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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
14:12-15:8 The Consequences of Infidelity. Larger complexes of material are more difficult to discern, from this point through to the collection of oracles against foreign nations (chs. 25-32). The common thread in these verses is the certainty of divine judgment on Jerusalem.
14:12-23 Noah, Daniel, Job. Five clearly formed paragraphs make up this oracle: the first four detail four modes of divine judgment on Jerusalem: famine (vv. 12-14); beasts (vv. 15-16); sword (vv. 17-18); and pestilence (vv. 19-20). The final paragraph provides a summary and holds open the possibility of a remnant (vv. 21-23). For this oracle's holding up righteous heroes of the past, cf. Jer. 15:1. For its implied hope that a few righteous might suffice to save many wicked, cf. Gen. 18:22-33. The implicit assertion that each individual is held to account for his or her own life (the summary phrase of each paragraph here) was an implicit theme of Ezekiel from the start (see Ezek. 3:16-21) and will see its fullest treatment in ch. 18.
14:14, 20 Noah and Job are well-known righteous men of the past (see Gen. 6:9; Job 1:1). Noah saved only his family; the protection of Job's piety did not even extend that far. The identity of Daniel (cf. also Ezek. 28:3) has been disputed. Traditionally, he is identified with the hero of the book of Daniel, a contemporary of Ezekiel, who served in the court of Babylon and then of Persia. His reputation might have spread widely enough by this time for Ezekiel to expect his audience to recognize him (cf. Dan. 2:1, which is well before Ezekiel's call, although it is hard to say whether he was widely known outside the court, and Ezekiel was not in Babylon itself). Others suggest, however, that the Daniel mentioned here should be identified with an ancient sage of the Syrian region, known from the Ugaritic texts as a just and pious ruler (which seems also to fit well with Ezek. 28:3, addressed to Tyre). This is suggested by the fact that the other two figures, Noah and Job, are from the distant past, and are not Israelite (contrast Jer. 15:1, using Moses and Samuel). Further, although the book of Daniel consistently spells the name with the consonants d-n-y-’-l (with vowels, Daniye’l), in Ezekiel it is d-n-’-l (with vowels, Dani’el). This may be simply a variant spelling of the biblical name, though many students of Ezekiel think it points to the Daniel in Ugaritic texts.
14:23 The expanded recognition formula (you shall know; cf. Introduction: Style) emphasizes the justice of God's actions.
15:1-8 The Useless Vine. This "parable of the vine" is very different from John 15! The metaphor of the vine for Israel is common in the OT (e.g., Ps. 80:8-16; Jer. 2:21; Hos. 10:1), which explains Jesus' claim in John 15:1 ("I am the true vine") to embody the people of God. (On Israel as a vineyard, cf. Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 12:10; as an olive tree, cf. Jer. 11:16; Rom. 11:17-24.) The juxtaposition of vine and harlotry themes in Jer. 2:20-21 is exactly what one finds on a different scale in Ezekiel 15-16. Ezekiel himself further develops the vine metaphor in ch. 17 (cf. 19:10-14). Here, the point is simple: the wood of a vine is fit only for burning--and so it is with the inhabitants of Jerusalem (15:6). Such a pessimistic evaluation is not only consistent with Ezekiel's oracles up to this point, it also marks his evaluation of the whole of Israelite history in ch. 20.
15:2 how does the wood . . . surpass? The Hebrew is difficult to translate. The question may also be rendered, "Son of man, of any wood, what happens to the wood of a vine . . . ?"
