especially the case with Great Britain.

II. Those sections of the race under special culture are, whether fruitful or unfruitful, widely distinguished from all others.1. If fruitful they are distinguished by valuableness. What on earth is of higher value than a godly life?2. If unfruitful, they are distinguished by worthlessness. Unless the “vine” produce grapes it is more worthless than most other trees of the forest. You cannot manufacture furniture out of it, construct ships, or build houses; unless it grows grapes it is fit for nothing but the fire.

III. The distinction between those under special culture and those who are not is recognised and retributed by God (Mat_7:26-27). (Homilist.)

Man’s power dependent upon knowledge of GodAll history has shown this parable to be true. It was the moral and religious power of the Jewish nation which was their strength. When they abandoned that, they failed. Other nations exceeded them in material resources, other minds surpassed them in philosophical acuteness and power of expression, other people are identified more surely in history with pictures of great wealth and Eastern magnificence; but through all

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ancient literature that wonderful people are ever appearing as the holders of a strange and powerful religion, which in some way had an influence out of all proportion to the power of the people who propagated it, which gained an influence over men of all nations and ages, and held captive, time and time again, the very conquerors of the land. The vine as a vine did a work which as a tree, as mere wood, it could not accomplish; its clusters did for the glory of God and the blessing of man what its branches never could accomplish.I. This parable and its fulfilment lay down the principle, that what God offers is the only thing that is good for us, and that comparative failure awaits us in any other paths than those of His opening. God’s offers in this light are commands. We are free to accept them as far as our will goes, but we are bound to accept them as far as our nature goes. God, in offering, always has a tone of freest invitation; but all the time, from our own lives, if we would only hear it, there is constantly arising the loudest command to us to accept His offers. Leave out moral power, and leave out the desire of man to go upward, and what is he but the weakest and most dissatisfied creature on earth? What is this vine tree, then, more than any tree? Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Is it meet for any work? Understand the position of the Bible about man, and see how true it is. “What is man,” says the Psalmist, “that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?” David said this when he considered the heavens and the moons and the stars; and surely we men, who, with all our wisdom, have never yet moved one heavenly body out of its course, and are still looking up into the heavens like little children gazing out of the window at twilight, and who feel so proud if, like those children, we can only say, “I think I see another star,” surely we are not yet ready to wipe out the record of the insignificance of man. Be proud of anything but your own power to know God, and to reach out after Him, and to aspire to be like Him in moral character, and you are wasting your life. Be humble, see how the riches of the world dwarf any fortune you may succeed in making, how the power and beauty of the inanimate or animal creation throw into the shade anything that you may accomplish, and at once you will begin to seek the true riches which God alone can give, and which man alone, of ell God’s creatures, can possess. Humility is the gate of entrance into power always. Go and sit down in the lowest seat at the world’s feast, see how other things surpass you, and then soon you will hear the voice of the master of the feast saying, Friend, go up higher. “Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee”; then shalt thou learn thy superiority, as God’s child, over all other things in the world; then will all things be yours. For then you will begin to be God’s vine; you will develop just those things in which the vine excels,—dependence, life, and fruit.II. We have seen that man’s strength as man, compared with the rest of creation, is in knowing God. Now let us see that it is likewise the strength of the individual man as compared with his fellow man, to know God. It is a difference in moral power that will determine for each one his place in life. That one who has high ideas, noble ambitions, lofty pictures, will succeed in life. It is not what is around us, but what is in us, that brings out our power. Every man ought to assert himself. Men and women have no right to be like so many bricks in the social structure,—all cast in one mould, all of one hue and shape. If out of our faces and in our actions there appeared the power of God’s love working upon us, if each of us appreciated the privilege of being a child in God’s family, surely it would not be so. The hope of the individual man lies in the knowledge of Christ. If you would know your own place in life, and fill it, and cease to be one of a crowd of men, get the knowledge of the Saviour, who can alone teach you of God; depend upon Him, draw your life from Him, produce your fruit for Him. Let Him deepen your moral

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life. Seek not the things of this life, which, if you succeed in obtaining, will only place your name a little higher or lower in a list of others who are very much like you; but strive for that knowledge of God which shall write your individual name in the Lamb’s book of life, never to be blotted out, the name of a child of God.III. Let me make one more application of the prophet’s parable; that is, to the Christian life. Mankind is God’s great vine, and every man is a vine; but above all, those whom God has chosen constitute the great vine, the peculiar people like Israel of old, whom He has chosen to bear fruit for Himself. The object of Christianity is to do that, and it should never be used for anything else. Christian services are not to be used to please our aesthetic tastes; Christian truth is not to be a mere weak substance for us to be sentimental over; Christian churches and the attendance on them are not to be used as the stamp of social standing, or as a badge of good intentions; Christian profession is not to be a formality with which to satisfy our consciences; Christian doctrine is not to be a mere subject of discussion. Christianity is to make us better men and women; it is to make us God’s servants in all that we do; it is to make us know that He is our God, because He has sent Christ to be our Saviour; it is to raise our standard of life, and make us know that we are sinners; it is to tell us that our sins are forgiven, and to make us firm, by the love of God in us, to turn from those sins, and walk in newness of life. Let that be the way we hold our Christianity out to men, in word and in deed, as we use it thus ourselves. Such a power men need; such a power Christ alone can supply. (Arthur Brooks.)

The fruitless vineI. A lesson of humility for all who have “tasted that the Lord is gracious.” “What is the vine tree more than any tree,” etc. In looking upon all the various trees we observe that the vine is distinguished amongst them—so that, in the old parable of Jotham, the trees waited upon the vine tree, and said unto it, “Come thou and reign over us.” But merely looking at the vine, without regard to its fruitfulness, we should not see any kingship in it over other trees. In size, form, beauty, or utility it has not the slightest advantage. We can do nothing with the wood of the vine. It is a useless plant apart from its fruitfulness. Now, beloved, this is for the humbling of God’s people. They are called God’s vine; but what are they by nature more than others? Others are as good as they; yea, some others are even greater and better than they. They, by God’s goodness, have become fruitful, having been planted in a good sell; the Lord hath trained them upon the walls of the sanctuary, and they bring forth fruit to His glory. But what are they without their God? What are they without the continual influence of the Spirit, begetting fruitfulness in them? Are they not the least among the sons of men, and the most to be despised of those that have been brought forth of women? Look upon this, believer. Dost thou exalt thyself? Oh! strange mystery, that thou, who hast borrowed everything, shouldst exalt thyself; that thou, who hast nothing of thine own, but hast still to draw upon grace, shouldst be proud; a poor dependent pensioner upon the bounty of thy Saviour, and yet proud; one who bath a life which can only live by fresh streams of life from Jesus, and yet proud!II. A lesson of search. As the vine without its fruit is useless and worthless; so, too, the professor, without fruit, is useless and worthless; yea, he is the most useless thing in the wide world.

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1. A fruitless professor.(1) Where are we to find fruitless professors? Everywhere—down here, up there, everywhere; in pulpits and in pews.(2) Now, shall I tell you who is a fruitless professor? The man who neglects private prayer, and does not walk with his God in public; that man whose carriage and conversation before God are hypocritical; who cheats in trade and robs in business, yet wraps it up, and comes out with a fair face, like the hypocrite with a widow’s house sticking in his throat, and says, “Lord, I thank thee I am not as other men are!” There is a man for you, who brings forth no fruit to perfection. Another one is he who lives right morally and excellently, and depends upon his works, and hopes to be saved by his righteousness: who comes before God, and asks for pardon, with a lie in his right hand, for he has brought his own self-righteousness with him. Such a man is a fruitless professor: he has brought forth no fruit. That man, again, is a fruitless professor who talks big words about high doctrine, and likes sound truth, but he does not like sound living: his pretensions are high, but not his practice.

2. Why is it that these men are fruitless, and must be cast away? The reason is, because they have no roots. Many jump into godliness as they would into a bath; but they are very glad to jump out of it again, when they find the world pays them better. And many there are who will just come and say they are the Lord’s, and they think they are, but there is no root in them, and therefore by and by their impressions pass away.3. What is God’s estimation of a fruitless professor? It is this that he is the most useless thing in the world.4. What is to become of this fruitless tree? When an old vine is pulled off the wall, after having brought forth no fruit, what becomes of it? You know, there is a lot of weeds raked up in a corner of the garden, and the gardener, without taking any notice of it, just throws the vine on the heap of weeds, and it is burned up. If it were any other kind of tree he would at least reserve it for chopping up to make a fire within the master’s house; but this is such an ignominious thing, he throws it away in the corner, and burns it up with the weeds. If it were a stout old oak, it might have the funeral of the yule log, with honour in its burning, and brightness in its flame; but the fruitless vine is treated with contempt, and left to smoulder with the weeds, the refuse, and the rubbish. It is a miserable thing. Just so with professors; all men that love not God must perish. But those who profess to love Him, and do not, shall perish with singular ignominy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The end of man’s existenceI. The end of man’s existence is to love and serve God.

1. He has all the natural powers that are requisite to serve this end.2. He is placed in circumstances that are favourable to the working out of this end.

II. This is the exclusive end of man’s existence.1. Not wealth.

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2. Not pleasure.3. Not power.4. Not fame.5. Not learning.6. Not domestic comfort.

III. Man, if he does not serve this end, is fit only to be destroyed.1. By his destruction he will be a warning to others.2. By his destruction he will be a monument of the Divine justice. (G. Brooks.)

The end of man’s existenceI. Man is naturally capable of yielding a most precious fruit: this fruit consists in living to God.

1. He is possessed of all the natural powers which are requisite for that purpose. He is endowed with reason and understanding, enabling him to perceive the proofs of the being of God, and to entertain just, though inadequate, conceptions of the principal attributes of His nature.2. As we are possessed of natural powers, fitting us for the service of God, so He has bestowed upon us much care and culture, with an express view to this end.

II. This is the only end for which mankind are formed and preserved; this is the proper fruit of human nature, which admits of nothing being substituted in its room.1. A mere selfish, voluptuous life cannot be supposed to be the proper fruit of human nature.2. A life of social benevolence, in which the public good is preserved, without a supreme regard to God, cannot be this fruit.

(1) To do good to our fellow creatures, without regard to God, is to forget the principal relation in which we stand, and, consequently, to neglect the principal duty.(2) The end of man’s existence cannot, with any propriety, be considered as confined to this world; but the proper end accomplished by mere social virtues is entirely confined to the present state.(3) No collective number of men can be independent of God, more than a single individual; therefore no such collective body has a right to consult their common interest, to the neglect of God, any more than a Tingle individual to pursue his individual interest.

