The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezekiel 19
Chapter XIX · Vol. III, p. 1337
1 A lamentation for the princes of Israel, under the parable of lions' whelps taken in a pit; 10 and for Jerusalem, under the parable of a wasted vine.
1 Moreover, take thou up aa lamentation for the bprinces of Israel,
a ver.14; ch.2.10; 26.17; 27.2; 32.16.
2 And say, What is thy mother? ca lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.
c Zep.3.1-4. ch.7.23; 22.27. Je.22.17, with Na.2.11,12.
3 And dshe brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.
d ver.6. 2 Ki.23.30-32. 2 Ch.36.1,2.
4 Thee nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains into the land of Egypt.
5 Now, when she saw that she had waited, and gher hope was lost, hthen she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
g Je.22.11,12. ch.37.11.
h 2 Ki.23.34. 2 Ch.4.5.
6 Andi he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.
7 And he knew their 1desolate palaces,2 and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
1 Or, their widows, Is.13.22
2 'He defiled their widows.'—Gill.
8 Thenj the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and kspread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.3
j 2 Ki.24.2-5. 2 Ch.36.6.
k ver.4; ch.12.13; 17.20. La.4.20.
3 An allusion to the manner of taking wild beasts by digging a deep pit and covering it over with some yielding material through which the wild beast falls.—C.
9 And they put him in ward in chains,4 and brought him to the king of Babylon; lthey brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of 5Israel.
4 Or, in hooks.
A.M. cir. 3411. B.C. cir. 593.
l Je.22.18,19; 36.30,31. 2 Ch.36.6.
5 Hilly country of Judea, ch.6.2; 36.1. Mi.6.1,2.
10 Thy mother is like na vine in thy 6blood,7 planted by the waters: oshe was fruitful, and full of branches, by reason of many waters.
* In thy blood. Cultivated, enriched, by thy oppressions and murders—as was Rome in after-days, by the ruin and spoils of other kingdoms. C.——The sense here is obscure. The present rendering can scarcely be the true one. The passage may be translated, 'Thy mother is like a vine, it seems to thee, planted,' &c. That is, the likeness here indicated is real and true. Or it may be translated, 'Thy mother was like a vineyard in (the time of) thy quietude, planted,' &c. That is, Jerusalem was like a fruitful vineyard during the period when they continued faithful to God and enjoyed rest.—P.
n ch.17.5,6. Is.5.1-7. Ps.80.8-11. ch.xv. Mat.20.1-15; 21.33-41.
6 Or, quietness or likeness.
7 See note * in first column.
11 And she had pstrong rods for the sceptres of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among qthe thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.
12 Butr she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and sthe east wind dried up her fruit; her strong rods8 were broken and withered, tthe fire consumed them.
r Je.12.14. Ps.52.5; 80.12-16. Is.5.5,6. ch.15.6,7; 5.12,13; 7.2-15; 6.3-7.
s ch.17.10. Ho.13.15. Je.4.7,11,12; 25.9-11; xxxix. lii. 2 Ki.xxiii.-xxv.
8 Kings and princes, 2 Ch.xxxiv. 2 Ki.xxiii.-xxv.
13 Andu now she is planted in the wilderness,9 in a vdry and thirsty ground.
u De.28.25,47,48. Da.1.3. 2 Ki.24.12-16. Je.52.28,30.
9 Carried captive into Babylon, and left like a tree removed from a rich and well-watered soil to a dry and barren desert.—C.
v Ps.63.1.
14 Andx fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath ydevoured her fruit, so that she hath zno strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. aThis is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
x Ps.80.16. ch.17.18,19. 2 Ki.24.20; 25.1,2. 2 Ch.36.13, with Ju.9.15. ch.20.46,47. Je.38.18.
y Ps.79.7.
z Ne.9.37. Ho.3.4. Am.9.11. Je.36.6,10; 40.7-9; 41.1,2; 52.10,24-27.
Notes
Ver. 1-9. The kingdom of Judah, and family of David, abandoned to violence and oppression, associated themselves with their heathen neighbours, their princes and nobles, and learned their ways. Jehoahaz, son of king Josiah, was scarcely enthroned by the nation when he became a tyrannical oppressor. But the Egyptians quickly dethroned him, and carried him off a prisoner. The Jews, finding that there was no hope of his restoration, or of freeing themselves from their dependence on the Egyptians, did, with their consent, make Jehoiakim their king. Conversing with his heathen neighbours, he soon became a most cruel oppressor, and rendered his kingdom everywhere miserable by his tyrannical rage. The Chaldeans and their allies quickly invaded their country, and by making him their prisoner, restrained his oppressive cruelties. Not long after, they transported to Babylon king Jehoiachin his son, and almost all the princes of Judah; and after eleven years more, Zedekiah; and laid the land desolate. 10-14. Once the Jewish state and family of David wonderfully flourished, had many valiant princes fit to sway the sceptre, and in glory and power could have vied with any of the neighbouring nations. But by the Egyptians, and especially by the Assyrians and Chaldeans from the east, the nation is wholly ruined, and the princes either murdered or carried captive; and now the poor remains of the nation are miserable captives in Babylon. And king Zedekiah, by his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, hath occasioned the ruin of his family and nation; and never shall any of his family be honoured with an earthly sceptre.
Ver. 2. What is thy mother? The address seems to be to Jehoahaz, comp. ver. 4 with 2 Ki. 23. 34, whose mother was Hamutal, 2 Ki. 23. 31. But by 'mother' Jerusalem is evidently to be understood, the nurse and nursery, as it were, of the degenerate prince. The allusion to a mother, however, records a fact often observed, and of deep import—that the good or evil of human character is generally to be traced to the early influence of maternal rather than paternal precept and example. C.
Ver. 5. She took another. Most probably Jehoiakim, 2 Ki. 24. 1,2. This verse renders it certain that by 'mother,' ver. 2, Jerusalem is to be understood; for the 'mother' continues the same, and takes 'another of her whelps;' whereas Zebudah, and not Hamutal, was mother to Jehoiakim, 2 Ki. 23. 36. And if by 'another' is to be understood Jehoiachin, comp. ver. 9 with 2 Ki. 24. 8-16, neither was his mother Hamutal, but Nehushta, 2 Ki. 24. 8. C.
Reflections.—Faithful ministers have often mournful work put into their hands to declare the awful consequences of sin. It is just and common for those who terrified and enslaved others, to be affrighted and enslaved in their turn. And they who fill up the measure of their fathers' sins, lay up sorrows and lasting matter of lamentation for their children.