Ezekiel 15:6-8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given for fuel That is, as the vine-tree, when barren and fruitless, like the wild trees of the forest, is given for fuel, being fit for nothing else; or as a vine, when barren and cut up, is thrown among other wood which is intended to be fuel for the fire; so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem So will I destroy them by the Chaldeans, among other nations which are destroyed by them. For they are so degenerated, and grown so corrupt and wicked, that they are of no use any longer in the world; but are rather injurious to civil society, and therefore are only fit to be consumed. And I will set my face against them To thwart all their counsels and confound their schemes, as they have set their faces against me to contradict my word and defeat my designs: or, I will look upon them with indignation. They shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them The end of one judgment shall be the beginning of another; and their escape from one only a reprieve till another come. They shall go from misery in their own country to misery in Babylon. They that kept themselves out of the way of the sword, perished by famine or pestilence: when one descent of the Chaldean forces upon them was over, and they thought, Surely the bitterness of death is past; yet soon after these enemies returned again with double violence till they had made a full end. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have set my face against them You that are in Chaldea, when you shall hear what mischiefs, one after another, are heaped on Jerusalem, shall know that I am Jehovah, a God of almighty power, that it is my wrath and vengeance that is poured upon them. Observe, reader, God shows himself to be the Lord by the destruction of his implacable enemies, as well as by the deliverance of his obedient people. And, observe also those against whom he sets his face, though they may come out of one trouble little hurt, will fall into another; though they come out of the pit, will be taken in the snare, Isaiah 24:8; though they escape the sword of Hazael, will fall by that of Jehu, 1 Kings 19:17: for evil pursues sinners. Nay, though they go out from the fire of temporal judgments, and seem to die in peace, yet there is an everlasting fire that will devour them; for when God judgeth, first or last, he will overcome, and will be known by the judgments which he executeth.