III. He who answers not the end of his existence is fit only to be destroyed. The barren vine may be useful as fuel, and to this purpose it is much applied in eastern countries. Thus wicked men may be useful with a subordinate kind of usefulness, by their destruction.1. They may thereby become edifying examples of the just vengeance of God, in order

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to deter others.2. They will serve to manifest those attributes of the Great Supreme which their conduct disowned, and which it seemed virtually to call in question.

(1) What blindness attaches to those who live in the total neglect of God and religion!(2) What little room is there for that confidence which many place in correctness of deportment towards their fellow creatures, while religion is not even pretended to be the governing principle of their lives!(3) What need have we all to examine ourselves, and seriously to inquire, whether we are yielding that fruit unto God, on which we have been insisting!(4) How ought those to be alarmed, when the result of such examination is, that they have been hitherto utterly without fruit! (R. Hall, M. A.)

Fruit God’s primary intentionThe fruit of the vine was God’s primary intention: for its wood was of no practical use: “Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men make a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?” God divides His gifts among trees, as among men and nations. The vine is not blamed for not being a cedar—for not yielding timber for the furniture of the temple; but simply and only for not bearing its own refreshing cluster of grapes. And so with nations: so with Israel, so with England. It is not enough for our own nation to apologise for its worldliness by proving it is no worse than some other nation. God has given us as a nation our national task; by that, and that alone, are we to be judged. “We are not worse than others,” Israel said; and fell. The air has laxly been full of these selfish and self-deceiving pleas: and they are our worst danger. They are the moth and rust of conscience; they both work our decay and conceal it. “Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work”—that elegant, delicate vine; “how much less shall it be meet yet for any work when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned?” A nation is prosperous, not by the appearance it makes, but by the Divine purpose it follows. Without that, growing, it decays; decayed, it is cast into the fire. Let the individual also ask—For what does God want me? He wants you not to do another’s work, but your own. Your fruit is wanted in lolls vineyard. This is too wonderful for you to know why: it is enough that He knows. If I fail to give Him what is mine to give, He cannot take anything else from me. Had He made me a thorn, I would have to blossom to His honour, white and fragrant: He would understand. But seeing He has made me a vine, I must produce vine fruit for His feast of charity. The strength of the cedar He may have given to another: He knew why. I must not trouble about cedar, or oak, or fir: I must look after the fruit He expects from me. (H. E. Lewis.)

They shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them.—A man sins physically, and because the punishment comes in a subtle deterioration of the mind, he imagines he has outrun heaven’s “red lightning.” Or he sins socially, and because the fraud is not discovered, or else it is winked at, he thinks himself safe: and all the time the poison is deadening all that is fairest within him. Rather, let a man pray—even in his sin, if he can pray—that he may keep the sense of sin’s penalty. The torture of sin is better 10

than its intoxication. (H. E. Lewis.).

CALVIN, “The Prophet’s intention is to humble the foolish confidence of the people, who boasted of the gratuitous kindness of God, as if they were naturally excellent: hence, also, their obstinacy against his threats was so great. For when the prophets reprove them sharply, they boasted against them the remarkable gifts by which they were divinely adorned: as if they had been so armed by God’s benefits to resist his power, for we know that they were so blinded. Since, then, that disease had attacked the people, it is not surprising that the prophets in many places refute such folly. But the Prophet here uses a simile to show the Jews that they were not intrinsically but only accidentally excellent, since God had treated them as worthy of remarkable benefits. Since it is so, their arrogance is easily refuted, when they oppose their superiority to God, as if it were peculiar to them, and not God’s special gift. But we must understand the simile which Ezekiel uses: what is the vine more than other trees of the woods? It is certain that the vine produces very good fruit, and therefore is preferred to other trees: the very flower of the vine has a most, delicious scent; but the fruit which it produces proves its excellence. For the wood of the vine is without elegance and shapeless: it does not attain to any thickness; it is slender, pliable, and twisted. In looking at a vine, it. seems scarcely worth numbering among shrubs: if compared with trees, it clearly has no value; but in the excellency of trees something is easily acknowledged which surpasses all vines. For when we cast our eyes upon a branching tree, we are struck with admiration, while the vine lies at, our feet. If, therefore, a tree is compared with the wood of the vine, it will be praised for its beauty, while the vine will be despised as a low and insignificant wood. Hence God collects that the Jews were in no respect more excellent than others, unless because they are planted by himself, as he says in many places in Isaiah, O my vine, I have planted thee. (Isaiah 5:0.) Then in the 80th Psalm: he brought his vine out of Egypt, and planted and propagated it even to the sea, (Psalms 80:9; Jeremiah 2:21.)

Now we understand the Prophet’s meaning, namely, that the Jews excelled, indeed, in privileges, but not in nature, nor yet by themselves, but by the gratuitous kindness of God: and if other nations were compared with them, they had greater dignity than the Jews. And we know that other nations flourished in arts and wealth, in population, in warlike valor, and in other respects: the profane nations were like lofty trees which grow up and attract all eyes to themselves. But the Jews

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were like a vine which, being planted by God’s hand, deserved more praise than the trees of the wood which were fruitless. Ezekiel now carries on the comparison at, greater length: if the vine is torn up, can its wood, says he, be fitted to any use? it will not make beams or tables, or any vessels; it will not make a peg or a hook on which to hang a hat or cloak, or anything of the kind. Since, then, the wood of the vine is useless when torn from the soil, and is of no use but for burning, hence the Jews are made acquainted with their condition since their excellence and worthiness depend on the mere good pleasure of God: since, as he planted them, he can pluck them up in a moment; and when they have been torn up, they will be altogether useless, and will be cast into the fire, while trees are of some use. But, the Prophet proceeds another step: if a bundle of twigs were cast into the fire, and the two extreme parts were burnt up, and the middle made dry, that scorched part would be much less useful. For since fire penetrates to the very marrow, wood, which is half consumed, is reduced to powder by the touch alone: He afterwards accommodates what he had said about the vine to the city of Jerusalem; therefore let us go on to the rest of the context.

COFFMAN, "Verse 1

PARABLE OF THE CORRUPT VINE TREE

Some commentators have missed the point altogether in this little chapter. Howie, for example, stated that, "The vine tree was fit only for the production of fruit";[1] but he overlooked the fact that this particular vine was classed with the "trees of the forest" (Ezekiel 15:2), and not with the noble vines which were always in the vineyard. The vine under consideration here is therefore the vine that represents apostate Israel. This vine is variously described in the versions and translations, as bastard, degenerate, wild, corrupt, foreign, strange, etc. The figure is that of a totally useless wild vine in the forest, fit only for fuel, and, for that matter, not very good fuel!

The simple message of this chapter is that, "Jerusalem was useless either for the production of fruit or anything else and was fit only for burning."[2] This chapter is particularly addressed to the overthrow of, "The false notion of the Israelites that

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God cannot afford to overthrow them because they are the `election of God,' and in that priority they must be favored over other nations."[3]

G. A. Cooke attempted to make a poem out of this chapter, but without much success.[4] Our reaction to the "poetry" pretended in many of the present-day versions and translations is that the imaginative scholars have produced some of the lousiest poetry we have ever seen! Based upon the fact that much of the wisdom literature did follow a metrical scheme, "It is natural enough to suspect that this passage also was written in poetical form; but, upon closer examination, this supposition is untenable."[5]

This parable of the Corrupt Vine (Ezekiel 15) is one of three reaching through Ezekiel 17, "Which show that there is not any hope of deliverance for Jerusalem."[6]

The Biblical figure of Israel as God's vine is found throughout the Bible, notably in Isaiah 5:1ff; Jeremiah 2:21ff; Hosea 10:1; Psalms 80:8-19; etc.; but, as F. F. Bruce noted, "These Old Testament references are reflected in the New Testament,"[7] where Jesus Christ our Lord appears as "The True Vine," that is, "The True Israel of God" (John 15:1-8). This is one of the most important revelations in all the Bible, for it shows, that as far as the old racial Israel goes, they, as a race, are out of it forever. Only Jesus Christ is God's Israel in this generation; and all of God's Israel, in any true sense, upon this earth today, enjoy that status as members of the "spiritual body of Christ," which is his holy Church. No one is excluded; Jew and Gentile alike are welcome upon exactly the same terms. No one belongs to God as a result of any racial status, and no one is denied a place in God's family upon the basis of race. "Whosoever will may come!"

Ezekiel 15:1-4

"And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Son of man, what is the vine tree, more than any tree, the vine-branch that is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood thereof be taken to make any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any

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vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire hath devoured both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned: is it profitable for any work?"

"What is the vine tree ... that is among the trees of the forest ... more than other trees ..." (Ezekiel 15:2)? The vine of this question is not the noble, cultivated vine that once illustrated the Chosen People of God, but the wild, degenerate vine among the trees of the forest. It bears no fruit except inedible, bitter grapes; and the question here requires the answer that, as far as the wood of this vine goes, it is just about as worthless as wood could be, fit only for fuel.

"Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ..." (Ezekiel 15:3)? This requires a negative answer and carries the meaning that one cannot even make a peg upon which to hang a pot, out of wood taken from the vine.

"Burned at both ends and scorched in the middle ..." (Ezekiel 15:4). In its perfect state the wood is practically worthless; but, "What if it has been cast into the fire, the two ends have been burnt, and the middle is scorched and half burnt; what then?"[8] We especially appreciate Bunn's answer to that question. He wrote, "It will not even make good charcoal!"[9]

The application of Ezekiel 15:4 to the state of Israel is that they had already had both ends burned, at Samaria in 622 B.C., and at Jerusalem in 597 B.C., the middle, under Zedekiah still remaining, but still fruitless and ready again to be cast into the fire.

The time element was cited by Taylor. "Jerusalem was left charred in the days of Jehoiachin. The city had been spared from total destruction in the capture of the city in 597 B.C., but it was fit for nothing more than to be thrown back into the fire to be utterly consumed."[10]

The great problem with Jerusalem was fruitlessnesss. All of the great prophets of God and even the Savior himself had warned all men that, "Every tree that bringeth

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not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire" (Matthew 7:9). In this connection, see Mark 11:13ff and Luke 13:6if). What an appropriate example this parable of the wild vine was!

