Ezekiel 15:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

What is the vine-tree— Houbigant renders it, What hath the wood of the vine above other branching woods which are amid the trees of the wood? The comparison is here made between the trees of the forest and the wild vine; not the fruitful and generous vine, as appears from the words, among the trees of the forest; for this vine then produced nothing but sour and bitter grapes: so that Israel could no longer glory in this, that God had frequently called them his vine. It is upon this point, says Houbigant, that the present allegory wholly turns. Infidels object, that they cannot understand why God should prefer so perverse and rebellious a people to all others. One reason is, that it was for the sake of their forefathers, and to fulfil the promise made to the patriarchs; but others are not wanting, and those very agreeable to the ideas that we have of infinite wisdom; such, for instance, as this: that the extraordinary providences by which they were protected might become the more visible and illustrious; for, had they been endowed with the shining qualities of the more polished nations of the present day, the effects of that Providence might have been ascribed to their own power or wisdom. Their impotence and inability, when left to themselves, is finely represented in this chapter by the similitude of a vine-tree: for, as the vine, which by culture and support is the most valuable of all trees, becomes the most worthless when left neglected in its own natural state; so the Jews, after they made such a superior figure under the protection of God, became the weakest and most contemptible of all tributary nations, when for their sins that protection was withdrawn. See the Divine Legation, vol. 4: and Calmet.