What Does Ezekiel 15:6 Mean?
Therefore thus says the Lord LORD, as the vine-wood among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire as food, so will I give those who settle in Jerusalem.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
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.THE KEY
The repeated “give” is an act of placement: both the vine and Jerusalem’s inhabitants are handed to the fire that consumes them.
THE MEANING
The image meets you as a stark account of judgment: the vine is given to the fire as fuel, and Jerusalem’s inhabitants are given over in the same way. The repeated act makes the fire their stated destination, not an accidental threat.
THE ROOT
נְתַתִּיו
netattiv
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
“given” in this verse is netattiv. The verb appears first for the vine and again for the inhabitants: both are placed into an outcome, rather than merely compared with one. Its sense of setting or placing sharpens the force of the verse: they are handed over to the fire.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, or place.
נָתַן
Genesis 1:17 uses this verb as “set” for the lights placed in the heavens; here, the repeated giving places the vine and inhabitants before the fire.
mattanah: A gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
The same word family can name a gift, but “give” here carries no promise of benefit: what is given is handed over to destruction.
לְאָכְלָה
le’okhlah
GROWS FROM
אכל
To eat or consume.
The Hebrew behind “fuel” pictures food for the fire: the fire consumes the vine as an eater takes food. That image makes the inhabitants’ fate concrete, the fire receives what is handed over and devours it.
ALSO GROWS
ʾakhal: To eat or consume.
אָכַל
The verb names what the fire does to the vine: it consumes it.
ma’akhal: Food, something to be eaten.
מַאֲכָל
This branch makes the verse’s image plain: the vine is placed before the fire as what it will consume.
THE PATTERN
When scripture gives living growth to fire, the image makes judgment consumptive: what is handed over is burned rather than preserved.
The LORD called your name, a green olive tree, fair, bearing fruit of fine form. With the voice of a great roaring he has kindled fire upon it, and its boughs are shattered.And already the axe lies at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut out and thrown into the fire.If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they burn.THE THREAD
And God set them in the expanse of the heavens, to shine upon the earth.The verb translated “set” is נתן (natan), the same give, set, place root repeated in Ezekiel 15:6. Genesis places the lights in the heavens to give light; Ezekiel places the vine and inhabitants before the fire, showing how much the destination matters.
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