TRAPP, "Verse 1

Ezekiel 15:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me.] This shortest chapter is added to all the foregoing as a corollary. It consisteth of a type or simile, and the application thereof. It is God’s usual way, and should be ours, to teach by similitudes. See Hosea 12:10. {See Trapp on "Hosea 12:10"}

PETT, "Introduction

Chapter 15. A Depiction of Jerusalem - A Useless Wild Vine.

Here the vine is used as an example because its wood is useless for any other purpose than to be burned. Because of its nature, once it ceases to be fruitful it is only fit for destruction. Israel saw themselves as a fruitful vine (Genesis 49:22; Psalms 80:8-11). God saw them as a wild and useless vine.

Verses 1-3

‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? Will wood be taken from it to make any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel on it?” ’

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The later implication is that Jerusalem is like the vine (Ezekiel 15:5), but in Ezekiel’s case it is the wild vine, one of the trees of the forest. Unlike other trees in the forest its usefulness is limited to bearing its fruit. But who gathers fruit from the wild vine? And apart from this it is nothing. It is useless for being carved or shaped, it is useless as a pin to hang things on. If it does not bear fruit it is nothing. The pin is elsewhere used to indicate someone who can be relied on (Isaiah 22:23-25; Zechariah 10:4). But Jerusalem is like a wild vine, not to be depended on. No one partakes of its fruit and it is useless for anything else. It should of course be a fruitful vine but it is not, for it has placed itself as one among the nations in their idolatry.

In the past Israel was likened to a vine that should have been fruitful, but sadly revealed itself as a wild vine (see Genesis 49:22; Deuteronomy 32:32; Psalms 80:8-16; Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21; Hosea 10:1). This is the end of the process.

WHEDON, "Verses 1-8

UNFAVORABLE COMPARISON OF THE VINE TREE (JERUSALEM) WITH OTHER TREES.

It is significant that AEsop was a contemporary of Ezekiel, and that this sixth century B.C. marks the era of constant intercourse between the Hebrews and the surrounding peoples. The vine was the choicest production of Palestine and typical of its inhabitants. It was difficult for an Israelite to believe that Jerusalem, the vine of Jehovah’s own planting (Genesis 49:22; Deuteronomy 32:32; Isaiah 5:1; Jeremiah 2:21; Psalms 80:8-16), could ever be ruined as completely as Ezekiel prophesied. In reply to this the prophet, following the literary custom of his age, tells the story of the vine. The vine can be classed as superior to other trees only because of its grapes (Judges 9:13). If it does not bear fruit it is fit for nothing else. It is small and frail, and except for its fruit it has no pre-eminence over “brushwood” (Ezekiel 15:2, Kautzsch). The carpenter can make no use of it, neither can the housewife (Ezekiel 15:3). If this is true of the vine at its best, how absolutely useless does it become when ruined for fruit bearing and half destroyed by fire (Ezekiel 15:4-5). Just so the

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chosen people have been indeed chief among the nations, but only so because of their religion. Politically and territorially they were insignificant even at the height of their glory: how much more since they have felt the touch of the destroying flames (Ezekiel 15:6; compare John 15:1-8).

PARKER, " Fruitless and Useless

Ezekiel 15

The single idea of this brief chapter is that if the vine should fail in grapes it fails altogether. There is a whole philosophy of life in that single and simple fact. The argument of the Lord is founded upon that one circumstance. The vine is good for nothing for timber. With the vine, it is grapes, or nothing. Some trees might be made use of even if they did not grow the fruit whose name they bear: they might be cut down and used for fencing, for carpentry, for purposes of art; some good might be made of the wood even if there were no fruit. With the vine it is not so. Say that upon the vine there is no fruit, and you can say the vine may be burned at one end, and burned at the other end, and burned in the midst; having failed in the one thing, it has failed totally and absolutely. "Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?... Behold, 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?" It is grapes, or ashes; it is fruit, or nuisance: "Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned." You cannot get a peg out of the vine to hang anything upon that is of the least weight. You cannot use the vine-wood for timber. Then what is the vine for? For grapes, for grapes only: no grapes would mean no use; without the grapes the vine is to be burned. There is no middle course; there is no refuge in the old word, "We must make the best of it." There is no best to be made of it, unless we include the word burning and the word destruction in that miserable best.

On this law of the vine and fruit, or the vine and uselessness, we may build all our life. The great and solemn doctrine is this, that everything is to be judged by the purpose for which it was created. We cannot have side-issues, we cannot have

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humanly invented alternatives. A man goes up, or he goes down; there is no middle zone where he can live long: he blooms into a beautiful son of God, or he withers away and is lost in regions unknown. There is a right hand, there is also a left hand; I have not heard of any middle position. What is the purpose of our creation? Why were we made? Why are we here? If any revelation has been declared in reply to these questions, let us judge ourselves by the purpose of the Creator. This would make swift and clear and righteous judgment of the whole mystery of human life. Here is a school: what ideas do we associate with the word school? Reading, study, letters, arts, instruction, mental illumination, intellectual development and progress: these ideas are right, they are cognate, they are just. Does this school produce that result? No. What then? Then it is not a school: it is a place of darkness, or an asylum of ignorance; it is a corner of imprisonment, or a place of mental degradation. The school is but a poor building, you may say, a little wayside edifice covered with thatch, without palatial lines or classic form, or aught that can be described as expressive of culture and dignity: all that may be true; but inside the boys and girls do read, they are quickened intellectually, they are highly informed; ask them questions in letters, in history, in philosophy, in art, and how readily, how copiously and accurately they will reply! Who now talks about the poor-looking building? It serves its purpose well. On that vine find luscious grapes, then care nothing for the trellis on which it grows; thank God for the unshed wine with which that vine abounds. What do you think of this painting? It is a likeness of your dearest friend. Having given you this introduction to the painting, what will be your standard of judgment? You will at once seek your friend in it; it will not do for you to say that the drapery is beautifully painted, the foreground is excellent, and the background is superb, and everything about it of the nature of technique would please an artist of the highest degree: you are not looking in that direction, because in that direction you have no vision; the gate of that outlook is locked against you: but you know your friend, and your friend is not there. Will you purchase that picture? No. If it had been a picture only you might have bought it; but it professed to be a friend. It lies. That which, introduced to me as a work of art, might have charmed me, shocks me when it comes under false pretences. Where the fire, the strength, the playfulness, the music? It is not there; then there can be no masonry between me and that picture. You rightly judge the picture by what it professes to be. Here is a beautiful lamp painted by hand—a great recommendation to those who know nothing about it; it will hang well anywhere. Will it light the place it hangs in? No. Why not? Because it is opaque. Then why do you call it a lamp? A lamp must not be opaque, it must allow the light to come through: a lamp is for the sake of the light; it is no lamp if the light be imprisoned. So you have this law of judgment in your own life. If you admit it in full you are simply building a judgment bar by which your soul will presently be tried. First feel how just the law Isaiah , and how

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commonly accepted amongst men, and how without it society could make no progress in civilisation. Why do you despise the lamp? Because it conceals the light. But it is hand-painted! You properly reply that you do not care about its being hand-painted because what you want is light, and light out of that lamp you cannot have; and therefore you, not as a theologian, but as a man who knows the value of money, very properly decline to purchase a lamp that conceals the light within itself. Would it not be so with an organ? What a noble-looking organ it is! It has innumerable pipes; as for manuals, nothing was ever seen like it in the history of organ-building: now play it. The keys will not move. What a beautiful outline it presents to the eye! What we require from an organ is music; this organ has everything but music: then let some fool buy it, we will not have any responsible relation to it. So then you have this same law of the fifteenth chapter of Ezekiel operating through and through your life; you keep your shop upon it, you conduct your whole business upon it: why do you shrink from applying it to yourself, your character, the result of your training? Oh that men were wise, that they were fearless enough to apply their own common-sense to their own moral condition!

It is worth while to spend time upon the thorough elucidation of the law and fact in order that we may bring up the slower-minded students to the full recognition of the central thought of the chapter. We may proceed to say that the purpose of piety, or religion, is character. Here, for example, is a very able dialectician; he can split a hair in two; he is not only a member of the church, he is a preacher. Is that all you can say about him, that he can split a hair in two? Yes, that exhausts the certificate. Here is a most orthodox man; he would give up his seat in church if the preacher said one word he did not believe; and yet he is the man who rails against the Pope of Rome: thus consistent are we! He will have a full body of theology in every discourse. A man may preach upon the tenth chapter of Nehemiah , containing all the Jewish polysyllables that ever could be collected into one view; and yet if he does not find in these polysyllables the fall of Prayer of Manasseh , and every other doctrine, either invented or elucidated by theologians, he will abandon the church. Is that all you can say about him? No, we could say a little more about him. What? He is hand-painted, like the lamp and like the organ. Who painted him? Artist not known, probably himself. Some men do write their own books and paint their own pictures; why may he not have taken up with a little self-decoration? Will he lie? Not frankly, not bluntly. Will he steal? Not with his hands; he can put his hands behind him, and rob you all the day long; but he is extremely orthodox. Does this vine bear grapes? Not one. What is it good for? For burning. Can wood be taken from him to do any work? No. Will men take a peg of him to hang any vessel

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thereon? They would not hang a dog on his word. But he is extremely "clear in his views." So I should imagine! In the matter of piety, if character fails all fails. Away with your theology and church-going and hymn-singing and canting. What is character? It is described at length by the Apostle Paul: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." A man may bear all these fruits and know nothing about scholastic or formal theology.

Do not believe the little technicalist, the ill-grown pope, who tells you that he knows more about the Cross than you do. Poorest woman, poorest Prayer of Manasseh , heartbroken because of sin, thou knowest all that is in the Cross, for in the Cross you will find love, and righteousness, and law, and tenderness, and pardon, and hope, redemption, salvation. When a man begins to explain these words he begins a work he has no right to undertake. Explanation has rent the Church in twain. Are not some things to be felt? Is it not profanity to attempt to analyse certain thing"s? Who would analyse the love which inspires a mother? Who would take to pieces the sympathy which heals the heart that is sore? To analyse the Cross, to dissect the dead Christ, to show some cleverness in the analysis of divine affection—this it is that has made infidels by the thousand. We want tenderness, love, sympathy, pity; we need to incarnate the Spirit of Christ in actual beneficence; then shall we bring men to our Lord, and find heaven in the bringing of them. By "character" do not understand outward decorum. There is no man who has so base a character as the man who selfishly and boastingly thinks he has a good one.

