Ezekiel 15 – The Parable of the Vine Wood
A short, sharp parable: Jerusalem is vine wood, fit only for the fire.
Ezekiel 15 is one of Ezekiel's shortest chapters, a compact parable following the elders' judgment in Ezekiel 14: vine wood is useless for building, good only for burning.
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?
Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?
No, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?
Even when it was whole, it could not be made useful. How much less can it ever be useful when the fire has consumed it and charred it!
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the people of Jerusalem.
And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.
Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Lord GOD.”