No, it can only be used for fuel, and even as fuel, it burns too quickly.
Parallel translations
- WEB Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and the middle of it is burned. Is it profitable for any work?
- KJV Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any work?
- BSB No, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?
- NKJV Instead, it is thrown into the fire for fuel; the fire devours both ends of it, and its middle is burned. Is it useful for any work?
- NASB If it has been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends and its middle part has been charred, is it then good for anything?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Burned at both ends and charred in the middle, the vine is fit only for fuel. A scorched vine is worthless for any task.
Overview
The vine's sole 'use' is to be thrown on the fire. The picture of both ends consumed and the middle scorched points to Jerusalem already partly ravaged (the northern kingdom fallen, exiles taken) yet facing final burning. A fruitless people, like burnt vine wood, are useful for nothing but judgment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- John 15:6If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
- Isa 27:11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Ps 80:16It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.
- Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
- Mal 4:1“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- Heb 6:8but if it bears thorns and thistles, it is rejected and near being cursed, whose end is to be burned.
- Amos 4:11“I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
- Isa 1:31The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”
- Heb 12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
- Ezek 19:14Fire has gone out of the rods of its branches. It has devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a scepter to rule.’ This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.”
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 15:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.