Never trust a self-idolater. Jesus Christ would have no connection with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were all respectable men. If there is a worse character than the respectable man it is the man who boasts of his wickedness. The true character feels its unworthiness in the sight of God, which judges itself not by human standards but by divine requirements, and that says, when it has uttered its best prayer and done its best deed, Unprofitable! unclean! We are not bearing fruit to God until we have subordinated the whole soul to his will. That is piety. The one thing we have not given up is the thing we will not surrender, and that is our will. We have marked the will as private property. We are quite prepared to adopt any number of views: but who can give up his own way? It is difficult to do so at home on a small scale; and there are parents who would never break a child"s will: I have seen them when their child has broken their heart. The human will must be broken at some point. We do not give up our will to God, and therefore we are not

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Christians. No matter what else we are, until our will has gone out of us and has been taken into God"s keeping we are not Christians. "Not my will, but thine, be done"—that is the issue and the glory of the Cross. Have you any will regarding yourself? If you can say, "None: let God"s will be done," you have been with Jesus, and have learned of him. What about your views? You cannot have any views. What have you seen of the universe? What other worlds have you been in? You are the tenant of one of the smallest worlds that has any name. For you and me, therefore, to talk about views is monstrous. Where did we come from? We do not know. How long shall we be here? We cannot tell. What will happen tomorrow? Nobody can predict. But what "views" we have! Poor blind moles! Better have clean hearts, better yield ourselves to our Father"s keeping, let our whole life go up in continual incense to him who gave it us; and as for views, intellectual conceptions, these may come as the ages roll over us; in a thousand millenniums from this moment we may possibly have seen something; up to the present time it will be enough if we have seen our sin and seen Christ"s Cross.

This standard of judgment will keep us right in estimating everything. Do you seek grapes on thorns? You are operating in the wrong direction. Do you seek figs on thistles? You will never find them. You must judge everything by its purpose, and according as a thing serves its purpose is it really good and really valuable. That standard would keep us right in all judgment if we would abide by it. It would keep us right in judging sermons. What is the object of a sermon? The object of a sermon is multifold, and yet one, and may be thus stated: Stimulus, encouragement; instruction, sympathy; all resulting in edification, upbuilding. Sometimes the purpose of the preacher is to stimulate: judge him by his purpose. You have no right to set up a false standard of judgment. Sometimes the preacher"s purpose is to wrestle with a human soul, and say, "I will not let thee go to hell": judge him by his burning object. Do not judge him by some cold standard, or apply some little critical foot-rule you may happen to have borrowed from some better Prayer of Manasseh , but judge him by his evangelistic zeal, by his apostolic fervour; say, To-day he wanted to save a soul, and everything gives way before that mighty, beneficent, holy purpose. Sometimes his object is to instruct; then see how careful he is in the analysis of words, in the tracing of histories, in the correction of mistakes, in the collection and right presentation of intelligence of every kind: by his purpose he must be judged. Even the poet has given this canon of criticism. Says Pope:—

The same judgment ought to be applied to the Bible. What is the purpose of the 21

Bible? To reveal God. We have laid the emphasis, as we have often said, upon the wrong words; we have gone to the Bible for things it does not grow. What does the Bible profess to be? A revelation of God, of God"s personality, of God"s method of governing the world, of God"s purpose in the education of human nature. Then the man who is puzzling himself over the authorship of the books and the dates of the various treatises is on the wrong track? Entirely. For what should a man go to the Bible? For God. Will he find God there? On every page. You are now in the right direction, you have gone upon the proper quest; you will receive answers along that line, and doors will fly back along the whole circle of the horizon to admit you into larger liberty. Some men are always on the wrong quest; intellectually they are fearfully and wonderfully made. They want to know what people did in the early centuries. Those centuries will be the death of them. What heaps of slain will be found on the field of the first centuries! It would occasion me no surprise to find that clubs had been organised for the solitary purpose of finding out what men did in them. We are living in the nineteenth century, and we have around us ignorance, and oppression, and wrong, evil of every form, weakness, poverty, and our business is to address ourselves to the immediate time: whilst we are mooning about the early ages a woman or a child may be dying of cold on the threshold of our houses consecrated to the study of antiquity.

In all things judge by the purpose. The Bible is a vine that grows, so to say, revelations of God. And judge men by the same standard. What is the great purpose of man? To represent God. When he fulfils that purpose he fulfils his election and calling; when he fails of that purpose, no matter what he Isaiah , he has failed to bring forth fruit unto God. How all things would be harmonised and adjusted righteously if we could receive this rule! One star differeth from another star in glory: judge each star by its weight, distance, magnitude, and relation to the whole solar system as known to us. Do not find fault with one man because he is not another. How is it that we cannot praise one man without dispraising some other man? How difficult it is for the critic to fix his attention upon one solitary worker! He will describe a preacher as having certain faculty and ability, but he has not the polish of A, or the culture of B, or the massive dignity of C, or the almost superhuman glory of D. What a marvellous monster he would be if he combined all these people, and almost laid hold of E! Let us ascertain what the purpose of the Prayer of Manasseh , the book, the institution Isaiah , and be just to it in proportion as it realises that purpose. Jesus Christ said: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken

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unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." Do you blame the violet because it is not the vine? Do you blame the little, weak, limpid vine because it is not the sturdy and umbrageous oak? Do you denounce the oak because it does not bear figs? Or do you denounce the fig tree because it does not grow bread-corn? Every man in his own order; every institution in its own place. The law is one: judge everything by the purpose for which it was created; and judging man by this purpose we expect of man character. Without that character, such as the Apostle has described, no matter what else man has, he is fit only to be burned. Let the word of the Lord prevail.

DUMMELO, "Ezekiel's Parable of the Vine

Jerusalem and Israel are compared elsewhere in Scripture to a cultivated vine, bearing or expected to bear fruit. Ezekiel's similitude, however, is that of the wild vine (Ezekiel 15:2, RV), regarded simply as a tree. It is the most worthless of trees. Its wood is of no use for any purpose, being too weak even to make a peg of. A vine branch that happens to be half-burnt is even more worthless than it was before. Jerusalem is such a half-burnt vine, already charred by the first captivity. It is only fit for fuel, and will be wholly consumed.

2. Or than a branch] RV 'the vine branch.'

7. From one fire, and another fire] RV 'from the fire, but the fire.' Jerusalem has survived one captivity, but will be overtaken by a second and final disaster.

LANGE, "Verses 1-8

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4. The Parable of the Vine Tree for the Burning ( Ezekiel 15.)

1And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 2Son of Prayer of Manasseh, what shall the wood of the vine be more than any wood? the vine-branch which was 3 among the trees of the forest! Is wood taken thereof to do any work? Or do they take a peg of it to hang any vessel thereon? 4Behold, it is [was] given to the fire for fuel [food]; its two ends the fire consumed, and its middle 5 is scorched; is it fit for any work? Behold, in its uninjured state, it will not do for any work; how much less, when the fire hath devoured it, and it Isaiah 6 scorched, will it still do for any work? Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, As the wood of the vine among the wood of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given the inhabitants of Jerusalem 7 And I have set My face against them; from the fire they went out, and the fire shall consume them; and ye know that I am Jehovah, when I set My 8 face against them. And I have made the land a desolation [a wilderness], because they have committed treachery: sentence of the Lord Jehovah.

Ezekiel 15:2. Sept.: ... τι ἀν γενοιτο—Vulg.: … quid flet.

Eze 15:4. Παρεξ ὁ πνρι δεδοται... την χατʼ ἐνιαντον κκθαρσιν ἀντης αν̓αλισχει—

Ezekiel 15:6. For בעץ there is a plural reading: בעצי.

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

A figure ( Ezekiel 5-15:1 ) and its application ( Ezekiel 8-15:6 ). The former is carried out in detail; the latter follows in the shape of interpretation. With much plausibility, Neteler (comp. Ezekiel 15:7 with Ezekiel 14:22 sq.) refers what follows specially to “the remnant left over,” in support of which the connection with what precedes might be pleaded; but it must not be forgotten that this remnant are the justification of the judgment on the whole; and hence, that the reference generally to

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Judah and Jerusalem is to be maintained.

2 “Son of man, how is the wood of a vine different from that of a branch from any of the trees in the forest?

BARNES, "The vine ... - The image is grounded on a well-known figure Psa_80:8; Isa. 5. The comparison is not between the vine and other trees, but between the wood of the vine and the wood of other trees.

CLARKE, "What is the vine tree more than any tree - It is certain that the vine is esteemed only on account of its fruit. In some countries, it is true, it grows to a considerable size and thickness: but, even then, it is not of a sufficient density to work into furniture. But whatever may be said of the stock of the vine, it is the branch that the prophet speaks of here; and I scarcely know the branch of any tree in the forest more useless than is the branch of the vine. Out of it who can even make a pin to drive into a mud wall, or hang any vessel on? A vine would never be cultivated for the sake of its wood; it is really worthless but as it bears fruit. What is Israel? Good for nothing, but as God influenced them to bring forth fruit to his glory. But now that they have ceased to be fruitful, they are good for nothing, but, like a withered branch of the vine, to be burnt.

GILL, "Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree,.... Or, "the wood of the vine than any wood" (b); it is not better than other wood; it is not so good as any other wood; nay, it is good for nothing. The fruit of the vine tree is good, but its wood is of no use: a vine tree, if it bears fruit, is valuable; but if it does not, it is of no account. The people of the Jews are often compared to a vine, who, while they brought forth good fruit, were in esteem; but, when they became like an empty and fruitless vine, were

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rejected as good for nothing, Psa_80:8; they were originally no better than others; what they had were owing to the grace and goodness of God; and when they degenerated, they were the worst of all people: or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? a vine tree that bears fruit is better than a tree of the forest, or than a branch of one that is unfruitful; but a vine tree that does not bear fruit is not so good; because the wood of the one may be useful when the other is not; though the words may be better rendered, even "the branch of a wild vine which is among the trees of the forest" (c); and so it explains what vine tree is spoken of; not a fruitful one in the vineyards, but a wild and barren one in the forest. So Jarchi paraphrases the words, "not of the vine in the vineyards, which bears fruit, speak I unto thee; but of the branch of the vine which grows in the forests;'' and so Kimchi, "I do not ask thee of the vine tree which beareth fruit, for that is valuable; but of the branch (of the wild vine) which is among the trees of the forest, and is as they that do not bear fruit, concerning that I ask thee; for even it is not as the trees of the forest; for the trees of the forest, though they do not bear fruit, they are fit to do work of them, to make vessels of them, and to floor houses with them; but the wood of this vine is not so.''

