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Ezekiel 19

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A Lament for the Princes of Israel 1–9

1
Moreover, take thou up a lamentation for the princes of Israel, ​
2
and say, What was thy mother? A lioness: she couched among lions, in the midst of the young lions she nourished her whelps. ​
3
And she brought up one of her whelps: 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 unto the land of Egypt. ​
5
Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
6
And he went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men. ​
7
And he knew their palaces, and laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, 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
And 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 upon the mountains of Israel. ​

The Lament for the Ruined Vine 10–14

10
Thy mother was like a vine, in thy blood, planted by the waters: it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. ​
11
And it had strong rods for the sceptres of them that bare 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
And now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. ​
14
And fire is gone out of the rods of its branches, it hath devoured its fruit, so that there is in it no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ezekiel 19

Verse 1

a lamentation for the princes of Israel — Qinah is a dirge, the kind David sang 'over Saul and over Jonathan his son' (2 Sam 1:17). Ezekiel takes up the same song for Judah's kings, as later for Tyre (27:2) and Pharaoh (32:2). 'Princes' is nasi, the title he gives the king in 12:10; the lament is given in two pictures, a lioness and a vine.

Verse 2

What is thy mother? A lioness — The question is put to the princes, so the mother is the royal house of Judah, whose own blessing named it a lion: 'Judah is a lion's whelp' (Gen 49:9), with gur, the word for the 'whelps' here. Lying 'among lions' is commonly read as her life among the kings of the surrounding nations.

Verse 3

one of her whelps — Jehoahaz, who reigned three months and 'did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD' (2 Kgs 23:31–32). 'Learned to catch the prey' (taraph, to tear) is the language of a beast of prey, and 'devoured men' names the violence of a king who ought to have protected his people.

Verse 4

brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt — Fulfilled when Pharaohnechoh 'put him in bands at Riblah' and took him to Egypt, 'and he came to Egypt, and died there' (2 Kgs 23:33–34). Jeremiah had spoken of the same king: 'he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive' (Jer 22:12). 'Chains' (chach) is a hook, as in the 'hooks in thy jaws' of 29:4.

Verse 6

he went up and down among the lions — The second whelp repeats the first in nearly the same words: 'became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men' (v.3). The verse does not name him. He is taken as Jehoiakim, bound in fetters for Babylon (2 Chr 36:6), or as Jehoiachin, who 'did that which was evil' and was carried there after three months (2 Kgs 24:8–9, 15).

Verse 7

the noise of his roaring — She'agah is the lion's roar, the word of Job's 'roaring of the lion' (Job 4:10) and of 'Their roaring shall be like a lion' (Isa 5:29). The 'cities' laid waste and the land made desolate 'by the noise' describe a king's oppression of his own kingdom, in the figure of the lion.

Verse 9

brought him to the king of Babylon — 'In chains' is the same chach, hook, as in v.4: the second lion is led away like the first. The matching record is 2 Chr 36:6 for Jehoiakim or 2 Kgs 24:15 for Jehoiachin, whichever king v.6 is taken to mean. 'That his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel' ends the roaring and the reign.

Verse 10

a vine… planted by the waters — Gephen, the vine that is Israel (Ps 80:8–11; Ezek 15:2), shown here in its flourishing: 'fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters'. The waters recall the land the LORD promised, 'a land of brooks of water' (Deut 8:7). The mother of v.2 is now the whole royal house as a vine.

Verse 11

strong rods for the sceptres — Matteh, a rod or branch, and shebet, the 'sceptre', which also means rod and tribe. The vine's branches grow into the rulers' sceptres, the promise of Jacob's blessing, 'The sceptre shall not depart from Judah' (Gen 49:10). Her height 'among the thick branches' is the royal house at its strongest.

Verse 12

the east wind dried up her fruit — The qadim, the scorching wind from the wilderness, withers the vine as in 17:10, 'shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it?', and as in Hosea's warning, 'an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD' (Hos 13:15). 'Plucked up in fury' (chemah) makes the wind the LORD's own sentence.

Verse 13

planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground — The reversal of v.10: the same verb, shathal, 'planted', used there of the waters is used here of the desert. The vine that stood by 'many waters' now stands in dry ground, a picture of the exile to Babylon (2 Kgs 24:14–16) and of the threat in Hosea, 'set her like a dry land' (Hos 2:3).

Verse 14

fire is gone out of a rod of her branches — The fire starts in the vine's own branch, a king of her own line, commonly read as Zedekiah. He was a son of Hamutal, as Jehoahaz was (2 Kgs 24:18), and 'rebelled against the king of Babylon' (2 Kgs 24:20); Babylon then 'burnt the house of the LORD' (2 Kgs 25:9). 'This is a lamentation' closes the song begun in v.1.