BS"D KNOW YOUR BIBLE: Ezekiel 15-16
Study Notes by Avraham ben Yaakov
EZEKIEL CHAPTER 15
THE FOREST VINE
In the short prophecy in this chapter, God asks Ezekiel a series of
rhetorical questions about the forest vine that produces no fruits – a
metaphor for the sinful people of Jerusalem (vv 1-5). These questions
lead to the inexorable conclusion that there is no alternative but to
consume the vine with fire (vv 6-8).
The vine in question is not the cultivated vine of the vineyard, which
produces grapes, but "the branch that grew up among the trees of the
forest" (v 2) – the wild vine that, like the other wild trees in the
forest, does not produce fruits. At least the other trees of the forest
may provide useable wood, but not only is wood of the vine in question
useless for any kind of work: it does not even have the strength to
serve as a mere peg to hang something on! (v 3). Isaiah had already
compared Israel to such a vine in his "song of his Beloved": "My Beloved
had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill… and planted it with the
choicest vine… and He hoped that it would bring forth good grapes but it
brought forth foul grapes" (Isaiah 5:2).