JAMISON 2-3, "What has the vine-wood to make it pre-eminent above other forest-wood? Nothing. Nay, the reverse. Other trees yield useful timber, but vine-wood is soft, brittle, crooked, and seldom large; not so much as a “pin” (the large wooden peg used inside houses in the East to hang household articles on, Isa_22:23-25) can be made of it. Its sole excellency is that it should bear fruit; when it does not bear fruit, it is not only not better, but inferior to other trees: so if God’s people lose their distinctive excellency by not bearing fruits of righteousness, they are more unprofitable than the worldly (Deu_32:32), for they are the vine; the sole end of their being is to bear fruit to His glory (Psa_80:8, Psa_80:9; Isa_5:1, etc.; Jer_2:21; Hos_10:1; Mat_21:33). In all respects, except in their being planted by God, the Jews were inferior to other nations, as Egypt, Babylon, etc., for example, in antiquity, extent of territory, resources, military power, attainments in arts and sciences.

or than a branch — rather, in apposition with “the vine tree.” Omit “or than.” What superiority has the vine if it be but a branch among the trees of the forest, that is, if, as having no fruit, it lies cut down among other woods of trees?

COKE, "Ezekiel 15:2. What is the vine-tree— Houbigant renders it, What hath the wood of the vine above other branching woods which are amid the trees of the wood? The comparison is here made between the trees of the forest and the wild vine; not the fruitful and generous vine, as appears from the words, among the trees of the forest; for this vine then produced nothing but sour and bitter grapes: so that Israel could no longer glory in this, that God had frequently called them his vine. It

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is upon this point, says Houbigant, that the present allegory wholly turns. Infidels object, that they cannot understand why God should prefer so perverse and rebellious a people to all others. One reason is, that it was for the sake of their forefathers, and to fulfil the promise made to the patriarchs; but others are not wanting, and those very agreeable to the ideas that we have of infinite wisdom; such, for instance, as this: that the extraordinary providences by which they were protected might become the more visible and illustrious; for, had they been endowed with the shining qualities of the more polished nations of the present day, the effects of that Providence might have been ascribed to their own power or wisdom. Their impotence and inability, when left to themselves, is finely represented in this chapter by the similitude of a vine-tree: for, as the vine, which by culture and support is the most valuable of all trees, becomes the most worthless when left neglected in its own natural state; so the Jews, after they made such a superior figure under the protection of God, became the weakest and most contemptible of all tributary nations, when for their sins that protection was withdrawn. See the Divine Legation, vol. 4: and Calmet.

TRAPP, "Verse 2

Ezekiel 15:2 Son of man, What is the vine tree more than any tree, [or than] a branch which is among the trees of the forest?

Ver. 2. What is the vine tree more than any tree?] The Jews took upon them, because a "vine brought out of Egypt," and such as God’s own right hand had planted. But insomuch as they were now become fruitless and also useless "trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots," [ 1:12] what had they to glory in above other nations? Surely they were therefore worse than others, because they ought to have been better. True it is that a vine in itself, considered with the fruit it beareth, is no contemptible tree. But if it be withered or pulled out of the earth, it is no way comparable to other trees or shrubs, which, when felled, are put to sundry good uses that the vine - lignum tenus, gibbosum et tortuosum - a crooked, low, writhen thing -will never serve to; as to make spears, doors, tables, ships, houses, &c.

POOLE, " The house of Israel is often compared to a vine, which when barren or

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fruitless is very contemptible and unprofitable. This the prophet minds them of to humble them, and awaken them to fruitfulness; Will you boast yourselves of this?

Than a branch which is among the trees of the forest; one single branch of a tree in the forest is of more use and worth than the whole vine tree is, except for its fruit.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 15:2

What is the vine tree, etc.? The prophet's mind had apparently been dwelling, after the close of his previous utterance, on the imagery of earlier writers, in which Israel had appeared as the vine of Jehovah (Genesis 49:22; Psalms 80:9; Hosea 10:1; Isaiah 5:1-30.; Deuteronomy 32:32; Jeremiah 2:21), and to which he himself refers again in Ezekiel 19:10. He saw how men might pervert that image to their own destruction. And he expands the parable, as our Lord does in John 15:1-27. Men might dwell, perhaps were actually dwelling, on the thought that they were branches of the true vine, and therefore could not perish. He exposes the groundlessness of that hope in tones of scornful sarcasm. If the vine did not bear fruit, or if it only brought forth wild grapes, then its special excellence was gone, and it challenged comparison with other trees only as a timber tree, and what was its worth as such? If Israel was not true to its vocation, it was poorer and weaker than the heathen nations round it. So far the general thought is clear. In dealing with details, we note that the words in italics, "or than," should disappear, and that the words should stand as in the Revised Version, What is the vine more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest?

LANGE, "Ezekiel 15:2. The figure of the vine or vineyard is in current use for Israel ( Deuteronomy 32:32; Isaiah 5; Hosea 10; Jeremiah 2:21; Psalm 80:9, 8]; Matthew 21:33 sq.) in manifold shades of meaning,—sometimes the noble vine, sometimes the degenerate, sometimes the wild vine. The latter is perhaps the idea lying at the foundation, no stress, however, being laid upon it; but the vine in general, as compared with other wood, is meant to be spoken of, so that the figure of the vine furnishes merely, as it were, the customary title of Israel. What superiority has Israel, although the Song of Solomon -called “vine,” as a nation over other nations? Culture makes the vine a vine, just as it causes it to bear noble fruit. Now,

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however, instead of the despised culture, there manifests itself the judgment of God! Hence, also, ֵעץ׳: the wood of the vine.—ַמה־ִיְהֶיה, not so much: what superiority has it? as rather: what will be its fate? how will it fare with it? as judgment is hinted at.—מָּכל־ֵעץ. Every other wood can be made use of; the vine, on the contrary, is of no service except for its fruit. The answer supposed for the question, therefore, not merely denies the claim to a better fate, but even makes the wood of the vine inferior to other wood, that is to say, when it fails of its aim. This is the intermediate thought, which the apposition (corresponding as it does with the accents): ַהְּומֹורהְזמֹוָרה .explains. Differently the Sept. and Vulg ,ֲאֶׁשר׳ (commonly so called from paring or pruning; according to others, from intertwining; or, “that which shoots;” ָזַמר is used to express a process—that of nipping off—derived from vine-culture) is the plant of the vine ( Isaiah 17:10), which accordingly has been removed from its original habitat in the wilderness, in order to be planted, to be cultivated. The masc. ָהָיה refers to wood, as being the connection in which the ְזמֹוָרה is thought of. So also in what follows. If it has not repaid the planting, and this is the case here—but it is not expressly said that it had become degenerate, had borne no fruit at all or bad fruit (Hengst.: “the vine-shoot which is among the trees of the forest” = the vine which corresponds with the forest-trees in barrenness, as it is mere wood; the wild vine does not occur at all in Scripture),—the questions that follow naturally suggest themselves in this connection.

3 Is wood ever taken from it to make anything useful? Do they make pegs from it to hang things on?

GILL, "Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?.... The carpenter and joiner, the house or ship builder, are employed in; as to build houses of, make beams, rafters, floors, &c. build ships with, make masts of, &c. or any vessel or utensil for the use of man? it never is; it is not fit for any such purpose. Pliny (d) speaks of some rarities made of the wood of vines, but not things of common use; and these not of any vines, but of

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some peculiar ones, favoured by the air and soil or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? it is not fit to make a peg of to hang a hat on; and much less for anything that requires more strength.

HENRY3-5, " How this similitude is expressed here. The wild vine, that is among the trees of the forest, or the empty vine (which Israel is compared to, Hos_10:1), that bears no more fruit than a forest-tree, is good for nothing; it is as useless as a brier, and more so, for that will add some sharpness to the thorny hedge, which the vine-branch will not do. He shows, 1. That it is fit for no use. The wood of it is not taken to do any work; one cannot so much as make a pin of it to hand a vessel upon, Eze_15:3. See how variously the gifts of nature are dispensed for the service of man. Among the plants, the roots of some, the seeds or fruits of others, the leaves of others, and of some the stalks, are most serviceable to us; so, among trees, some are strong and not fruitful, as the oaks and cedars; others are weak but very fruitful, as the vine, which is unsightly, low, and depending, yet of great use. Rachel is comely but barren, Leah homely but fruitful. 2. That therefore it is made use of for fuel; it will serve to heat the oven with. Because it isnot meet for any work, it is cast into the fire, Eze_15:4. When it is good for nothing else it is useful this way, and answers a very needful intention, for fuel is a thing we must have, and to burn any thing for fuel which is good for other work is bad husbandry. To what purpose is this waste? The unfruitful vine is disposed of in the same way with the briers and thorns, which are rejected, and whose end is to be burnt, Heb_6:8. And what care is taken of it then? If a piece of solid timber be kindled, somebody perhaps may snatch it as a brand out of the burning, and say, “It is a pity to burn it, for it may be put to some better use;” but if the branch of a vine be on fire, and, as usual, both the ends of it and the middle be kindled together, nobody goes about to save it. When it was whole it was meet for no work, much less when the fire has devoured it (Eze_15:5); even the ashes of it are not worth saving.

COKE, "Ezekiel 15:3. Shall wood be taken thereof— It is observable, that the wood of the vine is of no use in building, or in making any piece of furniture or domestic utensil. Bishop Lowth observes, that it is the chief excellence of a parable to consist of an image which is known and proper to the subject, and whose end is plain and determined by custom; the necessary consequence of which is perspicuity, wherein the chief beauty of an allegory consists. The prophets frequently make use of this kind of images, by way of comparison or illustration; and this of the useless vine, by which these ungrateful people are more than once described, is an image of this sort. See his 10th Prelection.

TRAPP, "Verse 3

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Ezekiel 15:3 Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will [men] take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?

Ver. 3. Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?] No, hardly. It is good for nothing; no, not so much as to make a pin or a peg of to hang a hat or bridle on, because it is a sappy and brittle wood. Think the same of that empty vine, the profligate professor, being abominable, disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. [Titus 1:16]

POOLE, "Is there one good piece of timber in the whole vine fit for building a house, or ship, as there is in the oak, elm, or other wild forest trees? Will it furnish the husbandman or soldier, or seaman with fit materials for their use, in peace, war, or sea? Will it afford a pin to drive into a wall or post, on which you may safely fasten any weight? It is so weak that it is useless as to this.

