What Does Ezekiel 15:3 Mean in the King James?
Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse measures usefulness by what a thing can yield and hold, not by how useful its material appears.
THE MEANING
The question meets you wherever usefulness is being measured by appearance: what can be taken from the vine and made useful, and what can even hold a vessel? Its wood cannot perform either task. The verse holds the difference between looking usable and having the capacity to serve or support.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that something keeps its usefulness simply because it resembles usable material.
THE ROOT
יִקַּח
yiqqaḥ
GROWS FROM
לקח
to take, receive, or acquire
“taken / take” in this verse is yiqqaḥ. Both clauses repeat the root לקח: first asking what can be taken from the vine for work, then what can be taken as a peg. Its branch לֶקַח also means instruction or teaching, extending the idea of taking into receiving; here, the repeated question tests what the vine can actually yield.
ALSO GROWS
lāqaḥ: to take or receive
לָקַח
This is the verb repeated in both questions, linking the taking of wood with the taking of a peg.
leqaḥ: instruction or teaching
לֶקַח
This branch extends taking into receiving; the verse asks whether the vine yields anything that can be received and put to use.
לִתְלוֹת
litlot
GROWS FROM
תלה
to hang or suspend
“hang” in this verse is litlot. The vessel is not merely placed on the wood; it hangs from it, with its weight resting on the support. The root makes the peg’s job concrete: the vine’s wood must be able to carry what is entrusted to it.
ALSO GROWS
talui: suspended; dependent
תָּלוּי
A suspended thing depends on what holds it, echoing the support tested by the verse.
teliya: hanging or suspension
תְּלִיָּה
This noun preserves the action of being hung, bringing the vessel’s dependence on its peg into focus.
THE PATTERN
Living capacity is known by what a thing can produce or sustain, not merely by its outward form.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.THE THREAD
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.Genesis uses the same root, לקח, when God takes the human into Eden, delight, and places him where tending and guarding are possible. Ezekiel uses that root to ask whether the vine can yield anything fit for work or support; its wood cannot.
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