Ezekiel 15

15:1, 2 AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to make any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel: the fire hath devoured both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned; is it profitable for any work? Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less, when the fire hath devoured it, and it is burned, shall it yet be meet for any work? 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 7 Jerusalem. And I will set my face against them; they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against 8 them. And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.

16:1, 2 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem 3 to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was thy father, and thy mother 4 was an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to cleanse thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled 5 at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, for that thy person was abhorred, in the day that 6 thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee weltering in thy blood, I said unto thee, Though thou art in thy blood, live; yea, I said unto thee, Though thou art in thy 7 blood, live. I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou didst increase and wax great, and thou attainedst to excellent ornament; thy breasts were fashioned, and thine 8 hair was grown; yet thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and cov- ered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the 9 Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly 10 washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with sealskin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and 11 covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy 12 hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a ring upon thy nose, and earrings in thine 13 ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper unto royal 14 estate. And thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

15. But thou didst trust in thy beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and 16 pouredst out thy whoredoms on every one that passed by; his it was. And thou didst take of thy garments, and madest for thee high places decked with divers colours, and playedst 17 the harlot upon them: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Thou didst also take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest for 18 thee images of men, and didst play the harlot with them; and thou tookest thy broidered 19 garments, and coveredst them, and didst set mine oil and mine incense before them. My bread also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou didst 20 even set it before them for a sweet savour, and thus it was; saith the Lord GOD. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast 21 thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them up, in causing them to pass through the fire unto 22 them? And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the 23 days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast weltering in thy blood. And 24 it is come to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD,) that thou hast built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee a lofty place in every street. 25 Thou hast built thy lofty place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty an abomination, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whore- 26 dom. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians, thy neighbours, great of 27 flesh; and hast multiplied thy whoredom, to provoke me to anger. Behold therefore, I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed 28 of thy lewd way. Thou hast played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet thou wast not satisfied. 29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy whoredom in the land of Canaan, unto Chaldea; and 30 yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing 31 thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; in that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thy lofty place in every street;

32 and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire. A wife that committeth adultery! 33 that taketh strangers instead of her husband! They give gifts to all harlots: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and bribest them, that they may come unto thee on every 34 side for thy whoredoms. And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, in that none followeth thee to commit whoredom: and whereas thou givest hire, and no hire is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary. 35, 36 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: Thus saith the Lord God, because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers; and because of all the idols of thy abominations, and for the blood of thy children, 37 which thou didst give unto them; therefore behold, I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them against thee on every side, and will discover thy nakedness 38 unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will bring upon thee the blood of fury and 39 jealousy. I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and break down thy lofty places; and they shall strip thee of thy clothes, and take 40 thy fair jewels: and they shall leave thee naked and bare. They shall also bring up an as- sembly against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their 41 swords. And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgements upon thee in the sight of many women; and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou 42 shalt also give no hire any more. So will I satisfy my fury upon thee, and my jealousy 43 shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; therefore be- hold, I also will bring thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord God: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations. 44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is 45 the mother, so is her daughter. Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that loatheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which loathed their husbands and 46 their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite. And thine elder sister is Samaria, that dwelleth at thy left hand, she and her daughters: and thy younger 47 sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. Yet hast thou not walked in their ways, nor done after their abominations; but, as if that were a very little 48 thing, thou wast more corrupt than they in all thy ways. As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy 49 daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom; pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters; neither did she strengthen the hand of the 50 poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore 51 I took them away as I saw good. Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters by all thine 52 abominations which thou hast done. Thou also, bear thine own shame, in that thou hast given judgement for thy sisters; through thy sins that thou hast committed more abomi- nable than they, they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou also confounded, and bear 53 thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters. And I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and 54 the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them: that thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be ashamed because of all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto 55 them. And thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and thou and thy daughters 56 shall return to your former estate. For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned by thy mouth 57 in the day of thy pride; before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of the reproach of the daughters of Syria, and of all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philis- 58 tines, which do despite unto thee round about. Thou hast borne thy lewdness and thine 59 abominations, saith the LORD. For thus saith the Lord God: I will even deal with thee as 60 thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an 61 everlasting covenant. Then shalt thou remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder sisters and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee

62 for daughters, but not by thy covenant. And I will establish my covenant with thee; and 63 thou shalt know that I am the LORD: that thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame; when I have forgiven thee all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.