PULPIT, "Ezekiel 15:3

Shall wood be taken thereof, etc.? As a timber tree, then, the vine was confessedly valueless. No carpenter would use it, even for the peg upon which men hang their cups, and which had become, as in Isaiah 22:23, the symbol of political stability (comp. also Zechariah 10:4). For the unfruitful vine branch these remained the doom of being cast into the fire (John 15:6). What was its worth when it was half burned at either end and in the middle? What would Israel be fit for when it had been laid low by the "fire" of God's judgment? Probably the vivid picture of the charred branch points to the successive judgments which had fallen first on the ten tribes, then on Judah, and lastly on Jerusalem itself. The word "trespass" may refer either to the general guilt of the people, or to the last crowning crime of Zedekiah's rebellion. I rather incline to the latter, the noun being in the singular.

4 And after it is thrown on the fire as fuel and the 31

fire burns both ends and chars the middle, is it then useful for anything?

BARNES, "Behold, it is cast into the fire - The wood is in itself useless for any purpose; but what if it have been cast into the fire, and half burned, what of it then?

CLARKE, "The fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned - Judea is like a vine branch thrown into the fire, which seizes on both the ends, and scorches the middle: so both the extremities of the land is wasted; and the middle, Jerusalem, is now threatened with a siege, and by and by will be totally destroyed.

GILL, "Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel, That is; a vine tree when cut down, or a branch when cut off, it is good for nothing else; and that is the use it is generally put to; see Joh_15:6; and this, it is suggested, would be the end of the Jewish nation; who were become by their sins like a wild vine, and were fit fuel for the fire of divine wrath: the fire devoureth both the ends of it; the branch cast into it, and so is quickly consumed. Kimchi explains this by Isa_9:12; "the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind, and they devour Israel with open mouth"; and Abendana of the ten tribes; but it seems only to design how soon the fire takes it; and how inevitable the consumption is when it is fired at both ends: and the midst of it is burnt: presently; it being dried, and reduced to a brand by the heat of the fire at both ends: this Kimchi interprets of the city of Jerusalem, which was in the midst of the land: is it meet for any work? no; for if it was not fit for any work when cut down, or cut off, much less when burnt in the fire.

JAMISON, "cast into ... fire — (Joh_15:6).both the ends — the north kingdom having been already overturned by Assyria under Tiglath-pileser; the south being pressed on by Egypt (2Ki_23:29-35).midst of it is burned — rather, “is on flame”; namely, Jerusalem, which had now caught the flame by the attack of Nebuchadnezzar.Is it meet for any work — “it,” that is, the scorched part still remaining.

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COKE, "Ezekiel 15:4. The fire devoureth, &c.— A very apt representation of the state of Judea, when both its extremities were consumed by the ravages of the destroyer; and the middle of it, where the capital city stood, was threatened every moment with destruction from the enemy. Instead of, The midst of it is burned, Houbigant reads very properly, The middle of it is scorched; "is now, as it were, just about to catch fire, and to be burned. If therefore that middle should be snatched out of the fire, would it be of any use? Certainly not; for if it was useless before it was scorched, how much more, &c." See the next verse.

TRAPP, "Verse 4

Ezekiel 15:4 Behold, 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?

Ver. 4. Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel.] But then it must be taken before it be overly dry; and so Cornelius A Lapide testifieth that they burn little else in Italy but fagots made of vine branches. See John 15:6. {See Trapp on "John 15:6"}

The midst of it is burned.] Ustulatum; scorched and seared, so that it is altogether unuseful, and is therefore cast again into the fire, out of which, for some other purpose, it had been pulled. Woe to apostates; the hottest fire in hell abideth them.

PETT, " “Behold it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire has devoured both the ends of it, and the middle of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work?”

In fact its only other use is as fuel, and it is not even very good for that. It is quickly consumed, both ends and middle. And what other profit has it? None. This is then again emphasised. The comparison of both ends with the middle is explained in Ezekiel 15:7. That which is burned at both ends represents those slain in the invasion of Jerusalem. The middle which is also burned represents those who

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escape, only to face further judgment.

LANGE, "Ezekiel 15:4. Useless as wood, because it is of service merely for its fruit, it falls of right to the fire ( John 15:6; Matthew 7:19). But still less is to be thought of it, and therefore, just as at the beginning ( Ezekiel 15:2) a question was put as to its fate, the question is renewed in view of the effect of the fire. The two ends are in the application perhaps not so much the kingdom of the ten tribes and Judah, as rather those tribes of Israel on the one side and on the other; so that the middle piece, which may still come in question, is Judah with Jerusalem, or the latter alone. ָנָחרpartic. Niph. of ָחַרר. Figure and reality running into one another. What is in prospect is in part realized fact, on the ground of which a further question is put ( Matthew 3:10; Hebrews 6:8).

5 If it was not useful for anything when it was whole, how much less can it be made into something useful when the fire has burned it and it is charred?

GILL, "Behold, when it was whole it was meet for no work,.... Before it was cut into pieces, and east into the fire, it was not fit to make so much as a pin of to hang anything on; so Israel, when all together, before the ten tribes were carried captive, or the Jews before the captivity of Jeconiah, were useless and unfruitful, and to every good work reprobate: how much less shall it be meet yet for any work when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned? as its wood is good for nothing before it is burned, its ashes are useless after.

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JAMISON, "If useless before, much more so when almost wholly burnt.

COFFMAN, ""Behold, when it was whole, it was fit for no work: how much less when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned, shall it yet be meet for any work! Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: 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. And I will set my face against them; they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord Jehovah."

Only when we come to Ezekiel 15:6,7 does the Lord himself make the divine application of the little parable. The news is devastating. God will set his face against them; the citizens of Jerusalem shall be given to the fire for fuel!

"During Israel's better days, a prophet had compared her to a noble vine, `the choicest among the nations in God's sight'; but Ezekiel corrected such a notion, because it was no longer true. Israel is now no longer a noble, cultivated vine, but a corrupt degenerate vine, identifiable in every way with the wild vine `among the trees of the forest,' useless for anything but fuel."[11]

The conclusion here is that, Israel possesses no superiority over any other nations, just like the vine which possesses no superiority over other woods, but is even inferior; and likewise Israel is inferior to other nations in her fruitless condition; "And Israel is therefore given up to the fire."[12]

TRAPP, "Verse 5

Ezekiel 15:5 Behold, 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?

Ver. 5. Behold, when it was whole.] The Jews, when at best, were too too bad; a 35

foolish people and unwise, disobedient and gainsaying all the day long. How much more then now that they are hardened and seared with so many judgments?

PETT, " “Behold when it was whole it was not made into any work, how much less when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned, will it yet be made into any work.”

Once it is burned it is even more useless if that were possible. When whole it was useless, now it will be even more useless. This is God’s verdict on Jerusalem, and on all whose lives are fruitless.

6 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem.

CLARKE, "Therefore thus saith the Lord - As surely as I have allotted such a vine branch, or vine branches, for fuel; so surely have I appointed the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be consumed.

The design of this parable is to abate the pride of the Jews; to show them that, in their best estate, they had nothing but what they had received, and therefore deserved nothing; and now, having fallen from all righteousness, they can have no expectation of any thing but judgment unmixed with mercy.

GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord God,.... Now follows the application of the 36

simile: as the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel; to be burnt, as other trees of the forest are, and along with them: so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem; to be destroyed along with other nations by the Chaldeans; they being no better, but as bad, if not worse, like wild vines among forest trees; and therefore must fare no better: this was the decree and determination of the Lord.

HENRY 6-8, "How this similitude is applied to Jerusalem. 1. That holy city had become unprofitable and good for nothing. It had been as the vine-tree among the trees of the vineyard, abounding in the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God. When religion flourished there, and the pure worship of God was kept up, many a joyful vintage was then gathered in from it; and, while it continued so, God made a hedge about it; it was his pleasant plant (Isa_5:7); he watered it every moment and kept it night and day (Isa_27:3); but it had now become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, of a wild vine (such as we read of 2Ki_4:39), a vine-tree among the trees of the wild grapes (Isa_5:4), which are not only of no use, but are nauseous and noxious (Deu_32:32), their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters are bitter. It is explained (Eze_15:8): “They have trespassed a trespass, that is, they have treacherously prevaricated with God and perfidiously apostatized from him;” for so the word signifies. Note, Professors of religion, if they do not live up to their profession, but contradict it, if they degenerate and depart from it, are the most unprofitable creatures in the world, like the salt that has lost its savour and is thenceforth good for nothing, Mar_9:50. Other nations were famed for valour or politics, some for war, others for trade, and retained their credit; but the Jewish nation, being famous as a holy people, when they lost their holiness, and became wicked, were thenceforth good for nothing; with that they lost all their credit and usefulness, and became the most base and despicable people under the sun, trodden under foot of the Gentiles. Daniel, and other pious Jews, were of great use in their generation; but the idolatrous Jews then, and the unbelieving Jews now since the preaching of the gospel, have been, and are, of no common service, not fit for any work. 2. Being so, it is given to the fire for fuel, Eze_15:6. Note, Those who are not fruitful to the glory of God's grace will be fuel to the fire of his wrath; and thus, if they give not honour to him, he will get himself honour upon them, honour that will shine brightly in that flaming fire by which impenitent sinners will be for ever consumed. He will not be a loser at last by any of his creatures. The Lord has made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked, that would not otherwise be for him, for the day of evil(Pro_16:4); and in those who would not glorify him as the God to whom duty belongs he will be glorified as the God to whom vengeance belongs. The fire of God's wrath had before devoured both the ends of the Jewish nation (Eze_15:4), Samaria and the cities of Judah; and now Jerusalem, that was the midst of it, was thrown into the fire, to be burnttoo, for it is meet for no work; it will not be wrought upon, by any of the methods God has taken, to be serviceable to him. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were like a vine-branch, rotten and awkward; and therefore (Eze_15:7), “I will set my face against them,to thwart all their counsels,” as they set their faces against God, to contradict his word and defeat all his designs. It is decreed; the consumption is determined: I will make the land quite desolate, and therefore, when they go out from one fire, another fire shall

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devour them (Eze_15:7); the end of one judgment shall be the beginning of another, and their escape from one only a reprieve till another comes; they shall go from misery in their own country to misery in Babylon. Those who kept out of the way of the sword perished by famine or pestilence. When one descent of the Chaldean forces upon them was over, and they thought, Surely the bitterness of death is past, yet soon after they returned again with double violence, till they had made a full end. Thus they shall know that I am the Lord, a God of almighty power, when I set my face against them. Note, God shows himself to be the Lord, by perfecting the destruction of his implacable enemies as well as the deliverances of his obedient people. Those whom God sets his face, though they may come out of one trouble little hurt, will fall into another; though they come out of the pit, they will be taken in the snare (Isa_24:18); though they escape the sword of Hazael, they will fall by that of Jehu (1Ki_19:17); for evil pursues sinners.Nay, though they go out from the fire of temporal judgments, and seem to die in peace, yet there is an everlasting fire that will devour them; for, when God judges, first or last he will overcome, and he will be known by the judgments which he executes. See Mat_3:10; Joh_15:6.

