Jerusalem the Useless Vine
This section contains a series of eight metaphors,...
This section contains a series of eight metaphors, each reiterating from a different angle the certainty of Jerusalem’s forthcoming judgment. The images are of a worthless vine (ch 15); a faithless wife (ch 16); a vine and two eagles (ch 17); sour grapes (ch 18); a lion and her cubs (ch 19); a sword (ch 21); two degenerate sisters (ch 23); and a cooking pot (ch 24).
The wood of a tree can be used...
The wood of a tree can be used to make all kinds of useful objects, pegs being the simplest and most basic. A vine’s wood, however, has no strength, size, or beauty, so it is useless for pegs and it is not even good as fuel because it burns too quickly. It is completely useless.
1Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest? 3Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?
4No, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything? 5Even when it was whole, it could not be made useful. How much less can it ever be useful when the fire has consumed it and charred it!
6Therefore 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. 7And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.
8Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Lord GOD.”