Chap. 15. This short chapter makes but one point, and makes that plainly. Jerusalem and Israel had often been thought and spoken of as a vine under the culture of their own God. (See Isa. 5:1-7; 27:2; Jer. 2:21; Ps. 80:8-16.) But now she has altogether ceased to bring forth grapes. She bears no fruits of holiness; renders to God no acceptable service. The wood of the vine was too slender for tent nails or pins. It might, however, answer to burn for fuel. It was used for this purpose, and was fit for nothing else. So of the people of Jerusalem. They might serve as an example to illustrate God’s justice in punishing the incorrigibly guilty. They might answer some useful purpose to burn up. To this purpose the Lord would consign them, and would lay their land utterly desolate. A fearful truth is this, as applied to all sinners who will bear no fruit of obedience and love to God; from whom He can extract no other service in His universe save to make them an example of His righteous justice in their damnation! Actively, of their free will and honest intent, they will do nothing for God, or for His creatures and the general good; hence, passively, by suffering, and against their will, the Lord will turn them to the only good account possible in their case, and make them fuel for His justice to burn—a living, eternal testimony before the universe to His holy and intense abhorrence of rebellion. They shall know, and all intelligent beings in God’s kingdom shall learn in their case, that He is the Lord God Omnipotent, holy and righteous forevermore! H. C.

The vine is a noble plant in respect to the fruit it bears; but in regard of its wood, no shrub is so mean; it is so far from affording any useful timber, that not even a pin can be made from it on which any vessel may be hung. Lo, such is Israel! if it bore good fruit it would be dear and precious to me, but in itself it is but mean and base in comparison of other nations, and unfit for any service: it is only meet to be cast into the fire for fuel. Bp. Hall.

The vine-tree is weaker than most trees, so as to be unfit for any work, and would therefore be very contemptible but for that property it possesses of bringing forth a valuable and delicious fruit. On this account it is highly prized and diligently cultivated. But if it fail of producing fruit, the only purpose to which it can be applied is to turn it to fuel. Such is the figurative representation which the prophet gives us, in this passage, of man, considered especially as the object of Divine care and culture. He is naturally capable of yielding a precious fruit; in this consists his sole excellence; this is the sole end of his existence; and if he fails in this he is of no use but to be destroyed. Man is naturally capable of yielding a most precious fruit: this fruit consists in living to God. R. Hall.

7. The condition of the people is here depicted. The people of Israel had already become worthless, useless as instruments for carrying out God’s work. The separated kingdoms had, in turn, been laid waste. Israel was entirely broken up. Judah had suffered the captivity of her king (Jeconiah), and with him no inconsiderable part of the commonality. The branch torn from the living stem had truly been cast into the fire, which had devoured both ends of it; what remained was a brand plucked from the burning. Those who had escaped the general calamity were reserved for a like fate. They had gone forth from the fire, so they deemed, but the fire should yet devour them, so God had decreed. Compare the parable of the vine in John 15, where the worthlessness of the vine-branch severed from the true stock, and the consequent casting of it in the fire, illustrates this prophecy of Ezekiel. B. C.

Chap. 16. This chapter embraces one general theme—the idolatry of Jerusalem, set forth in vivid, glaring, appalling colors under the figure common to the prophets, by which idolatry is thought of as adultery. The key-note is struck in verse 2: “Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.” Set them before her eyes in forms and figures so expressive that she cannot but see them, and so sickening that, seeing, she cannot fail to loathe and abhor herself for all she has done. Let us also bear in mind that this exposé of Jerusalem is made before the exiles in Chaldea to show them how righteously that city is about to suffer utter destruction; to impress them with the enormity of their great national sin, in which themselves were deeply guilty; and to urge them to deep self-condemnation and bitter repentance. H. C.