JAMISON, "So will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as being utterly unprofitable (Mat_21:33-41; Mat_25:30; Mar_11:12-14; Luk_13:6-9) in answering God’s design that they should be witnesses for Jehovah before the heathen (Mat_3:10; Mat_5:13).

CALVIN, “Here the Prophet shows that the citizens of Jerusalem were cast into a fire, by which they suffered various kinds of death: for although they were not immediately and entirely consumed, yet the extremities were burnt off. For the whole region was laid waste all around, and the kingdom of Israel was entirely cut off: Jerusalem remained like the middle portion of the bundle. But the inhabitants of Jerusalem were so worn down by adversity, that they were like a stick burnt at both ends. Since this was so, we here perceive their great stupidity in persisting in contumacy, although God had humbled them so in various ways. Now, therefore, we understand the meaning of this point. But the words of the Prophet must be explained, what shall be, or what is the wood of the vine compared with other wood? Some translate, with the palm branch; others, with the wild vine; but both of these are foreign to the mind of the Prophet: especially the wild vine cannot have any place here. As far as the palm is concerned, what reference is there to the palm branch in the midst of a wood? for palms are not planted in woods amidst lofty trees. But since the wood, זמורה, zemoreh, signifies boughs as well as palms, it agrees best with the sense to speak of every tree as branching. What, therefore, is the vine in comparison with every branching tree which is among the trees of the forest? Here the Prophet brings before us fruitless trees, but yet those which attract our notice by their beauty: and so he implies, if the Jews wish to compare themselves with the profane nations, they are not superior in any worthiness or elegance which

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they have naturally and of themselves. This must be diligently noticed; although God sometimes adopts those who excel in ability and learning, in warlike prowess, in riches, and in power, yet he gathers his Church as much as possible from lowly-born men, in whom no great splendor is refulgent, that they may be objects of wonder to the world. For what end, then, does God do this? for he could fashion his own elect, that they may be completely perfect in every way. But since we are too inclined to pride, it is necessary that our infirmity should always be set before our eyes to teach us modesty. For if nothing in us reminded us of our weakness, our worthiness would blind us, or turn away our eyes from ourselves, or intoxicate us with false glory. Hence God wishes us to be inferior to the profane, that we may learn always to acknowledge as received from him whatever he has gratuitously conferred upon us, and not to arrogate anything to ourselves when our humility is so plainly set before our eyes. But as far as concerns the Jews, they were, as we have said, like a vine, because their excellence was not natural, but external. God had fashioned them, as it were, from nothing; and although they were adorned with many remarkable gifts, yet they could claim nothing from themselves.

Shall there be taken, says he, any wood from it to fashion it for any work? God here shows that the Jews were deservedly preferred to others, because he had planted them with his hand; for if they had been pulled out of the earth, he shows that the wood would be useless, since it could not be used for any purpose. And Christ uses the same simile (John 15:1), when he shows that we have no root in us by nature, nor yet sap or moisture or rigor, since we are a vine planted by our heavenly Father. But if he roots us up, nothing remains for us but to be cast into the fire and utterly burnt. Lastly, God shows that the Jews should be viler than the nations, if he took away from them whatever he gave them; and he admonishes them that their state has no firmness unless through his goodwill towards them. For if the Prophet had only said, that whatever the Jews had they owed to God, and for this reason were bound to his liberality, yet they might still exalt themselves. But it is added in the second place, that they remained safe day by day, as far as God spares them, cherishes, defends, and sustains them. Therefore the Prophet means this when he says, Shall it be taken to form any work from it, or will they take it for a peg to hang any vessels upon it. Behold, says he,it was given for consumption, and its two ends were burnt up. Here, as I said, he points out various calamities by which the Jews were almost struck down, though not subdued. For they were hardened in their obstinacy; and although they were like burnt and rotten wood, yet they boasted themselves to be perfect through their adoption, and through the covenant which God had made with Abraham: they boasted themselves to be a holy race, and a

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royal priesthood. Yet God reproves their sloth when he says theirs was like burnt wood, when a bundle of twigs has been cast into the fire, and there is some remnant so injured by the smoke as to be deprived of its strength.

Behold, says he, when it was whole could it be formed into any work! How much less after the fire has consumed it. Here we pursues the same sentiment. If any one should take any part of the bundle after the fire had dried it, could he fit it for any work? If he should take the twig when whole, it would not be fit to receive any shaping: how much less could the burnt wood be used for a peg or anything else. If, then, not even a peg can be found in the entire bundle, when the stem is like an ember through being parched by fire, how can it be turned to any use? Now follows the application: as I have given the wood of the vine among woods, says he: verbally, in the wood of the forest. Hence gather we what I formerly said about the branch, that it agrees with trees and is not put for the wild vine or the palm branch: for he now says, simply, amidst all the wood of the forest. But he says that the wood of the vine was among the wood of the forest — not because vines are merely planted there, but this comparison is used: that is, among woods, or even among all the woods of the forest, because these trees are felled, and destined for buildings, or vessels are made from them, and all kinds of wooden furniture, as well as the materials of houses, are taken from trees. He says, therefore, that the wood of the vine is given among the wood, of the forest, that is, among the woods of the forest, since the twigs are burnt, as they cannot be rendered useful to men: so have I given, says he, the citizens of Jerusalem

Now after we understand the Prophet’s meaning, let us learn that the Holy Spirit so addressed the Jews formerly, that this discourse might profit us in these days. We must perceive, in the first place, that we are superior to the whole world, through God’s gratuitous pity: but naturally we have nothing of our own in which to boast. But if we carry ourselves haughtily, through reliance on God’s gifts, this arrogance would be sacrilege: for we snatch away from God his own praise, and clothe ourselves, as it were, in his spoils. But Paul, when he speaks of the Jews, shortly, but clearly, defines both sides: Do we excel? says he — (for he there makes himself one with the people) — Do we excel the Gentiles? says he, (Romans 3:1); by no means: for Scripture denounces us all to be sinners — all to be, accursed. Since, therefore, we are children of wrath, he says, there is nothing which we can claim to ourselves over the profane Gentiles. After he has so prostrated all the pride of his own nation, he repeats again — What? Are we not superior to others? Yea, we excel in every

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way. For the adoption, and the worship, and the law of God, and the covenant, confer upon us remarkable superiority, and such as we find nothing like it in the whole world. How do those things agree? That the Jews excel, and are to be preferred to others, and yet that they excel in nothing! namely, since they have nothing in themselves to cause them to despise the Gentiles, or boast themselves superior; hence their excellence is not in themselves but in God. And so, Paul here does not commend their virtues, but says that they excel by gratuitous adoption, because God made his covenant with Abraham, and they were to arise from the holy nations, because he instituted a fixed line of piety among them, in promising himself to be a Father to them; nay, he determined that Christ should spring from them, who is the life and light of the world. We see, then, the former privileges of the Jews: ours is the same in these days. As often as we are favored with God’s gifts, by which we approach near him and overcome the world, we ought also to remember what we were before God took us up. Then our origin will prostrate all arrogance, and prevent us from being ungrateful to God. But that is not yet sufficient; but we must come to the second clause, that not only has God’s free grace raised us to such a height, but also sustains us; so that our standing is not founded in ourselves, but depends only on his will. Hence not only the remembrance of our origin ought to humble us, but the sense of our infirmity. Whence we gather that we have no perseverance in ourselves unless God daily, nay, momentarily strengthen us, and follow us up with his favor. This is the second point: the third is, if God afflicts or chastises us with his rods, we should know that the foolish confidence by which we deceive ourselves is by this means beaten out of us. Here we ought diligently to weigh the meaning of the phrase — the wood of the vine is useless when it is torn up, and especially when dry. For although the profane nations perish, yet it is not surprising if God’s judgments are more severe towards the reprobate, who had obtained a place in his Church, and who had been enriched with his spiritual gifts. This ingratitude requires us to become an example to others, so that the whole world may be astonished at beholding in us such dreadful signs of God’s anger. Hence the Jews were for a hissing and an abhorrence, an astonishment and a curse to the profane nations. Why so? They had more grievously exasperated God who had acted so liberally towards them, and were not only ungrateful and perfidious, but had purposely provoked him. Thus also it happens to other reprobates. So this clause is to be diligently noticed, when the Prophet says that the wood of the vine is cast into the fire, although trees, when cut down, are still useful either for building or for furniture. Now it follows —

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 15:6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD As the vine tree among 41

the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Ver. 6. As the vine tree.] Adaptat parabolam. Here beginneth the apodosis or application of the parable. That which is not for fruit is for the fire. Salt which hath lost the savour is thrown out.

So will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.] Those sinners in Zion; [Isaiah 33:14] those sacrificing Sodomites; [Isaiah 1:10] I will make them a fiery oven in the time of mine anger; I will swallow them up in my wrath; [Psalms 21:9] besides that, hell gapeth for them.

POOLE, " Either thus, When the vine is, as the wild trees of the forest, barren and fruitless, it is less worth than the forest tree; so are you, O house of Israel, in my account: or else, As trees of the forest are for the fire in all the less valuable parts of them, so are all the branches and body of the barren vine, which you are, O Jerusalemites.

I have given; designed and doomed for food to the fire.

So will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem; for by their sins they have kindled a fire, which shall burn every barren branch in the degenerate and fruitless vine.

PETT, "Verses 6-8

‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “As the vine trees among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will set my face against them. They will go forth from the fire, but the fire will devour them. And you will know that I am Yahweh when I set my face against them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a

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trespass,” says the Lord Yahweh.’

