1 Moreover, take up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, 2 and say, What was your mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her cubs. 3 She brought up one of her cubs: he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men. 4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit; and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. 5 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her cubs, and made him a young lion. 6 He went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men. 7 He knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and its fullness, because of the noise of his roaring. 8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces; and they spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit. 9 They put him in a cage with hooks, and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard on the mountains of Israel. 10 Your mother was like a vine, in your blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. 11 It had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule, and their stature was exalted among the thick boughs, and they were seen in their height with the multitude of their branches. 12 But it was plucked up in fury, it was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up its fruit: its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire consumed them. 13 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. 14 Fire is 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.
Ezekiel regarded Zedekiah as an interloper (Ezekiel 17:1 note), therefore he here (in Ezekiel 19:1-14) passes over Jehoiakim and Zedekiah as mere creatures of Egypt and of Babylon, and recognizes Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin as the only legitimate sovereigns since the time of Josiah. This dirge is for them, while it warns the usurper Zedekiah of an approaching fate similar to that of the two earlier kings.
This chapter contains two beautiful examples of the parabolic kind of writing; the one lamenting the sad catastrophe of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, Ezekiel 19:1-9, and the other describing the desolation and captivity of the whole people, Ezekiel 19:10-14. In the first parable, the lioness is Jerusalem. The first of the young lions is Jehoahaz, deposed by the king of Egypt; and the second lion is Jehoiakim, whose rebellion drew on himself the vengeance of the king of Babylon. In the second parable the vine is the Jewish nation, which long prospered, its land being fertile, its princes powerful, and its people flourishing; but the judgments of God, in consequence of their guilt, had now destroyed a great part of the people, and doomed the rest to captivity.
INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 19
The subject matter of this chapter is a lamentation for the princes and people of the Jews, on account of what had already befallen them, and what was yet to come, Ezekiel 19:1. The mother of the princes is compared to a lioness, and they to lions; who, one after another, were taken and carried captive, Ezekiel 19:2; again, their mother is compared to a vine, and they to branches and rods for sceptres, destroyed by an east wind, and consumed by fire, Ezekiel 19:10.
(Ezekiel 19:1-9) A parable lamenting the ruin of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim.
(Ezekiel 19:10-14) Another describing the desolation of the people.
Lamentation for the Princes of Israel
Israel, the lioness, brought up young lions in the midst of lions. But when they showed their leonine nature, they were taken captive by the nations and led away, one to Egypt, the other to Babylon (Ezekiel 19:1-9). The mother herself, once a vine planted by the water with vigorous branches, is torn from the soil, so that her strong tendrils wither, and is transplanted into a dry land. Fire, emanating from a rod of the branches, has devoured the fruit of the vine, so that not a cane is left to form a ruler's sceptre (Ezekiel 19:10-14). - This lamentation, which bewails the overthrow of the royal house and the banishment of Israel into exile, forms a finale to the preceding prophecies of the overthrow of Judah, and was well adapted to annihilate every hope that things might not come to the worst after all.
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