Israel’s proneness to idolatry is depicted by the prophet under the figure of a wife’s infidelity. This he does in the long 16th chapter and in the almost equally long 23d chapter. In these chapters the relentless realism of our author’s methods is most startling. The subject is a loathsome one. The instinct of delicacy is to escape from it as speedily and euphemistically as possible. But Ezekiel means not merely to suggest the picture, but to make us see it. We feel that we might be spared some of the ranker words, some of the more revolting situations, some of the more indecent exposures. It is dreadful to read, but the result is such an expression of the odiousness of apostasy from God as is without a parallel in literature. Ballantine.

1-43. Idolatry is frequently represented by the prophets under the figure of a wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband. This image is here so portrayed as to exhibit the aggravation of Israel’s guilt by reason of her origin and early history. The original abode of the progenitors of the race, the land of Canaan, defiled with idolatry and moral corruption, is introduced to heighten the picture. The prophet’s first aim is to show how utterly destitute the people was from the first of any claim to the kindness lavished upon it. Israel was like a child born in a polluted land, abandoned from its birth, left by its parents in the most utter neglect to the chance regard of any passer by. Such was the state of the people in Egypt (verses 3-5). On such a child the Lord looked with pity, tended, adopted it, decked it with all that could grace and adorn it. Under such care it grew up to be comely and beautiful, and the Lord joined it to Himself in that close union which is figured by the bonds of wedlock. The Lord adopted her not only as His child, but as His spouse. The covenants made under Moses and Joshua represent this alliance (verses 6-8). The prophet does not dwell upon the sins and punishments of Israel which followed so close upon the first covenants, but passes on to the season of greatest prosperity, the reigns of David and Solomon, when Israel shone with all the glory of temporal prosperity, and became a kingdom mighty and prosperous (verses 9-14). The remainder of the history of the people now divided is, in the prophet’s eye, a succession of defection and degradation marked by the erection of high places (verse 16), by the worship of household idols (verse 17), by the abominable rites of Molech (verse 20). And all this was followed by unholy alliances with foreign nations: Egypt (verse 26), Assyria (verse 28), Chaldea (verse 29), which nations the people courted with presents and called in to their ruin (verse 33). Such sins were soon to meet their due punishment. As an unfaithful wife was brought before the people, convicted, cast out of her home, and stoned, so should the Lord make His people a gazing-stock to all the nations round about, deprive them of all their possessions, and of their city, and cast them forth as exiles to be spoiled and destroyed in a foreign land (verses 35-43). B. C.

1-5. Ezekiel is now among the captives in Babylon; but as Jeremiah at Jerusalem wrote for the use of the captives, though they had Ezekiel upon the spot with them (chap. 29), so Ezekiel wrote for the use of Jerusalem, though Jeremiah himself was resident there. Jeremiah wrote to the captives for their consolation, which was the thing they needed; Ezekiel here is directed to write to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their conviction and humiliation, which was the thing they needed. H.

3. No one will take this allusion to her “birth and nativity” in the literal sense. Men and nations are spoken of as the children of those whose ways they follow, as our Lord accosted the Pharisees, “Ye generation of vipers” (Matt. 23:33), and “Ye are of your father the devil” (John 8:44). Isaiah (chap. 1:10) addresses the Jews as “rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah.” H. C.

Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. It would dishonor Abraham to say that you sprung from him; ye are rather Canaanites than Israelites. The Canaanites were accursed; so are ye. Thy father was an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite. These tribes were the most famous, and probably the most corrupt of all the Canaanites. A. C.

6-14. These figures are plain, and refer manifestly to the early development of the religious life and of the national strength and wealth of the Hebrew people in the wilderness and in Canaan. God’s first interposition broke the yoke of Pharaoh and brought them forth from their national bondage. Then He entered into the solemn marriage covenant with them, and they became truly and avowedly His own people. The entire Book of Exodus is a special comment on these verses. In verse 6 the original word is not precisely “polluted,” but rather trodden under foot—indicating their state in Egypt. The announcement, “Live,” is solemnly repeated for emphasis. It was this majestic and paternal voice which restored their national life, when else they had died nationally under Egyptian servitude. The reader will not fail to note that this setting forth of God’s loving-kindness to the nation in its birth and

youth is intended to show (and does) how deeply indebted the Hebrew nation were to their own covenant God, and hence, how intensely flagrant, mean and wicked was their apostasy from their own God to idols, their spiritual adultery. H. C.