The reference to Jerusalem is now made clear. They are just fuel for the fire. Their land is to be made desolate because of their sin. And this will be because Yahweh has set His face against them. So even those who go forth from the fire and seemingly escape the judgment, will find that judgment follows them (compare Ezekiel 5:2 - ‘I will draw out a sword after them’).

‘And you will know that I am Yahweh when I set my face against them.’ What happens to them will make all recognise Who and What Yahweh is.

7 I will set my face against them. Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the Lord.

BARNES, "They shall go out ... - Rather, they have gone forth from the fire, and the fire shall devour them. The condition of the people is here depicted. The people of Israel - as a whole and as separate kingdoms - had become worthless. The branch torn from the living stem had truly been cast into the fire, which had devoured both ends of it; what remained was a brand plucked from the burning. Those who had escaped the general calamity were reserved for a like fate. Compare Joh_15:6.

CLARKE, "They shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them - If they escape the sword, they shall perish by the famine; if they escape the famine, they shall be led away captives. To escape will be impossible. It will be to them

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according to the proverb: -Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.“Out of the scald, into the flame.”

GILL, "And I will set my face against them,.... In wrath to destroy them; see Eze_14:8; and they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them: from one calamity to another; those that escaped the famine and pestilence in the city fell by the sword; and those that escaped famine, sword, and pestilence, were carried into captivity, and there passed from one hardship and affliction to another. The Targum is, "I will execute my vengeance on them, because of the words of the law, which were given out of the midst of fire; they have transgressed, and people who are strong as fire shall consume them.'' Some, as Abendana observes, interpret the fire, out of which they went, of Sennacherib, out of whose hand the Lord delivered them; and the fire which devoured them, of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and it may be rendered, "they have gone out" (e), &c. and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them; he is known by his judgments to be the Lord God omnipotent, holy, just, and true.

JAMISON, "And I will set my face against them — (See on Lev_17:10).from one fire ... another — (Compare Isa_24:18). “Fire” means here every kind of calamity (Psa_66:12). The Jewish fugitives shall escape from the ruin of Jerusalem, only to fall into some other calamity.

CALVIN, “He confirms what had been said in the last verse, and at the same time explains it: as if the citizens of Jerusalem retained some form, because they were not reduced to dust; but the fire had burnt all round them, as if the flame was licking a bundle of twigs. While the royal seat remained to them, the name of a people remained, and hence an opportunity for their obstinacy. For they were not to be subdued, since they were not entirely consumed: and now another madness is added; for as soon as they had escaped from any misfortune, they thought themselves quite safe, — “O now we shall rest,” said they; if the enemy had departed from the city, or if new forces had not arrived against them, or if provisions failed the enemy’s troops, they immediately regained their courage, and

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not only breathed again, but proudly laughed at God and his prophets, as if they were beyond all danger. For this reason he now says, I have set my face against them. To set, or, if any one prefers it, to establish one’s face, is to persist constantly, so as not only to do anything on passing, but to remain there until we have accomplished our intention; so that those are not bad expounders of the Prophet who say, “I have set my face firmly:” they do not translate verbally, but according to God’s meaning. For he often chastises a whole nation or city, and yet he does not set his face, that is, he does not stay there, but chastises them lightly, and but for a short time, as if passing in another direction. But he means something else here — that he would set his face; that is, never desist until the people’s name, as well as their city, was utterly abolished. For we have said that the prophets speak of the present state of the people when they threaten such destruction. I will set my face, therefore, against them: they shall escape from one fire, and another shall devour them. Here the Prophet strikes down that foolish opinion by which the Jews deceived themselves. For if they escaped from one danger, they thought it the last, and hence their security, and even obstinacy. But the Prophet says here, after they had escaped from one fire, that a new fire to consume them was lighted up: he means, that there were different means in God’s hand by which he destroys and extinguishes a people: as he had previously said, that he was armed with pestilence and the sword, and famine and wild beasts; so now under the name of fire he comprehends various scourges. If, therefore, men have escaped the sword, a new attack shall inter them, since God will press them with famine, or urge them with pestilence, or in other ways: and then, they shall know, says he, that I am Jehovah, when I shall set my face against it. By these words he signifies that his glory could not otherwise remain safe, since impunity blinded the Jews — nay, hardened them till they became like the brutes. If, therefore, God had spared them, his glory would have been as it were buried, and through so long a connivance he had been no longer acknowledged as God. There was a real necessity for so much rigor: since he would never show himself to be God otherwise than by destroying the impious who were so stupefied by their sins as long as he bore with them. At length he adds, I will lay the land waste since they have prevaricated by prevarication. Here, also, God expresses how terrible, yet just, was that judgment, because the Jews were no trifling offenders, but perfidiously departed from his worship, and from the whole teaching of the law, and were obstinate in their ingratitude. Since they were so abandoned, we gather that God was not too severe when he put forth his hand to destroy them utterly.

COKE, "Ezekiel 15:7. They shall go out from one fire, &c.— "That is, (says 45

Calmet,) if they escape the sword, they shall perish by famine; if they escape the famine, they shall be taken captive by the enemy; they shall fall from one calamity into another." See Psalms 66:12. But Houbigant, displeased with the addition of one and another made to the text, renders it, Shall they escape from the fire? Certainly the fire shall devour them, and ye shall, &c.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 15:7 And 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.

Ver. 7. And I will set my face aguinst them.] See Ezekiel 14:8, Leviticus 17:10.

They shall go out from one fire.] And then think themselves safe and happy; but this is but gaucdium lachrymosum; their preservation is but only a reservation; for

Another fire shall devour them.] A man pulleth a brand out of the fire sometimes, and then presently casteth it in again. He gathereth up the stick ends, but it is to cast them into the middle of the fire. So dealeth God often with the wicked; to whom also whatsoever they suffer here is but a typical Tophet. See Amos 5:19, Jeremiah 48:43.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord,] i.e., True of my word, and terrible in mine executions. The prophets could not get you to believe that your sins were so heinous, that my wrath was so hot, that your judgments were so heavy, &c.; but now ye shall surely feel what you would not then believe, and cry out, Nos insensati, &c. Oh we fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken unto us.

When I set my face against them.] As being fully resolved to have my full blow at them, and to pay them home.

POOLE, " I will look upon them with an angry and displeased countenance, which is enough to destroy them, or to fill them with terrors. This phrase occurs Ezekiel

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14:8, which see. My wrath shall kindle a fire among them.

They shall go out from one fire; either shift themselves, and flee from one evil, which as fire consumed them; or else be cast by others, by their enemies, out of one evil into another; from a less which troubled them to a greater which devours them, 1 Kings 19:17 Jeremiah 48:43,44 Am 5:19.

Ye shall know; you that are in Babylon, and hear what mischiefs are heaped on Jerusalem one after another, shall know it is my anger and fury poured out upon them.

WHEDON, "7. They shall go out from one fire, etc. — Literally, out of the fire are they come forth, but the fire shall devour them. They have only been “singed” (Ezekiel 15:4-5, A.V., “burned”) heretofore by these fires of punishment; but the fire into which they will now be plunged “shall devour them.”

LANGE, " Ezekiel 15:7. Ezekiel 14:8.—From the fire, etc, that is to say, in the sense of Ezekiel 15:4-5. Already burnt, they would have required to be on their guard against the fire. But in this way that is only “the beginning of the end” (Hengst.). Many expositors point specially to the experiences of the divine wrath under Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. But comp. on Ezekiel 15:4-5. (Grot. proverbially: coming out of the one, the other will fall upon them.)— Ezekiel 5:4; Ezekiel 10:2.

Eze 15:8. Eze 14:15-16; Eze 14:13.

8 I will make the land desolate because they have been unfaithful, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

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CLARKE, "They have committed a trespass - They have prevaricated; they are the worst of sinners, and shall have the heaviest of punishments. Can men suppose that it is possible to hide even their dark hearts from God?

GILL, "And I will make the land desolate,.... The land of Judea uncultivated, men and beast being cut off; see Eze_14:15; because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord God; acted a treacherous and perfidious part; apostatized from God, having committed idolatry, which was the cause of their ruin; and therefore it was not without a cause that the Lord did what he did, in it; see Eze_14:23.

JAMISON, "trespass — rather, “they have perversely fallen into perverse rebellion.” The Jews were not merely sinners as the other nations, but revolters and apostates. It is one thing to neglect what we know not, but quite another thing to despise what we profess to worship [Jerome], as the Jews did towards God and the law.COKE, "Ezekiel 15:8. Because they have committed a trespass— Because they have grievously trespassed. The Vulgate and Chaldee have it, Because they have been prevaricators. "They are not mere sinners," says St. Jerome, "like other nations, but have been guilty of prevarication;" for it is one thing to neglect what a person is ignorant of, and another to contemn what we should worship.

REFLECTIONS.—Jerusalem in her beauty was the joy of the whole earth; but now that sin has defiled her, the flames are kindling to devour her palaces.

1. She is compared to a wild and barren vine, the most unprofitable and useless tree in the forest; unfit for any work, and only suited for fuel to the fire. And if when flourishing it be not fit for any service, how much less when reduced to ashes.

2. The application of this similitude to Jerusalem follows. This city, with the inhabitants thereof, as the unprofitable vine, is doomed to the flames, because of

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their great provocations. God's wrath is kindled; and his face, as an implacable enemy, set against them; they were wholly unprofitable, brought him no glory: yea, noxious as the plants of a wild vine; therefore their land shall be desolate, the fire devour them, and one calamity on another pursue them, till they are utterly consumed, and God terribly made known to them, in the judgments that he would execute upon them. Note; Wrath pursues impenitent sinners, till it is perfected in the everlasting burnings.

TRAPP, "Ezekiel 15:8 And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.

Ver. 8. And I will make the land desolate.] The land itself often suffereth, propter incolarum inemendabilem malitiam, "for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." [Psalms 107:4] Idolatry especially is a land desolating sin.

Because they have committed a trespass.] A grand trespass, a wickedness with a witness; they have deeply revolted, and backslidden with a perpetual backsliding. Apostates, as they sin not common sins, so, with Korah and his complices, they die not common deaths many times.

POOLE, " Desolate: see Ezekiel 6:14.

A trespass; not one single trespass, but they have been so perpetually trespassing that it seemed a continued act, and all done with greatest aggravation.

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