Bible Strands
Ezekiel 15:6
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord GOD speaks through Ezekiel to the exiled community, pronouncing judgment on Jerusalem immediately after describing the uselessness of vine wood in Ezekiel 15:5.
The words — לָכֵן (la./Khen) means "therefore," and עֵץ הַגֶּפֶן ('etz ha./Ge.fen) translates literally as "the wood of the vine," denoting a material stripped of structural or utilitarian value.
The thread — This vine-to-fuel imagery runs in Isaiah 5:1-24, where God’s cultivated vineyard is consumed by fire, and Jeremiah 4:7, where a destroyer lays waste the land.
Why it lands — The text states that God will surrender Jerusalem to destruction just as useless vine wood is thrown into the fire, demanding the reader acknowledge that national survival rests solely on divine judgment, not on inherent worth or covenantal status.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Therefore thus saith the Lord God; As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 5:1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
- Isaiah 5:24 Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
- Jeremiah 4:7 A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.
- Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
- Jeremiah 21:7 ‘After that,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in this city who survive the plague and sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will not spare them or show pity or compassion.’
- Jeremiah 24:8 But like the bad figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem—those remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Jeremiah 25:18 to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;
- Jeremiah 44:21 “As for the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—did the LORD not remember and bring this to mind?
- Ezekiel 15:2 “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?