EZEKIEL—NOTE ON Ezekiel 15:1 Comparing Israel to a vine is a common OT theme (e.g., Psalms 80:8; Jeremiah 2:21). (On Israel as a vineyard, see Isaiah 5:1; Jeremiah 12:10; as an olive tree, see Jeremiah 11:16; Romans 11:17.) The mixing of vine imagery and spiritual unfaithfulness in Jeremiah 2:20 is also found in Ezekiel 15:1. Ezekiel further develops the vine metaphor in ch. Ezekiel 17:1 (compare Ezekiel 19:10). Here in Ezekiel 15:1, the point is simple: the wood of a vine is fit only for burning—and so it is with the inhabitants of Jerusalem (v. Ezekiel 15:6). Such a pessimistic evaluation matches God’s evaluation of the whole of Israelite history in ch. Ezekiel 20:1.

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