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Israel is a worthless vine tree Preparing (in the 16th chapter) to give a detailed overview of the past of Israel, in order to present its entire history as a long chain of wickedness and idolatry, and the present destruction of the people as a necessary consequence of the terrible past, the prophet precedes this large historical sketch with a brief description of the people themselves from the side of their natural inclinations and, using the old comparison of Israel with a vine, proves that the chosen people are not only not better, but worse than other nations, like a vine tree, taken apart from its fruits, it is worse than other types of tree. The ideal of the prophet was not at all the development (culture) that Israel achieved in Canaan and of which he was so proud. With some right, modern interpreters see in this chapter Ezekiel’s complete renunciation of the hope that Israel will ever, at least in the near future, become a political entity. The calling of Israel, according to the prophet, is different. Ezek.15:2. son of man! What advantage does a vine tree have over any other tree and the branches of a vine among the trees of a forest? The comparison of Israel to the vine, that noblest product of Canaan, was natural (cf. Mt 21:33) and old. Folk singers may have invented it to praise the nation (Herod's church was decorated with this symbol of Israel. Josephus, De bello jud. 5:5, 4). The prophetic writers, first Hosea (Hosea 10.1), then Jeremiah (Jer. 2.21), and also Isaiah (Is. 5.1 et c.) must have adopted it and turned it into a bad side: Israel is like a noble vine branch that has become wild. The Prophet Ezekiel develops this comparison also in a bad way, but in a completely different way. Israel, outside of its covenant relationship with Jehovah, is inferior to other nations in all respects - in the extent of the country, in wealth, military power, and arts. The parable cleverly develops a series of questions that all require a negative answer, each one indicating a worse quality than the previous one. Ezek.15:3. Do they take a piece from it to make any product? Do they even take a nail from it to hang any thing on? Even such an insignificant thing as a nail cannot be made from grape wood: it is not strong enough for this. Wed. Pliny, Hist. nat, XIV, 1, 2. Ezek.15:4. Behold, it is given over to the fire to be devoured; fire ate both ends of it, and the middle of it was burned: is it suitable for any product? Now this tree is even worse, since it was damaged by fire. Two burnt ends - the kingdom of Israel destroyed in 722 and the destruction of the kingdom of Judah that began with the captivity of Jehoiachin; the burned middle is Jerusalem on the eve of the siege. Ezek.15:5. And then, as it was intact, it was not suitable for any product; Moreover, when the fire ate it and it was burnt, is it suitable for any product? And in general, Israel was never able to become a kingdom like other large monarchies (in a different spirit, Ezek. 19.2 et c. 10 et c.); and now it would be double folly to hope for its future when the greater half has been destroyed. Ezek.15:6. Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I have given the vine among the trees of the forest to the fire to be devoured, so will I give it the inhabitants of Jerusalem also. God, as the Creator, destined the vine tree for nothing other than burning (cf. Ezek.47.11); so does Israel! Ezek.15:7. And I will set My face against them; They will come out of one fire, and another fire will devour them, and you will know that I am the Lord when I set My face against them. Ezek.15:8. And I will make this land desolate because they have acted treacherously, says the Lord God. “They will come out of the same fire...”. The first fiery judgment can mean either the totality of all previous disasters with which God wanted to admonish Israel (the kingdom of Israel was more than once on the brink of destruction) or, most immediately, the captivity of Jehoiachin and the aristocracy; under the second fire - the final destruction of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar, accompanied by the actual turning of the country into a desert without hope in the future for its former power. - “They acted treacherously.” Of course, the general violation of the covenant with God on the part of the entire people, which the prophet goes on to describe in the next chapter, and not the treachery of Zedekiah (Ezekiah 17.20), in which the former, however, was specifically expressed. You might be interested in: