Shared ground
Ezekiel 15:6 moves from the vine picture (vv. 1–5) to its target: Jerusalem. The text explicitly says the Lord Yahweh is drawing a conclusion (“therefore”) and applying the same action to the city’s residents: as a vine among forest trees is “given” to fire for fuel, so the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be “given” over.
The comparison assumes the earlier point of the image: vine wood is not prized as timber, and once burned it is even less useful. In this verse the focus is not fruitfulness but worthlessness as wood and the resulting fate—being treated like fuel.
Where interpretation differs
Some readers take “fire” as mainly a picture for catastrophic judgment (loss, ruin, removal), without requiring a specific form it must take. Others think the setting makes “fire” point more directly to war and the burning of a city, while still working as a metaphor for a larger downfall.
A related question is what “I will give” emphasizes. One reading stresses divine agency: God is presented as the one handing Jerusalem over. Another reading stresses that God does this through human powers (such as Babylon), so the imperial action is real and the verse interprets its meaning.
Why the disagreement exists
The verse uses standard prophetic imagery (“fire”) that can work both as a symbol and as a description of what happens in conquest. Also, the verb “give” can describe direct action or action carried out through agents; the text does not spell out the mechanism in v. 6.
What this passage clearly contributes
It clearly states that Jerusalem’s inhabitants are not being discussed in vague terms; they are the direct referent of the vine image. It also frames the coming disaster as something that happens under the Lord Yahweh’s authority (“thus says…”), not as random history. Finally, it adds a moral-interpretive angle to political collapse: Jerusalem is portrayed as having lost its claimed value and security, like vine wood reduced to fuel.
